2623 replies to this topic

[Wojo]

I'm really not if sure it's worth trying to explain time signature or meter to you.

[Stefancos]

Please try!

[indy4]

Is Predator's main title in 11/8 time?

If you're talking about the part at 1:13, it sounds to me like it's 4/4+3/8.

[Alexander]

Please try!

A time signature lets you see how many beats are in a measure.

For example, if the time signature is 4/4, there are four beats* in one measure.

Here's an example (from 0:00 to 0:12):



doom doom doom doom (1 2 3 4).

*Actually four fourth notes, but that does not really matter here.

[Stefancos]

Ok how long is a measure? How many seconds?

[Maglorfin]

That depends on the tempo and the "amount and duration of notes" in the particular measure. The duration of one measure is never measured in seconds, it is measured in how many beats are in it.

But if you really want to know about the seconds, one 4/4 measure is e.g. 4 seconds long at tempo 60 (which means there are 60 quarter notes in one minute, hence one note per second) and 2 seconds long at tempo 120.

[Faleel]

Alright, I need pitch information for Raiders, what cues should I pitch shift, and how much in audacity units?

[MrJosh]

Faleel still needs an answer (see above) but I have a font question:

Anyone know what the font is in the Star Wars: Special Edition 2 Disc sets are? The lettering for "A New Hope," "Music composed and conducted by John Williams" etc. I love that font and I had it years ago but now I can't find it...

[Ro Sajooc]

I think the font is Bank Gothic.

[MrJosh]

Woohoo thanks! Looks like a match to me

[Michael]

Quick question: Could recommend some more movies in the vein of The Long Goodbye, Images and Close Encounters? I'm not talking about the plot or the situtations, but more referring as how they integrate the music not only in an extra-diegetic way but also making it part of the narrative and even the world of the film.

Any suggestions would be more than welcome.

Thanks in advance!

[Marian Schedenig]

The Red Violin, obviously. Branagh/Doyle's Dead Again. And The Legend of 1900, to a certain extent at least. Also Deception (the source of Korngold's cello concerto) and Hangover Square (the source of Herrmann's piano concerto), though I haven't seen those.

[Michael]

Fantastic! Thank you SO much!!!

[Richard]

^{How much of the OST for "Jaws" (the MCA release) is original, and how much of it is a re-recording?}

[Jason LeBlanc]

The original Jaws LP is 100% a re-recording made at a later date by Williams with a different orchestra just for the soundtrack release.

The actual recordings used in the film were not released until 2000 by Decca

[Marian Schedenig]

Which doesn't make the original album any less "original", though. The fully developed version of the shark/cage fugue, for example, is the album version. Also, several other standard set pieces feel shortened on the actual score, so much that I wonder (does anyone know?) if Williams actually wrote the full album/concert cue first and then edited it for the film recording. But then, of course, it's missing some great music from the actual score.

A remastered release including both the album and the score is in order.

[Jason LeBlanc]

No. He first wrote the film cues to fit the film. Then when it was determined there would be a soundtrack LP, he requested a re-recording to expand on the film cues as well as use a different, bigger orchestra

[Datameister]

It's a funny thing. As recorded for the film (and heard on the Decca release), the score really does sound like it was written based on the album arrangements at times.

A remastered release including both the album and the score is in order.

YES. I would buy that before you could say "dun-dun dun-dun". I'm not normally the hugest fan of OSTs being included in these expanded releases, but this is one case in which it would be absolutely essential to include both. Virtually all the music is already available, but when you consider how much room there is for improvement in the sound quality, it would be a very welcome addition to my collection. Here's to one of our favorite labels getting the rights and means to do this before too long.

[Incanus]

Yes an improved pass on Jaws would be more than welcome and also the fact that the original score and original soundtrack album are really different entities would make the inclusion of the OST in a 2 disc set much more sensible than in many cases where you get the same music in just slightly edited and shorter form on the 2nd disc. It is one of the reasons I like The Fury and Omen II: Damien expanded scores so much as they give you both worlds, the score as written for the film and then the pure album experience created just for the album and recorded separately as a new interpretation.

[Marian Schedenig]

Yes, and in both these cases, I nearly always go for the album version - because they're much better performances, and often also more fleshed out. And in both cases the missing material doesn't do that much for me.

With Jaws, the album recording is great, but the score is also very well performed and includes a lot of great stuff not on the album.

Simple rule: If the album was a separate recording, include both the score and the album in a re-release.

[Richard]

A quick "Blade Runner" question: in the film, Bryant tells Deckard of the "fail safe" of the replicants - the 4-year lifespan.
Being a blade runner - even thought he is a retired one - wouldn't Deckard know this, already?

[Faleel]

How did Eric Tomlinson make Superman: The Movie sound the way it does?

[Stefancos]

A quick "Blade Runner" question: in the film, Bryant tells Deckard of the "fail safe" of the replicants - the 4-year lifespan.
Being a blade runner - even thought he is a retired one - wouldn't Deckard know this, already?

Bryant is telling the audience more then he is telling Deckard.

[Quint]

Because the movie was originally aimed at retards and only came to be embraced by the sophisticates after they felt it was safe to pretend it never happened.

[Stefancos]

Hence the narration.

[Quint]

The one aspect the retards enjoyed.

[Alexander]

How did Eric Tomlinson make Superman: The Movie sound the way it does?

I'm not sure what you mean, since I don't have the FSM box, but to me it sounds all right, very similar to the miking and mixing of Star Wars.

[Faleel]

I kinda want to know how he mixed it, and if there are any ways to make music sound anywhere similar to that kind of sound in Audacity.

[Henry Buck]

A lot of that has to do with the recording itself, not the mixing. The microphones and their positions. It's not something you can fake with a simple audio program.

[Richard]

A quick "Star Wars" question:
So...Darth Vader docks his imperial cruiser at the Death Star. He then stays at the Death Star for the duration of the film. What happened to the cruiser? Did it go somewhere else? Why was it not deployed at the battle of Yavin?

[E.T. & Elliott]

http://starwars.wiki...wiki/Devastator

This is the ship. I know this (and many other things) from the 1995 Star Wars Customizable Card Game. This article doesn't really mention what it was doing, but it was apparently the ship that pursued the Falcon from Tatooine. So, Vader must have transferred to a different ship when he traveled to the Death Star?

As for the recording of Superman, maybe this article on Star Wars can help you out?

Alan Snelling was Eric Tomlinson’s assistant from 1975 to 1979 and recounted “Eric’s order of the day” for miking Star Wars, which included many Neumann and Telefunken tube condenser microphones – see side bar. 20 It was this choice together with prudent placement and Tomlinson’s wide stereo panning that gave Star Wars and the Anvil recordings from the 1970s their distinctive sound.

[Faleel]

What is the timing of the insert in Exceprts from Close Encounters from the By Request album that is for the inside the mothership scene?

[Richard]

A couple of questions about "Alien 3".

Who assembled the extended DVD cut? Was it Terry Rawlings?

In the extended cut, where were the beach scenes filmed (the one where we first see Charles Dance's character walking thruogh the industrial structures)?

[Delorean90]

Just occurred to me tonight: Why the hell has there never been a Woody Allen film with a score by Randy Newman? That would be amazing!

[Koray Savas]

Woody Allen doesn't use composers. He only did it once, oddly enough, with Philip Glass.

[Miles Prower]

He did a few with Marvin Hamlisch, didn't he?

[Delorean90]

Exactly--it's happened. I was just listening to "Lonely at the Top," and I thought, "Damn, if Randy Newman wouldn't knock a score for a Woody Allen film out of the park, I don't know who would." And it seems like there are other films of his that had at least some original music. Even just some Newman songs would be terrific. They just seem like such a great match.

EDIT: Yep, Take the Money and Run and Bananas.

[Koray Savas]

It appears his first four films had original music for them, from 69-73. Fairly certain post-Annie Hall is all jazz and classical.

[Maglorfin]

How did Eric Tomlinson make Superman: The Movie sound the way it does?

I'm not sure what you mean, since I don't have the FSM box, but to me it sounds all right, very similar to the miking and mixing of Star Wars.

I guess it must've had something to do with acoustic and sonic qualities of the Denham studios and its Anvil stage where a lot of 70s and 80s scores were recorded, many of them by Tomlinson.

The Anvil scoring stage possessed a clear and well-defined ambience with dimensions of approximately 65 feet across, 80 feet deep and 50 feet high. 19 Orchestras of up to 120 players could comfortably fit within the space. [...] The studio was readied for recording in half a day during which approximately 23 microphones were carefully positioned at distances ranging from two to ten feet from instruments. Alan Snelling was Eric Tomlinson’s assistant from 1975 to 1979 and recounted “Eric’s order of the day” for miking Star Wars, which included many Neumann and Telefunken tube condenser microphones – see side bar. 20 It was this choice together with prudent placement and Tomlinson’s wide stereo panning that gave Star Wars and the Anvil recordings from the 1970s their distinctive sound.

You can find this and a lot of other interesting information here and here.

[Michael]

Quick question: What kind of music is this exactly?



Is it a sort of African new age? If so, could you guys recommend any more music that goes into that direction? That's not from The Lion King, of course