Control Resonant Composer Petri Alanko Says Soundtrack Hides Easter Eggs Fans May Find Years Later

Alanko said he has used a trick about a million times with various tools: adding a string section’s “resin” sound to something else so it resembles a stringed instrument. He said some tricks will probably never surface and are more or less subliminal, while others sit slightly more at the forefront. He also said he loves to hide “all kinds of nods and winks everywhere” and pay homage to the greats.

According to Alanko, when hardware synths are involved, a major part of his arsenal, they are reamped through a speaker setup and a pair of microphones. He said he learned that technique from articles about the late Konradi “Conny” Plank, the sound engineer and producer of Kraftwerk and Ultravox. Alanko said he learned his craft by meticulously inspecting and evaluating albums such as Die Mensch-Maschine, Computerwelt, Vienna and Rage In Eden, and that studio tricks he learned as a synth programmer and producer in early adulthood proved handy during the creation of the Control Resonant soundtrack.

He also described how the game’s enemies, the Resonant, are reflected in the concept track. Each has its own features, he said. Hedron has “clangorous, metallic, sequenced, patterned, constantly moving” sounds. Hiss, which “wants to corrupt everything,” has pitches that start going all over the place. Mold is “a triumphant spectacle of all kinds of dispersers, turning everything into some sonic goo.”

Alanko said his passion allowed him to add as much detail as he wanted, including small hints that listeners likely will not find until years later. He said the most beautiful thing is when people realize something after seven or eight years and he gets an email from someone who just realized the rhythm of a certain sound was Morse code for “BEWARE.” He added: “Nothing is obvious and nothing is rubbed into your face, and in the end it’s all only music made with love and enthusiasm.”

Alanko has discussed the early stages of Control Resonant’s development, saying he was brought onto the project “very early” while still working on Alan Wake 2. He said this proved to be a better outcome and suggested that other studios should value music more if they care about their games and avoid AI.