Out of interest, what synths did you use for the bass stabs? I really liked the resonant ‘wub’
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Shaping wubs is way out my league in terms of sound design so I just used Pigments. I don’t have the full version but there’s quite a few presets that come with Analog Lab. I believe that one was made by Venus Theory the guy from YouTube
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Here’s my track (Severance) in Ableton. Thanks for the kind words above!
I tried using some older, jazzier themes from the 60s and 70s but found most of them too crowded harmonically to add anything, so I looked for a more spare, abstract theme and settled on Severance. As soon as I added a two-step to it, I realized it was very close sonically to a Thom Yorke solo track, and a whole IDM arrangement kind of suggested itself from there.
I’m a very visual, narrative thinker when composing, so as I worked I tried to imagine what the Severance title sequence might have looked like as one of those late 90s/early 00s Matrix/Fight Club-inspired works about alienated men in office jobs who learn that reality isn’t real. Working around imaginary title cards helped suggest how to build up, break down, and half-time the arrangement.
The break is from Samples from Mars Vinyl Breaks. Most of the synth sounds are Pigments, since I have so many presets and not much sense for sound design in drum & bass. There are also two different EFX-Motions sends doing a lot of the melodic chops. Not much on the master bus except for some EQ and LTL Silver Bullet adding saturation and compression.
Mixing was a pain. I tried testing on my laptop, headphones, and studio monitors, but I think I tamed the drums and bass a bit too much. But it was a lot of fun to make, and considering how slapdash the production was, I’m really happy with how it turned out.
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I also have Motions all over my track! It’s such a great multi effect plugin
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Congratulations to @malus_mons , @alexleigh83 , @KingDuppy and @JooseBoks. 
I grew up with home consoles and home computers, and I loved many of their soundtracks, especially Turrican. Back then, computer game music didn’t have the best reputation, though that has changed a lot since. With this track, I wanted to capture a typical 16-bit theme.
My idea was to combine a fairly simple synth patch with a strong melody. There’s also a kind of random string motif that only appears during the first drop. If you listen to 16-bit soundtracks, you’ll notice they often have lots of ideas and melodies, but little structure or repetition. The string motif is meant to evoke that. The arp is also meant to sound a bit like classic 16-bit chip sounds.
For this battle, I used my Microfreak for the bass and arp, and Ableton Live for effects and the other instruments. For the bass, I treated the Microfreak purely as a sound engine and ran everything through saturation and distortion. On the master bus, I put the Lurssen Mastering Console with a preset and called it a day.
In the end, I was only half happy with the result. The track could have been shorter, and I think I overused the motif. I can relate to Alex’s comment, too: I may have mixed up my scales between hardware and software. But at least I now understand how the External Instrument device in Ableton works. 
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Mine was an imagined theme for Portal as I’m doing Weekly Beats so I can’t have anything copyright in my tracks.
Made in Bitwig pretty much entirely with Roland Cloud plugins
Pad is a JX-3P layered with a D-50 wonked up with MeloFi
Lead is a Jupiter 4 layered with a Juno 60 and 2 303s
Bass is Sublab layered with a Juno
Drums are an 808 plus a Kick 3 kick and a little bit of hotpants break.
The picture on the video and concept are from my daughter Martha who is a great artist.
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