Some pretty crazy instruments were used to make the music of SOMA
SOMA composer Mikko Tarmia used some amazing tech to produce the sci-fi horror game's soundtrack.
In the SOMA developer diary below, Tarmia shows off the ranks of synthesisers he elected to use to create the score. The musician has a modular synthesiser stacked with a range of Alien-themed units - you can see a Dalek and Vulcan - which Tarmia says can produce some "really crazy" sounds.
Tarmia has wired these up in a mad scientist mess of cables in the hopes that "something good comes out". He then uses a saxophone-like woodwind Akai controller so there's an organic, performative aspect to his score - not just sequencers and samples.
You can watch Tarmia create, perform and then tweak a short sequence of sounds to make an awesome eerie drone effect. Check it out:
I love this kind of behind-the-scenes stuff. We see a lot of orchestral groups and producers hitting buttons and staring at screens, but we rarely get to see composers using less traditional tools and explaining exactly how they work.
SOMA arrives on PC and PS4 on September 22 and is nearly finished.