The first sound you hear in Pyramids is a chopped up Mellotron sample layered with synth bells. The Mellotron sample was then chopped up to be trigger rhythmically. The bell sound layered over the Mellotron originally comes from a Roland Juno I set the HPF nice and high to filter out any low end making it layer better and set the filter cutoff frequency along with some envelope and LFO modulation to create some movement.
Malay stated that, as with many of his synth tracks, the audio from Omnisphere was sent through his analog hardware signal chain, likely including preamps, compressors and EQs. The rapid synth arpeggiator sounds in Pyramids were originally created with the Arturia CS V plugin, which I also used for the remake.
The ascending arp patch in Side A is a single sawtooth waveform with a free-running arpeggiator set to a speed of 92ms and an octave range of 4 octaves. The funky bass part that plays when the main drum beat starts was likely on a modern Moog synth such as a Voyager or Phatty.
I used Arturia Mini V for the remake with the filter decay time set to ms and processed the track with saturation and some EQ to boost the high end, helping it cut through the mix. At the mark, the song smoothly transitions from Side A to Side B. The pitch also gradually drops 2 semitones, creating a detuned sound like a reel-to-reel tape slowing down. To recreate the effect in Ableton Live I simply bounced the tracks to audio files and use the Transposition clip envelope to gradually shift the pitch of the audio, whilst also automating the tempo separately.
The synth pad that plays throughout the second side of Pyramids was originally recorded using an Oberheim OB-8, a vintage polyphonic synth from the early 80s. The patch is a single sawtooth wave with the filter set to Hz with keyboard tracking on and resonance set to approx. The OB-8 hardware synth had a stereo spread function that would stereoize the sound by panning the individual voices, and this an be recreated in OB-Xa V to add some stereo width to the pad.
The gliding lead sound at likely came from Omnisphere, and could be another factory preset. I used a low pass filter to roll off only the very high-end frequencies and set a glide time of 16ms in the main panel. For effects I added saturation and stereo widening to bring the sound to life. The arps that play throughout most of the second half of Pyramids are similar to the arp patch on Side A, and I used another instance of Arturia CS V to recreate it.
For the Side B arp patch I used both layers of CS V with a similar patch and created some oscillator detuned with the Detune Ch II fader next to the ring modulator section on the left.
There is also a low pass filter with no keyboard tracking that filters out the highest arpeggio notes. Check out the full guitar breakdown here:. The presets from this article are also included in the Synth Sounds Collection , a free preset pack collecting the synth presets from all of my articles in one download. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Sign up to the email newsletter to be the first to hear about new articles and preset packs as well as exclusive discount codes! The cart is empty. Side A: Sample. Mellotron Chopped Juno Bells Side A: Synths. Omnisphere FM Danceline Lead This imagined lover comes to a shocking realization that Cleopatra has been kidnapped in some manner by an unknown thief.
Through the promise of wealth and glory, he has seduced Cleopatra into running away with him. How could you run off on me? How could you run off on us? You feel like God inside that gold I found you laying down with Samson and his full head of hair I found my black queen Cleopatra, bad dreams, Cleopatra. Remove her, send the cheetahs to the tomb Our war is over, our queen has met her doom No more, she lives no more, serpent in her room No more, he has killed Cleopatra, Cleopatra.
Act 2 of the song is marked with a beat switch, or a narrative intermission similar to a play or films with a lengthy runtime that has a small break in the midway point to transition into the next act. The music video above is not exactly a direct representation of what is being depicted through the lyrics but rather a visual accompaniment to the song created by Frank. We begin the present-day section from the perspective of someone who seems to be a pimp. There are interesting juxtapositions here in the way he describes his current condition through a gaudy flaunting of his own wealth with contradictions to the current setting.
He drinks champagne with jazz playing in the background, has chains with rubies on them, and owns a luxury car with a woodgrain interior. The extravagant imagery here is in conflict with the cheap motel he is staying in and the fact that his car has an empty gas tank. This alludes to the fact that while he is using the money he obtains from his prostitutes for his own whims and fancies, the cash does not really trickle down fully to his sex workers who are subservient to him.
For one last time, we shift perspective to a person who seems to be the former or still is lover of this modern representation of Cleopatra. Cleopatra has seemingly been irreparably corrupted by her pimp, or it could also be inferred that their relationship has been degraded into a transactional one and that it is only through his delusions that he keeps convincing himself that there are still romantic attachments left between them. As I mentioned before, there is a certain auteurist-like sensibility in which Frank chose to deliver the narrative of Pyramids.
With that said, I would like to draw comparisons to some prominent works by renowned directors about prostitution. Vivre Sa Vie follows a Parisian woman Nana who dreams for the stars—she aspires to be an actress but through the hardships of life and poverty, she is forced to turn to prostitution to make ends meet. Similar to the themes regarding the pimp-prostitute dynamic explored in Pyramids , Nana suffers under the oppressive exploitation of her pimp but there is also a certain level of agency she has in deciding her fate.
Although hardly ideal, she makes the best use of her situation and express a degree of instrumentality to her situation. The prostitutes employed by the pimp seems to also share a sisterhood-like relationship with one another where they support each other emotionally. In the music video for Pyramids above, the women are also portrayed to have particular assurance with each other as well. It could be said, therefore, that it is not the sex work or prostitution itself that is degrading to these women—some of them have some degrees of autonomy in choosing this line of work and share kinship with fellow sex workers.
What is problematic is their exploitation by a higher power, typically men, who act as their pimp and financially capitalize on their hard work.
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