This is the sound that starts the song. It is a simple, descending arpeggiator with a heavy low-pass filter and massive analog chorus. In the isolated stem, you hear the wow and flutter of analog gear. It sounds slightly out of tune, which adds the "nostalgic" character. Many producers try to recreate this with digital plugins, but the stems prove it was an analog hardware synth (likely a Jupiter-8 or Prophet 08).
The stems for "Midnight City" by M83 have been shared online, allowing fans and producers to remix and reinterpret the song in creative ways. m83 midnight city stems
The snare hits on the 2 and 4, but it is layered with a massive clap and a white noise burst. Without the full mix, the stem sounds almost too loud—it peaks aggressively. This is because they used and a limiter to flatten the transient. This stem teaches you that modern anthems require snares that hit around 0dB to cut through dense synths. This is the sound that starts the song
Are you working on a or just looking to recreate the synth patches from scratch? It sounds slightly out of tune, which adds
. It uses aggressive pitch-shifting, compression, and delay to achieve its piercing, melodic quality. Synthesizers: