Miami Nights 1984 "Ocean Drive" Breakdown: Synths in Serum

Hey guys, we're back with another breakdown, and this time it's a synthwave classic: "Ocean Drive" by Miami Nights 1984. The mastermind behind the project is Michael Glover, who released this song in 2012 on the album Turbulence. But that's enough introduction. I'm pretty sure you all know Miami Nights 1984 really well, so let's hear the track we're breaking down.

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RELATED BREAKDOWNS

- Miami Nights 1984 "Accelerated" Breakdown

- Timecop1983 "On The Run" Breakdown

- The Midnight "Los Angeles" Breakdown

The Ocean Drive Arp

The main synth sound in "Ocean Drive" is the arpeggio, and as usual we made it in Serum. Set oscillators "A" and "B" to a Basic MG waveform with the wavetable position around 50%, use three to four voices in each one, and modulate the fine-tuning of both with an LFO at a rate of 1.3 Hz.

In envelope 1, set the attack at 0, the decay at 750 ms, the sustain at -9 dB and the release at 385 ms. We won't need a filter in this patch, because we're adding one in Ableton that opens slowly as the song goes on.

Something important in this patch: envelope 2 works as an aux source that slowly brings up the vibrato, as you can see from the Matrix routing in the image below.

The Running Bass

For the bass, we used the same preset as in our breakdown of "Los Angeles" by The Midnight. If you haven't read it, here's how we did it.

We started with an MB Saw waveform in oscillator "A" and a Basic Shape in its fourth position in oscillator "B", both with two to three voices. In envelope 1, set an attack time of 1 ms, a decay time of 500 ms and a release time of 300 ms, then route this envelope to the filter cutoff at around 4 kHz. That's it! The only difference from The Midnight version is that we added Vinyl Distortion on the Ableton channel and sidechained it to the kick.

The Airy Pad

First of all, this patch needs to be airy, so we cut everything below 350 Hz. Also, before we get into the sound design: the pad has a filter that opens slowly, and it's sidechained to the kick too.

Now let's get down to business. Oscillator "A" uses a Basic Shape waveform in the second position and oscillator "B" has a Basic Cjw waveform. The important part of this patch is that LFO 3 is modulating the detune knob and the fine-tuning of both oscillators, as well as the wavetable position of oscillator "B".

Envelope 1 has an attack time of 215 ms, a decay time of 1 s, a sustain of -2 dB and a release of 1.6 s. The filter cutoff is modulated by envelope 2.

The Lead

To create the lead, start with both oscillators on a Basic Shape waveform in position 2, and route an LFO to their fine-tuning.

Envelope 1 should have an attack time of 130 ms, a decay time around 690 ms, a sustain at -2.6 dB and a release time of 893 ms. Envelope 2 closes the filter cutoff every time a note is played, and the filter should have a resonance of at least 30%.

A very important part of this patch is putting the synth in Mono and Legato, with the portamento around 25 ms. This sound is also sidechained to the kick.

Make your own Ocean Drive-style track.

You've heard how the arp, the bass, the pad and the lead are built. The Outrun Pack has sounds like these ready to load in Serum, along with the rest of its 125+ presets.

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