How to make 80s thriller/slasher/giallo music | Tutorial and breakdown

video upload by Espen Kraft

"How to make a thriller/slasher track with both old and new synths, samplers and drum machines. Put together and mixed as it would have sounded coming out an 80s movie.
I've always been a huge fan of the "giallo" thriller/slasher movie subgenre championed by Italian directors like Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Sergie Martino and more.
These movies often had absolutely mind-blowing violence topped with fantastic music.
One of these composers, Claudio Simonetti did many awesome tracks for Dario Argento, and among them the themes from 'Tenebre' (Tenebrae) a thriller in the giallo style, from 1982.
Another composer I draw a lot from is Fabio Frizzi. His work with Lucio Fulci has always been a great source of inspiration to me.

Midnight Drive 5 is my go at making a similar styled track. I've gone overboard with the intro which is supposed to be from a film, but these are all sound effects I've put together for this.

Find the track here:



00:00 Intro
01:25 Bass (Prophet VS)
03:00 Strings (Juno-106)
05:24 Synthbrass in the intro of the song (Prophet X)
07:16 Main Synth Theme
08:26 Counterpoint to the synth theme
09:23 Intro synth part to signal violence
10:22 Putting it all together and adding on
15:13 Making it sound like movie violence (sound effects)
18:12 The importance of reverb or NOT reverb
21:14 Drums
22:40 Bass
23:00 Strings
24:14 Vocal effects (chopped up)
26:07 Vocal choir
27:37 Counterpoint brass (Fabio Frizzi tribute)
28:37 Ending
29:59 Closing thoughs"