Jump to content

Playing music editor - The custom suites and albums thread


Holko

Recommended Posts

In my digital playlists, I usually go for C&C - final intended composer's version unless there are iconic pieces of tracking. But this potentially leaves out many alternates, and as just dumping them after the C&C playlist as they are on Disc 2 of many specialty releases would make for a redundant listening experience, I usually like to create little suites and combine the best cues/sections in hopefully interesting ways. I'd like to share a few of these for feedback, and open up the possibility of others sharing theirs if anyone also does something like this. 

 

I also created a few shortened score presentations or alternate OSTs, those may also end up shared here.

 

So to kick off with  a favourite: the CE3K suite.

 

Clocking in at 28 minutes, it's not a breezy one, but I'm proud of most transitions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For something different, I love the first Homeward Bound to pieces. The second score is not something I'd want to listen to in the whole on its own, but still has many lovely bits that I remember from childhood, so I created a 41-minute shortened presentation in 6 parts to stick to the end of my HB playlist.

 

01 - The Gang is Back

Mostly material from the opening, but also includes the Reunion finale. Focuses on Shadow's and Chance's themes mostly.

 

02 - Tough City Dogs

Not the most indisposeable material, but these add a unique city falvour to the score that I think would have been a shame to just cut out entirely. Starts and finishes with the two fight scenes, the middle is calmer.

 

03 - Here We Go Again

Basically just the airport setpiece, with some of the fat trimmed out. Focuses of Shadow's theme again.

 

04 - Chance and Delilah

I just couldn't not include a selection of the new Love theme, framed by Chance's frenzies.

 

05 - The Blood Red Van

Featuring some more renditions of Shadow's theme (starting to see the pattern I was going for?), this track collects nearly all material connected to the titular device of malicious intent, again with some fat trimmed out from the "big one".

 

06 - Finale

Just the revised credits to take us through some of the material again and give closure.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My playlist for Baby's Day Out, mind-numbingly long in its entirety and is ideal at this length, at least for me.

I also have 47-minute presentations for both The Burbs and Dennis the Menace, and a 50-minute playlist for Deep Rising.

 

IMG_4894.PNG

IMG_4895.PNG

IMG_4896.PNG

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wrong, what he dislikes is when it's all presented as the composer actually intended it for its primary purpose.

His droning about listening experience and reordering together with a spark of an idea from @Smeltington actually drove me to create an alternate OST presentation of Chamber of Secrets focusing much more on new material. I'll probably post that, too in a few days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice thread. I often create custom playlists for albums or soundtracks but only when I think I can create a nice flow with the available tracks as I have no editing software whatsoever. I find it kind of fun to distill a listening experience down to the best parts while still trying to capture the range of the original material. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Holko said:

Wrong, what he dislikes is when it's all presented as the composer actually intended it for its primary purpose.

His droning about listening experience and reordering together with a spark of an idea from @Smeltington actually drove me to create an alternate OST presentation of Chamber of Secrets focusing much more on new material. I'll probably post that, too in a few days.

 

You've opened the can! This will now turn into 20 pages of pretentious arguments about 'artistic reconceptualisation'....

 

Certainly my favourite activity with expanded scores is to dump half of it, but create an album that I like better than the composer's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tend to find more often than not that the original album's too short, while the complete score's too long.

I'm curious as to if anyone has playlists for Innerspace and Agent Cody Banks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So here it is: my "Magnum Opus" so far. The alternate Chamber of Secrets OST. @Smeltington sparked an idea back in February of a presentation which focuses more on the new material, so I thought it would be fun to try and assemble one that's a pleasant listening experience. 6 hours of mind-racing, 8 hours of sleep and a whopping 3 hours of actual work later, I already had the finished 79 minutes through 18 tracks, and I had a blast! I deliberately moved out of my comfort zone to create a non-chronological presentation (which I succeeded in, for the first half at least), and it was surprisingly liberating and refreshing. Focusing on new material meant throwing out cues from the word "go" (bye, Aragog and Flying Pixies!), removing sections of old material from otherwise fine cues, or isolating little stretches of goodness and finding a way of inserting them elsewhere. Thankfully I did this bleeding craziness last year, that helped speed up my work enormously. There may be some wonky edit there - some come from the concept itself, some from necessity and some I didn't bother much to clean up - this is only temporary form the 128kbps session leak, anyway, I'll redo it better when I'll have the Matessino'd edition in lossless.

 

Tracks:

 

I will heavily appreciate literally ANY feedback!

 

Track-by-track description: (I recommend not reading it at first, just trying it blindly as a listening experience, I also placed a number of intentional surprises in the tracks)

Spoiler

01 - The Chamber of Secrets

I wanted to start off with the concert cue instead of Hedwig's Theme to immediately signal the move towards newer material and darker moods. Then I thought "What if it started of with a BANG to intentionally surprise and scare the poor unaware listener? Worth a try!" Sorry if you tried it on a lout volume, RIP headphone users.

 

02 - Escape from the Dursleys

Instead of the OST track's way of condensing the Prologue, I included a bit more material, and got... creative with some transitions.

 

03 - Dobby's Warning

Starts off with Dobby material from the Prologue, then moves into later, darker material, introducing the Chamber and Mystery (Three Note Loop) themes and foreshadowing things to come.

 

04 - The Burrow

Has some old material, but Transformation Class is such a fun cue I couldn't help but include it - also has the Weasley motif, so makes sense here. Magical Household moves into the sweet Mudblood talk. I'm trying to kind of alternate light and dark tracks in this first half, or have light move into dark like in the previous track.

 

05 - The Flying Car

Errol flows perfectly from the previous track's ending, but I'm not sure about the early placement of later Flying Car material as an intro. However, the end of Missing the Train had to be there to transition into the actual Flying Car cue, which I love so much I left unedited - the end also has the unused Whomping WIllow.

 

06 - Gilderoy Lockhart

Just the class cue like on the OST. Light material again before going dark in the next one.

 

07 - Dumbledore's Office

From Finding Justin to Fawkes is Reborn, also includes Dumbledore's Warning for the heck of it. Dark again, but also lightly setting up Fawkes.

 

08 - Tom Riddle

I had to put Borgin and Burkes SOMEWHERE, and the mood seemed to match, so it's the intro here. The Hand of Glory is there purely to shock, I could remove it. Meeting Tom Riddle has a bit of old material and the Hogwarts Fanfare cut out.

 

09 - Moaning Myrtle and the Polyjuice Potion

Levity again, the bubbly comedic Polijuice cues framed nicely by Myrtle. Includes a bit from Detention in the middle.

 

10 - Enemies of the Heir

Knockturn Alley leads into the titular cue. Its final crescendo nicely replaces the Running motif which just had to go.

 

11 - Dueling Club

Felt like it belonged here as the last moments of levity with Lockhart's Theme, some silences shortened.

 

12 - The Spiders

After dropping Spiders hints throughout, we finally reach its height. Why fix what's perfect? Taking the lead from the OST, but introducing no new microedits into the two cues. Aragog belongs in the middle for a complete score presentation, but not for this album, since it's all material from The Blue Forest, with some Spiders in the beginning. From this point on, the album largely chronologically presents the third act after 45 minutes of building up themes and atmospheres.

 

13 - Hermione's Solution

Sweet cues around her petrification, and the reveal of the final message and Ginny's kidnapping - with some old tension material removed - even I can't tell exactly where now! The final big presentation of the Chamber Theme, unfortunately underrepresented on the OST.

 

14 - The Chamber Opens

Some Myrtle material could be snipped from this. I substituted the newly recorded, then tracked Three Note Loop with Transformation Class' rendition.

 

15 - Dueling the Dragon

Seems quite straightforward, but I did something very very naughty here - included Quidditch Stadium Pt.3 AKA the Prequel medley! I love it so, so much, and I took lead from WIlliams - using Escape from Coruscant in the Phantom Menace final battle on the OST. It fits in surprisingly well. Fawkes of course is always nice to have.

 

16 - Finale

Thought I'd just have Reunion and Finale? Wrong, it's all old material. Dobby is Free has so many delicious bits! Of course I had to close it all of with the "upgraded" Leaving Hogwarts in the end, it was obvious, but the first half, Reunion is gone.

 

17 - Dobby the House Elf

Seems surprisingly anticlimactic to start the "credits" with, but works.

 

08 - Fawkes the Phoenix

Had to place this last.

 

 

Overall, the percentage of new material may be pretty close to the OST,

On 8/7/2017 at 11:05 PM, Holko said:

OST

Old Material: 22:26 (31.83%)

Adapted Material: 6:44 (9.55%)

New Material: 41:19 (58.62%)

Complete: 70:29

but I skewed the Old-Adapted ratio pretty hard in favour of the latter, so it doesn't feel that way. Also 9 minutes longer, yaay! (Don't ask me about the exact percentages, I did this 5 months ago. My analysis is there, suit yourself to piece it together! :P )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Holko said:

I'll redo it better when I'll have the Matessino'd edition in lossless.

 

I really appreciate your optimism

 

Very cool idea!  I might give it a spin if I have time this weekend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I really appreciate your optimism

 

We WILL have it... someday!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

My Hook, gonna test it tonight and possibly rearrange it:

 

01 - Overture - Prologue+Exit Music

02 - The Lost Boys' Ballet (from S/W II)

03 - Peter and Wendy (gettin' clever with the titles) - The Face of Pan (S/W II)+Granny Wendy

04 - The Banquet (from S/W II)

05 - The Hook - Hooknapped+first half of Presenting The Hook+first half of Hook's Madness+Smee's Plan (from S/W II)+second half of Presenting the Hook.

06 - Flight to Neverland (from S/W II)

 

Runtime: 36 min.

 

While skipping through every track, I noticed similarities with other scores, if only in atmosphere - Home Alone, certain portions of Jurassic Park, and HP1. Home Alone is Christmas schmaltz so it gets a pass, History Lesson is short enough, A Tree for my Bed/Petticoat Lane/My Friend the Brachiosaurus is a welcome island of sweetness in the middle of horror and action, and HP1 has plenty of darkness including spine-tinglingly terrifying bits to balance the cheesyness, while Hook is just whimsical schmaltz all the way through, at least how I gathered from watching the movie and skipping through the LLL set. I'm not too excited to give it a full listen, so I rather selected a few bits of goodness to pad the concert pieces out with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

My playlist for Young Sherlock Holmes:

1. Main Title

2. Watson's Arrival

3. Fencing with Rathe

4. Solving the Crime

5. Library Love/ Waxflatter's First Flight

6. Pastries and Crypts

7. Waxing Elizabeth (Choir-less version)

8. Holmes and Elizabeth- Love Theme

9. It's You! 

10. Temple Fire

11. Ethar's Escape

12. Duel and Final Farewell

13. The Riddles Solved and End Credits

Running time: 51 minutes

 

My playlist for Aliens:

1. Combat Drop

2. Main Title

3. Bad Dreams

4. Going After Newt

5. Sub-Level 3

6. Ripley's Rescue

7. Atmosphere Station

8. Facehuggers

9. Futile Escape

10. Dark Discovery/ Newt's Horror

11. Queen to Bishop

12. Bishop's Countdown

13. Resolution and Hyperspace

Running time: 53 minutes

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

My Temple of Doom playlist:

1. Anything Goes

2. Indy Negotiates

3. The Nightclub Brawl

4. Fast Streets of Shangai

5. Nocturnal Activities

6. Short Round's Theme

7. The Scroll/To Pankot Palace

8. Children in Chains

9. Slalom on Mt. Humol

10. Bug Tunnel and Death Trap

11. Slave Children's Crusade

12. The Mine Car Chase

13. The Broken Bridge/British Relief

14. End Credits

53 minutes. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

My Alien Suite going at the end of my C&C playlist:

 

-Main Title (alternate)

-Hanging On (alternate)

-transitioning right into It's a Droid with the unused inserts restored

-The Terrain (alternate)

-the last note of which starts the echoplexed sound in The Skeleton (alternate)

-The Cupboard (alternate)

-Out the Door - original version, I used the rescored one in the main program, the absolute end finale cut off

-Hypersleep (alternate)

-Out the Door's finale, fits there perfectly.

 

22:31 in all, will have to testrun a few times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.