The Weeknd "In Your Eyes" Breakdown: Synths in Serum
We're back with another The Weeknd breakdown, and we think "In Your Eyes" is a synthwave classic. Abel has been into this genre ever since his collaboration with Kavinsky on "Odd Look", and on his recent singles he has gone all in. Before we start, a quick note: the a cappella we found isn't the best quality. Now let's listen to the song.
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The In Your Eyes Bass
We'll start with what we think is the most important part of the song: the bass. It gives the track its rhythm and groove, and it's an essential part of the mix. For this preset we use a sine wave in the sub-oscillator, a Basic Mini waveform in the second position of its wavetable in Oscillator "A", and a SawRounded waveform in Oscillator "B". Both oscillators have four voices, and Oscillator "A" has a bit of AM coming from Oscillator "B".
Envelope 1 has an attack time of 1 ms, a decay of 520 ms and a release of 50 ms. Envelope 2 is modulating the cutoff and resonance of our filter. Another important part of the preset: LFO 1 is modulating the fine-tuning of both oscillators.
The Chorus Melody
One of the most characteristic parts of the song is the chorus melody. For this preset we use a saw wave in the sub-oscillator, and in Oscillator "A" a Basic Mini waveform with a little modulation in the phase to give it a bit of that analog feel. In Oscillator "B" we're using a SawRounded waveform. LFO 1 is modulating the fine-tuning of both oscillators a little.
This sound has an attack time of 15 ms, but the most important thing is its long release, which gives that classic atmospheric synthwave feeling. That's why it has a release time of 1.65 s.
The Pad
For the pad we wanted an atmospheric sound hidden in the background that blends the track together. We used a SawRounded waveform on both oscillators. For Envelope 1 we set the attack to 70 ms with full sustain, so there is no decay. After that, we filtered everything above 800 Hz and used a compressor with sidechain to give it that bouncy feeling.
The Arp
The arp is very straightforward: a plucky sound repeating an ascending melody. We use a saw wave in Oscillator "A" and a JNO waveform in Oscillator "B". Both have four voices and are slightly detuned.
The part that makes it sound plucky is that Envelope 1 has a decay time of 380 ms and a short release of 230 ms. In addition, Envelope 2 is modulating the level of both oscillators and closing the filter cutoff every single time a note is played. That's what makes this sound so characteristic of the genre.
The Chords Before the Chorus
Now for the final part: the chords before the chorus. This preset is fairly simple. We only use a Basic Mini waveform in Oscillator "A" and a Basic MDC waveform in Oscillator "B". The phase of both oscillators is modulated by LFO 1, and the filter cutoff is modulated by Envelope 2, which has an attack time of 50 ms and a decay of 2.6 s. Something we noticed: in this part of the song the preset is drenched in reverb, so adjust that to taste.
If you've made it this far and haven't read our other breakdowns of songs by The Midnight, Timecop1983, Miami Nights 1984 and more, check them out.
Make your own In Your Eyes-style track.
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