matmilne

I've been listening to Saving Private Ryan a fair bit, scoring a ww2 game later this month.

hi folks just finished re-scoring Star trek nemesis. almost 2 hours long, i just needed the practice. Those of you with the movie can download it and play it over the film. there's a 2 second delay at the beginning to allow you to switch back to the film and start it when the music starts (at the first frames of the para logo) http://www.badongo.com/file/1094304

hey bowie, i thought these were ok, samples were ok, but you might want to try a different volume in the vamps for the first variation i think they were too loud. ps did you get permission to orchestrate the theme? if you didn't you violated mr w's copyright and artist rights. A contemporary feel definatley doesn't work with this theme, ruins its charm and mistique. Never mind the way the company's going i wouldn't be at all surprised if they hired you to score the next one. In general, an interesting set of variations on this lovely theme.

here's the theme for a fantasy adventure spoof i'm scoring http://filexoom.com/files/4941/quest%20for...questthemea.mp3

james horner OR the person who actually scored all the tv episodes, denis mcarthy, there's no better for startrek. Actually startrek's future is a little uncertain with all the company splitting that's been going on. i plan to save all the cash i make from scoring to finance one. It'll take about 12 years.

see although it does sound a bit more muffled, the brass sounds a lot more better, only problem is that the strings now disappear at 0.28 and it sounds as if it was played through a muffler. You need to try and balance the two out a bit. the first was ok, though the begginning sounded fake, the second had a better beginning but has a more muffled sound overall, so something inbetween the two will work better. something with elements from both would be very good, problem is there's a lot of editing involved.

your strings sound a lot more real at this point (just at the climax point) and soft horn that come in shortly after this section (0.40) sounded rather good (the first 2 notes did anyway). If you add a bit of environment reverb and listen you'll notice a marked difference in quality between the strings at 0.02 and the strings at 0.28 and also towards 0.4 where they go into the trill. I think from 0.28 onward the piece takes on a hollywood feel, where before it felt a bit 1990's computer gamish. i definately think you become far more williamsesque from that point, something you might want to explore and develop further. Dramatic writing appears to be your forte.

yes i like that fanfare. i could see it in the victory screens after a battle in a ww2 computer game, or in dambusters or such movies. chris, i do think the music is great, it was just that i was surprised that you left the performance in its raw and very fake format, is all. in general the piece was fine. ps performance of a piece is the process of allowing the audience to hear your work, it will determine in what manner they interperet it and so as the person responsible for the performance you need to be sure that it is exactly what you want and is as good as you can possibly make it.

yes deffinately play around with it. IME something that sounds real is less cringe inducing than something that sounds fake, and is therefore better because the listening experience is far more pleasent. If you remove the instrumental reverb to small degree then add some atmospheric reverb, the reverb won't layer as much so you'll get a better sound. and if you tweak the treble and bass settings, the lower harmonics won't mush as much. imo, as it stands, it sounds like someone recorded it with a telephone.

it sounds MUCH better if you play it with a LOT of reverb. in an environment that makes the sound more airy. if you've got eax try reverb setting auditorium 1 at 75% (that's the easiest way around the muffled effect in the brass and strings, it's not perfect but it makes 0.28 onwards sound at least four times more authentic) if you've got samples with that electronic muffling in brass and strings, if you can find a way around it, electronic samples can sound real. no wonder you guys say samples are bad, if you don't tweak them and record in ways that make them sound 10 times better than the standard settings.

this is the problem with the major studios. the pro is the access to materials and resources, the con is that you are owned by the studio exec for the duration of your contract. Often it is done for the money and not for the creativity or art, so you're verry limited in what you can achieve and of course this seriously affects the film.

i like the trailer. Sorry for the delay with the second theme arrangment. I just completed a feature length score and have spent the last 4 days working on trailers for another movie. Should have some time to arrange on friday though.

yes i'm deffinately a nerd

heh, yes the church state was the problem there, but the exaple holds, he simply wouldn't do what they said because part of him didn't understand their frames of reference, and wanted to explore other ways of looking at the universe. Just as i look for alternative ways of exploring music and creativity. The dominent system will allways try to teach their way of doing things, and encourage this as a means of controling their environment. The problem being that several people are too arrogant and insist on doing things their own way. sometimes to their demise, but sometimes to genius, it's a risky line to walk.

indeed it is. so moving back to composing. For those of you interested in film music, I've completed scoring the feature length movie, "zen" produced by garry davis. it's an asian martial arts movie. I'll see if i can get his permission to post you a few cues tomorrow.