Miami Nights 1984 "Accelerated" Breakdown: Synths in Serum

Hey guys, we're back with another breakdown, this time with "Accelerated" by Miami Nights 1984, an outrun classic.

If you're wondering what outrun is, let me explain: outrun is a subgenre of synthwave inspired by the music of classic 80s arcade games. It's usually a little faster than synthwave, around 120 to 130 BPM, and relies heavily on rolling bass patterns. But enough of the lecture, let's hear the track.

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RELATED BREAKDOWNS

• Miami Nights 1984 "Ocean Drive" Breakdown
• Timecop1983 "On The Run" Breakdown
• The Midnight "Los Angeles" Breakdown

The Pad

This is the sound that starts it all and glues it all together. To make this patch, we use saw waves in both oscillators, with 4 voices on each one. LFO 1 modulates the fine-tuning and the level of both oscillators. In Serum's FX section, we have a phaser at around 70% and an EQ cutting everything below 280 Hz, so it sounds nice and airy. We also use the chorus effect from Ableton to make it sound a little wider.

The Bass

If you've been reading our breakdowns, you know by now that this patch is the same one we used in our Miami Nights "Ocean Drive" and The Midnight "Los Angeles" breakdowns. If for some reason you haven't seen those, here it is again.

Oscillator "A" has an MB saw waveform, while oscillator "B" has a Basic Shape in its fourth position.

Envelope 1 has an attack time of 1 ms, a decay time of 500 ms and a release time of 300 ms, and it's routed to the filter cutoff at around 4 kHz. The patch is sidechained to the kick of the track.

This specific patch is from our Outrun Serum Pack.

The Chords

Now for the chords. I think this patch is the one with the most modulation, so I'll try to explain it as clearly as possible.

Let's start with oscillator "A" with a saw wave and oscillator "B" with a Basic Mg wavetable. LFO 1 modulates the fine-tuning of both, and LFO 3 modulates the resonance of the filter. Envelope 2 has an attack time of 60 ms, a decay time of 1.36 s, a sustain of around 32% and a release time of 365 ms, and it's routed to the filter cutoff.

The Sequence

Now for the last part: the sequence in the chorus. We start this patch by choosing a Basic Mg wavetable for oscillator "A" and a Basic Shape waveform in its second position for oscillator "B". LFO 1 modulates the level of both oscillators, and LFO 3 slowly (and by slowly we mean 16 bars slowly) opens the sync in oscillator "B".

There is also an Ableton filter effect that opens slowly.

Make your own Accelerated-style track.

You've heard how the pad, the chords and the sequence are built. The Synthwave Pack has them ready to load in Serum, along with the rest of its 125+ presets.

Want the bass too? The Synthwave Bundle adds our Outrun and Retrowave packs: three packs for $39.90.