Dune I – Trailer

For this trailer, I worked on an extensive set of sound design elements—both punchy hits to match visuals and more subtle textures to help the music appear and disappear smoothly.

I ended up creating a huge number of custom modular and software synth patches. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever made this many for a single project before.

When I took on this project, I hadn’t read Dune, didn’t know about the David Lynch version from 1984, and had no idea Hans Zimmer was scoring the film. I just knew it was an ambitious production and that it had to sound special. I discovered the story as I went deeper into the project—and I was hooked.

The sequences I received were stunning, especially the scene between Paul Atreides and the Bene Gesserit. That one really got to me. It felt like it captured the spirit of the entire film in just a few lines. I synced my first sound experiments to that moment just to see if I was heading in the right direction.

Technically, I used the Moog filter obsessively—especially the MF-101S plugin version, which I ran across tons of instances. Another tool I leaned on heavily was Waves StudioVerse. It’s a powerful effects rack system that lets you build complex chains and automate them using macros. I created dozens of custom patches for this one.

On the hardware side, I used the Access Virus TI2 and Mutable Instruments Plaits the most. In software, PhasePlant was a big part of the process.

This is one of those projects I’d happily return to. It was inspiring all the way.