How to make A-Ha's 'Take On Me' with DRC
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It’s a really catchy little treat this week for our DRC Sound Design Tutorial series, as it features an absolute 80’s epic by the band A-ha; ‘Take On Me’! A truly iconic track in many ways, and one that fills us with a warm sense of nostalgia every time its classic riff gets stuck in our head.
Originally recorded in 1984, during the golden era of synth-pop, and the rise of MTV and the music video as an artform, both the audio and the video took a couple of production and release attempts to eventually end up with the magical combination that we know and love today. After the original mix of the song failed to make an international impact, the band re-recorded a new version with the help of the prolific pop producer Alan Tarney.
Featuring one of the most iconic music videos ever made, which holds up very well visually, some 36 years later, it was an ambitiously creative project, back when it was conceptualized in 1985. A combination of live action footage and a large amount of hand-drawn, rotoscoped animation, approximately 3000 frames worth, which took over 16 weeks to produce.
But let’s not forget the other stars of the show though, the classic synth-pop sounds, originally created using a Roland Juno-60, a Yamaha DX7 and a PPG Wave synthesizer. Once again Lucas works his sound design magic and takes on four of the track’s sounds with DRC; the bass, keys, organ and lead.
Click here to download the Ableton project file.
Slowly learning that life is okay,
Team Imaginando