Richard Penna

I never saw a rental disc that had the special features stripped - certainly I never saw any messages that a feature was unavailable. Add that to the list of dumb ideas studios have made in the name of wanting more money from you.
 
This weekend I received two things - the complete Alan Partridge box, as I'm constantly watching compilations on YT and finally decided it would be easier to just own the damn thing. Also the blu-ray of Shrek as it has a certain nostalgic importance to me and it was getting oddly difficult to find even a used copy in the usual places (I've never owned it in any format), whereas other animated movies of the period don't seem to suffer similarly.
 
Now due to streaming I've found a lot of movies from the 90s and 00s are very difficult to find on Blu-ray whereas DVD copies are littering the planet. Hence Shrek is the first case where I decided to get a copy while available, and it won't be the last. I also have an external USB DVD drive set to region 1 so that it doesn't matter if I have an American-sourced DVD (and I have several).

Yep, I rented a heck of a lot of DVDs and Blu-rays from LoveFilm, and was very disappointed when they stopped as they had pretty much everything. Particularly as you could see all the extras and special features and generally see how good the release was, and I'm fairly sure I bought a few Blu-rays after having rented them.
 
What's just occurred to me is why Netflix (and others) clearly have a long-term issue with licensing agreements with the studios for streaming when they could rent out films/series/etc to their heart's content as long as they had the disc. Evidently the licensing model must be very different for streaming.

Where's the relieved smiley?

TWINE is my favourite, but partly for nostalgic reasons. It's also more balanced between the string/piano material and action which makes it an easier listen. I know TND is probably the most popular around here but for my tastes it's too loud and overbearing for the most part - I've never gotten into it.
 
The problem for me with QoS is that I think the film is absolutely goddam awful - I sat through it once with my brother, then twice more I tried again and neither of us had a clue what was going on, what the story was, and were both thoroughly bored. Arnold absolutely did the best job anyone could have done (and I'm sure he found the film more intesting than we did) but it remains a concept album for me - 20 minutes or so of decent action music.
 
I also unpopularly side with JNHFan2000 in that I like Newman's scores in general. The action music is a bit mixed given that (a) action is not his forte imo, and (b) some of the material at the end of Spectre is just generic fluff (considering Mendes knows how to use music well, I really question what he was thinking here) but the overall sound he gave to the scores is refreshing - his more ambient/rhythmic approach working particularly well with the early action sequences in Skyfall and the Scotland scenes later on.

TWINE is my favourite, but partly for nostalgic reasons. It's also more balanced between the string/piano material and action which makes it an easier listen. I know TND is probably the most popular around here but for my tastes it's too loud and overbearing for the most part - I've never gotten into it.
 
The problem for me with QoS is that I think the film is absolutely goddam awful - I sat through it once with my brother, then twice more I tried again and neither of us had a clue what was going on, what the story was, and were both thoroughly bored. Arnold absolutely did the best job anyone could have done (and I'm sure he found the film more intesting than we did) but it remains a concept album for me - 20 minutes or so of decent action music.
 
I also unpopularly side with JNHFan2000 in that I like Newman's scores in general. The action music is a bit mixed given that (a) action is not his forte imo, and (b) some of the material at the end of Spectre is just generic fluff (considering Mendes knows how to use music well, I really question what he was thinking here) but the overall sound he gave to the scores is refreshing - his more ambient/rhythmic approach working particularly well with the early action sequences in Skyfall and the Scotland scenes later on.

What I love so much about the Bond scores, is that each one has something to offer that the others don't. Be it a positive thing or not.
 
Dr. No: Not really a score, but still a fun album for it's time
From Russia With Love: Oustanding thriller score with a beautiful theme.
Goldfinger: Some fantastic action music towards the end and Goldfinger will always be iconic.
Thunderball: Maybe a bit chaotic at points, but the action here is quite ferocious.
You Only Live Twice: Beautiful theme and oriental touches.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Maybe the most streamlined and best constructed Barry Bond. Love the synth touches.
Diamonds Are Forever: love all the big band and jazz in this score!
 
Live And Let Die: Very different from Barry, but this always was one of my favourites because of the way it incorporates the song in the score.
The Man With The Golden Gun: A more quieter score, but the two action cues are great (exept the whistle hahaha). Lovely softer moments.
The Spy Who Loved Me: I love the disco varient of the Bond theme, but the rest of the score is very hit or miss for me. It feels like multiple scores on 1 album and doesn't always work.
Moonraker: The Flight Into Space cue is almost enough to forgive that this film exists. That's Barry writing at his utmost grand!
For Your Eyes Only: One of my personal favourites. Love all the disco and funk in the action moments. And the title song is beautiful.
Octopussy: This is very basic imo. It has some really nice moments, but this felt like Barry wasn't too inspired.
A View To A Kill: Love the added guitar in the action scenes. The instrumental statements of the title song are beautiful.
 
The Living Daylights: Love love this one. Feels like Barry went out on a high note. Love the added drums, really feels like Bond is coming into a different era.
Licence To Kill: I love Kamen, so I love this score. Yes, there is some downtime, but when it works, it's some of my favourite music in the series.
 
GoldenEye: Awful. Hate it. But it's unique. Haha
Tomorrow Never Dies: Best Arnold score. Perfection to me. White Knight alone assures it's at the top of the list 
The World Is Not Enough: Still really love this. The electronics aren't to overbearing yet and the emotional cues are gorgeous.
Die Another Day: I still like this, but the drum loops etc get a bit much at points.
 
Casino Royale: Arnold back on track. Score works slightly better in the film than on album, because of the quieter cues during the poker games. Action cues here are fantastic and all have something unique and fun to offer + Vesper's theme still breaks my heart.
Quantum Of Solace: Short and sweet. Action is extremely powerful, but the score misses a central theme to build from.
Skyfall: There are some who don't like this, but I love it. It's Newman through and through, his action music is sublime and I'll never tire of his orchestrations.
Spectre: Same as Skyfall. This one is a bit darker, the final action cues are powerful and the madeleine material is beautiful.
No Time To Die: Love it. I like Zimmer and I like Bond, so this is a great mix for me personally. The cue Cuba Chase is one of the most fun action cues in the whole series.
 
Love me or hate me, but this is just my opinion. Can't wait to see who scores the next film.

I know this is an old post but I think it needs to be brought up how composing works.

Most composers make a mockup which is essentially the full music created in the computer using a DAW and various plugins to recreate whatever sounds are necessary. These mockups will vary in quality as these sample libraries often have "full strings" patches which represent the full string section, or they also have patches for the individual string sections and you can program first violins, 2nd violins, etc. to get a more realistic sound. If you use full strings, as you play chords the number of string players tends to vary which is why to our brains it does not sound realistic. If you keep the same voicing then sometimes it sounds alright at best.

Technically in that sense, if a composer makes a realistic mockup with a patch for every string instrument, woodwind, brass, etc. they are doing more orchestration and writing a more complete score than john williams is, even if they are not notating anything. 

This is also likely why woodwinds are not prominent in modern film music. It's just easier to do strings and brass. Because we have "full strings" and "full brass" patches, but often not "full woodwinds." And modern composers don't know how to orchestrate woodwinds, so what they do if they use woodwindws at all is mostly for solo lines, rather than any ensemble uses.
 
Composers are effectively music producers and are varying levels of tech savvy. Big composers have assistants which help with tasks too. They also have an orchestrator which translates it to be recorded.

TV and video game composers who never record live music effectively never use sheet music at all.

This has been done since the 90s and john williams is one of the few composers doing it the "wrong" way as no one can hear his music until it is recorded.

Because of this I would not be surprised if plenty of famous composers are quite bad at reading music because they haven't done it for 30 years. Elton John, for example is a classically trained pianist but he said he is bad at reading music because it's been too long since he's done it.

In the same vain, danny elfman likely cannot read or write music more than simply having an understanding of how to read music, but no technical practice to do it at a decent speed to be useful. In the same way my dad is a non-musician but knows how to read music only because he learned what the notes on the page are, what the rhythms represent, etc.

Back in the old days, you would use multiple computers with each computer running one instrument since PC hardware was much slower. You can do multi-computer setups in a lot of Audio software, but these days computers are so fast that you can now load projects with all the instruments on one computer.

As far as modern composers, I would not be surprised if many of them are not particularly good musicians and therefore do not read or write music very well, even if they have the knowledge. Hans zimmer as a pianist would not even be able to play that "Thinking out Loud" ed sheeran piece as it is beyond his playing abilities. If you look at some videos of Ramin Djawadi playing the westworld theme, he honestly wasn't very good.

I would not be surprised if the multi-oscar winning Ludwig Goransson does not really read or write music at a high level despite having studied music and majoring in composing.

just look at how many modern composers no longer conduct their music. 
 

But at the end of the day, none of this has any bearing on whether someone can write good film music or not. Danny elfman is gifted in his own way and writes music in his own style.

The only part of Jay's thoughts above I'd disagree with is presenting the entire 24 minute battle sequence as one track. Each part of that has a unique feel and occasionally there's a part I'm drawn to listening to, and I don't like the idea of navigating within a nearly half hour track to find the bit I want. I think it works great as it is on the set and that once you're approaching anywhere near the 10 minute mark, you've got to be dealing with something like The Quidditch Match where it's obvious the cues were written to segue into each other as one piece of music. I don't get the same sense with this sequence. (and if Williams did intend these cues to form a much longer musical sequence, I don't get that sense as strongly as with HP).
 
I'd certainly disagree with Williams on his usual insistence on having album versions in the main program, no doubt due to listenability, but at least this set allows things like that to be corrected according to individual wishes. Clearly still some small hurdles to be had with him on the odd occasion, that these sets are intended to showcase the entire score and not retain edits or versions he made for the album. At least he doesn't ask for film versions like that to be omitted entirely.

Now that I'm effectively paying a nearly reasonable shipping cost due to LLL's sale, it was time to get this bad boy.
 

Pretty much this
 

I'm bothered by the ommission of the alternate ending of "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave" (which was used for the finale). Instead of including the utterly redundant "Leaving Port (With Alternate Ending)", which just fades out before the original ending, they could have included a track "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave (Alternate)" with the new ending and without the pipes. 
 
This is still one of my favourite LLL releases and I wish I could relive happiness and excitement that I felt when I saw the announcement on FB. 

I basically want the main program to be as close as possible to what's in the film without replicating tracking or similar editing. If that means putting a version the composer revised against their wishes in the main program... sucks to be them.
 
The problem indeed is when the film uses two versions and switches between them, so there is no single film version. I don't particularly care what they do in those cases as long as the material is released, i.e. put one in the main section and the other in bonus.

Now that I'm effectively paying a nearly reasonable shipping cost due to LLL's sale, it was time to get this bad boy.
 

The bigger problem with that set is some missing film takes such as the ending, iirc. Putting album/original versions in the main program is pretty far down the list of priorities for me compared to that.

I meant more along the lines that in terms of content for that we don't need anything from Disney. If you really wanted an official pressed CD with all the FYC material so that it's all 'official', fine I guess. We should be aiming our sights far higher than that though.
 
 
Given that JW will ruin something with eventual expansions, and I hear talk of people wanting literally everything JW recorded, isn't a session dump actually what you want?  
 
Problem is, what you really want is a tightly curated, MM-produced, JW-rubber stamped set in an embossed, deluxe box set, but I'd say it's almost certain such a set would omit something, particularly as JW has a tight hold over what he wants released. I don't think one product will deliver both wishes.

Oh I'm in no doubt they're putting out stuff they love, but in the wider soundtrack community and for fans of more modern stuff, it feels rather niche.
 
If we get to June's flyer and I don't recognise any composers, then I'll start to ask what's going on 

I'd go further - it's impossible to prevent any additional outside funding unless it were in the T&Cs that any product directly resulting from KS were not permitted to use any other source of funding. IMO that would be wrong of them to dictate, and I also don't see how they would ever know or check. Particularly if it's a company involved that decides to get public funding for a specialist product line, they're going to be using some of their own resources and costs. Hence I'd be amazed if KS somehow thought they could dictate the entire funding structure of a project.
 
I can picture creators who have decided they can put a bit of their own money in but need public help with the rest, so they set the project goal to XX thousands with the knowledge that if they hit the goal they can realise the project using whatever they've privately decided to invest. If the project goes over its goal - great, the creator doesn't need to put any of their own funds in.

Ah, neat, thanks! It bugged me a little that I had Dragon 2 and 3 in full 3000x3000 but not the first one, plus the imminent arrival of the RoP box obviously required those 9 covers to be given proper treatment.
 
Wouldn't it be neat if the CD format allowed (and if it does, were more exploited) high-res album art to be included when put in a PC. Isn't that what those 'enhanced' CDs from the early 00s did, with screensavers and such?
 
 
I have just one case where it's a bit of a mess, and I came up with a naming that isn't tidy in itself, but does the job:
 
Robin Hood (BBC)
Robin Hood '10
Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves
 
In all other cases, I have at most the OST and an expansion, so Score XYZ: OST for the OST, then whatever takes my fancy for the expansion. If it's Varese I usually do Score XZY: The Deluxe Edition and if it's another label, Score XZY (LLL) or Score XZY (Intrada)
 
I can't think of any cases where I've got more than two versions, because it's not in my collecting nature to keep multiple expansions, so for JP for example, I just have the 2016 box - not the OST, anniversary set, nor the new one. Unless a fundamentally different listening experience is offered between expanded releases, I just keep the one I like the most (usually the most recent).

I meant more along the lines that in terms of content for that we don't need anything from Disney. If you really wanted an official pressed CD with all the FYC material so that it's all 'official', fine I guess. We should be aiming our sights far higher than that though.
 
 
Given that JW will ruin something with eventual expansions, and I hear talk of people wanting literally everything JW recorded, isn't a session dump actually what you want?  
 
Problem is, what you really want is a tightly curated, MM-produced, JW-rubber stamped set in an embossed, deluxe box set, but I'd say it's almost certain such a set would omit something, particularly as JW has a tight hold over what he wants released. I don't think one product will deliver both wishes.

You can use this tool to get covers from various services, in their full quality (without having to bother modifying URL): https://covers.musichoarders.xyz/

Possibly the first time that not only have I never heard of either film in a flyer, I've not sure I've heard of either composer.
 
They're the sort of thing I'd normally expect to see from someone like Quartet, not LLL. I'm assuming that they've got lots of bigger titles waiting in various stages of development/approval hell.

Huh? You don't mean literally merging the OSTs and FYCs and pressing a disc do you? What a pointless exercise - any of us can do that.
 
At a minimum they should release expanded prequels - surely not too much editing or mastering needed, relative to the work involved for the OT.

Huh? You don't mean literally merging the OSTs and FYCs and pressing a disc do you? What a pointless exercise - any of us can do that.
 
At a minimum they should release expanded prequels - surely not too much editing or mastering needed, relative to the work involved for the OT.

Huh? You don't mean literally merging the OSTs and FYCs and pressing a disc do you? What a pointless exercise - any of us can do that.
 
At a minimum they should release expanded prequels - surely not too much editing or mastering needed, relative to the work involved for the OT.