The Music Of The Crystal Maze US - Ryan Lofty

Hi this is Ryan Lofty, one of the composers of the Nickelodeon adaptation of The Crystal Maze, here to chat about what’s new in music for the US version of the show!

Thank you to Liam, Jon, and the whole team for having me.

Co-composer David Butterfield and I were initially brought on to cover the theme song. The creative brief didn’t have too much detail other than a request for a contemporary hybridized take... plus a nicely worded warning that the UK series composer would be reviewing and approving – so don’t mess with his composition!

Covering a theme as well-known and loved as “Force Field” is a big responsibility. We spent a lot of time researching, reading YouTube comments, and checking out fan blogs like this one.


 For our pitch we focused on the grandiose feel of the orchestral remaster with the bones of the original 90s version. We read some fan feedback on the remaster that people missed the chimes and synths in the original so we brought those back. Some new additions include distinctly electronic elements like trap hi hats, a house kick drum, horn stabs, and claps, plus some new orchestral parts like string risers, flute runs and a little didgeridoo.

Here’s the final:



After the full-length version was locked in, we made twelve cuts to serve as the crystal dome timers in 5sec intervals from 5-60sec. Then four slight variations to play over the map animations as the contestants are transported to each zone.

About a month later, we were asked to write new original underscore which was one of the coolest phone calls ever. The job was to create a music library that the editors could pull from with stems that could be mixed and matched. We worked with the music team at production company Bunim/Murray to create the structure of the library which was based around the four zones: Aztec, Eastern, Industrial, and Futuristic, plus the maze itself.

For the zones there was some back and forth developing the sound of each. For Aztec we went digging through percussion shops and found a gourd-based water drum and some neat shakers and rattles. For Industrial we recorded a bunch of clanging metal impacts and pressurized air sounds. For Eastern we ran traditional-leaning instrumentation through an analog processor so it’s maze-ified. For Futuristic we used a lot of synths, space SFX and stereo panning – kids love this zone the most so we gave extra attention to production goodies.

Overall the team wanted a bit more music than the UK version of the show. Together we watched a few episodes and mapped out the different music cues and their functions. Each cue was then produced in the instrumentation of each zone, and exported in layers that could be combined to create exponentially more options. This post is already long and I don’t want to bore you, so we’ll keep the more technical side of how that works on our own blog here: futurevega.com/blog/the-crystal-maze. We’ll include some info about Adam’s sounds there too.

For the overarching maze sound we matched the instrumentation of the theme song cover for a big hybrid electronic/orchestral vibe. There are three new segment themes: Team Introductions, Dome Family Story, and the Hero Theme. The Hero Theme plays during the prize announcement and has three levels depending on the prize won – with “level three” reserved for the $25,000 grand prize:



All versions of the Hero Theme end in the same key as the start of the theme song, so that they can flow naturally together to end the episode – woo!

Before I close this out, here is a special track:



This cue plays in the dome, usually when the family first arrives or when they are waiting for their prize announcement. Music supervisor Peter Davis is a big video game fan and had a vision for it to sound like an ice cave from an RPG. Epic idea, in the tense world that is The Crystal Maze it’s nice to have a cool, calming moment! Thanks again for having me, if anyone wants to talk music or log fails I’m on twitter @djryanlofty