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What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (older scores)


Ollie

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The Bourne Identity. The melancholy bassoon theme (well, a little more than a motif really) heard in Main Titles should appear more often (in the film and the score), it fits the character and the story itself perfectly - as does the majority of the rest of the score.

Treadstone Assassins is the epitome of cool.

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I made my way through the Ron Jones box over the past week and a half, devouring the notes and listening to each disc twice.

I have yet to do anything to it beyond rip all the discs to WAV; I didn't even convert to MP3 and FLAC yet. I'll throw the track list into Excel and fiddle with so I can MP3tag all files simultaneously. I just can never find the time.

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I notice you mention that you have a huge backlog a lot. Sounds like you have a cumbersome process of ripping and tagging your files, Wojo. Do you use iTunes for that, or something else? iTunes, for all its faults, has been pretty easy for me to rip my entire collection and save it to an external drive that holds my library. I do a little at a time, but I'm pretty much caught up, and looking back, it wasn't painful. I just convert everything to Apple Lossless and that's pretty much it. I have a few really good resources for album art, and boom.. I'm done.

I just hate to hear that the mechanics of ripping and catalog are getting in the way of you listening and enjoying.

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I do not use iTunes. I've read more "iTunes messed up my collection when I updated it" posts than I've read "iTunes is my best friend" posts. I have a way to use an iPod without requiring iTunes, which is the only reason I bought an iPod over a Zune. I think it's installed, but only for downloading the exclusive songs.

I rip to WAV to speed up the touch time of each CD during the ripping process. I've found that ripping to WAV without compressing is faster than ripping and compressing each file as you go. Hard drive space is cheap, so I can grab 50 discs' worth of ripped WAV files, tell it to compress them to FLAC and MP3, and walk away from my computer.

I probably have OCD when it comes to wanting everything in FLAC as well as 320 MP3, since I can't tell the difference with my Helen Keller ears. FLAC is for archiving on an external, and until I fill my iPod and start deleting and/or recompressing, 320 is just fine.

But even though I don't use iTunes to rip and tag, and don't even like to be online while rip in order to use CDDB, don't think that I hand type all the track names. I import tag lists as often as I can, and probably want to customize what iTunes would suggest anyways.

The biggest reason for the backlog is that I've just been on an extreme album buying/othering binge for the last few months, and in combination with working late, social obligations, academic pursuits, and playing games, I have not made the time.

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I've got my CD's ripped in one folder than in a separate folder I have scores I know I'll listen to the most as "iPod Play lists". That way things can be kept away from each other and organized. They also stay organized when I import them into iTunes and update.

For ripping CD's, every time I rip a CD whether it's 1 or 3, I do it the day I get it. That way I won't have to worry about it later on. I rip them using Audiograbber and then Flac Frontend to encode to Flac. After that they go up on my shelf and generally not touched again.

The Ron Jones TNG set didn't have the track listings for the Freedb in Audiograbber so I had to manually tag every cue by hand. It took about 3 hours to rip the entire set and encode everything.

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About halfway through the Lost: The Final Episodes release. I'm not overly familiar with the show (though I did watch the finale) so I can't match up the music to the show, and it's my first Lost CD so I don't really know the themes yet, but I am LOVING this. Giacchino has written quite a few very strong film scores, but this and the Medal of Honor series are going to stand up forever as possibly his best works. I can't wait to pick up the rest of the Lost releases.

I've been listening to the season six albums too, recently (my first LOST albums as well). Incredible stuff indeed.

Even having followed the series, I still can't match more than maybe half the music with specific scenes. :P

I can identify maybe a dozen themes. The soundtracks section of Lostpedia has been invaluable, especially with Varese's non-existent liner notes.

I'll definitely be getting Season One (I've already been, ahem, sampling that one), and probably all the others down the road.

Also been re-watching the series and picking up on the music a lot more.

It's almost been like viewing it again for the first time (except for knowing overall how things turn out), it's been so long.

:thumbup: Down the Hobbit Hole (The End)

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Portrait of a Lady, by Wojciech Kilar. This is absolutely gorgeous stuff

I wholeheartedly agree. Phenomenal music. Pity it was completely overlooked during award season back in its days.

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I can identify maybe a dozen themes. The soundtracks section of Lostpedia has been invaluable, especially with Varese's non-existent liner notes.

Yeah, I've been poking around that. This is LotR-level stuff, theme wise. The Music of Lost should be Doug Adams' next book.

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If you like Dracula, then The Ninth Gate would be perfect follow-up. It is a more fleshed out score (as far as its core material goes) and in that sense, more satisfying.

Anyway, thanks for the clips, gentlemen. Sounds really good. :P

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by Alexandre Desplat

It's my first listen after seeing the film. And it made it even better. I start to see a dramatic (or thematic) structure. It is subtle, but no one can argue it isn't there. The end of the album is a disappointment still, but this is more about the film than anything else.

Karol

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Portrait of a Lady, by Wojciech Kilar. This is absolutely gorgeous stuff

I seriously want to get into this man's work, but all I have is "Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'" (which is beautiful, BTW). Can y'all recommend anything else?

There aren't that many soundtracks of his available. Most of his scores are rather short and have never been released (except for their title tunes that can be found on various compilation albums). I seriously recommend Portrait of a Lady. Ninth Gate and polish Pan Tadeusz are also worth checking out, but if you're really interested in getting to know his music, I suggest you to look out for this 2-CD album

Best_Kilar_524934.jpg

First disc consists of four of his most acclaimed serious works, including Exodus which was used for Schindler's List trailer. Second one is dedicated to his film music from polish and international productions.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows by Alexandre Desplat

It's my first listen after seeing the film. And it made it even better. I start to see a dramatic (or thematic) structure. It is subtle, but no one can argue it isn't there. The end of the album is a disappointment still, but this is more about the film than anything else.

My opinion on this score hasn't changed, unfortunately. I am still underwhelmed by it, even though parts of it are really good. It serves the film much better than the last one (actually, I know of very few scores that work worse than HBP), but I can't help thinking that Desplat could have done better, even with this director on board. Pity given his Ghostwritter still remanins my favourite soundtrack of the year.

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Goldsmith's A Step Out of Line/Brotherhood of the Bell.

I've given this disc a lot of spins since it was released. Goldsmith in his experimental mode which TV often allowed for. Great mix of funky stuff, jazz riff vibes, neo-baroque coolness, well tempered atonal atmospherics, etc. This is definitely JG being JG!

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Let Me In by Michael Giacchino

I'm actually contemplating seeing the film. It's not that it interests me very much, but I would like to hear the music in context. The thematic material isn't spectacular. The "main theme" is pretty banal to my ears. But that may be exactly the point. There is something really intriguing about the idea of having a very simple and direct drama with this uneasy horror undercurrent. I like that it is essentially neither of these. The other thing I like is that it doesn't overboard. Usually, when horror music is atonal it is just noise, like it's trying to make it up for the lack of tension on screen. Not here. Even when it ventures into darker material, it is very steady and controlled. And this stillness is what makes it disturbing.

Karol - who is thinking of creating a trimmed version of the score for superior listening experience.

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The film is pretty much a character drama, and one of the characters happens to be a vampire. That description may remind you of Twilight, but it's the polar opposite. Great story and good acting from the child actors. Very little horror to it.

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It's pretty much like the two versions of The Omen, apparently. The story is exactly the same, with some minor changes here and there. At least that's my understanding.

Karol

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Star Wars: Attack of the Clones by John Williams

This is another score that I really like and most people don't. While not as spectacluar as it could be (very few thematic ideas), I cannot imagine why any JW's fan would be disappointed by this. And yet, it is commonly despised by many. I absolutely adore the love theme (which gets much stronger development throughout the score than any other theme in the prequels) and there is some really nice darker scoring in there (the Tusken camp cue is probably darker than anything in ROTS). Action music is very good, especially the conveyor belt cue and the Coruscant chase. Binary Sunset material seguing into Duel of the Fates is another great moment. And Love Pledge/Arena might be one of the best single album tracks from Williams in the entire 00's decade. Spectacular scoring. The finale track comes close. I love the solo voice writing and I was always hoping it would be developed into something more important in the next film. And the closing of the end credits (when you hear Anakin's theme, the love theme and the Imperial march) is a bliss. :cool:

Finally, it is definitely the strongest of the prequel OST albums. Despite less than spectacular sound quality.

Sadly, few of the great moments are allowed to shine in this abysmal film. Maybe that's why the score is so unpopular?

Karol

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I don't really understand some of the reactions to AOTC, either. It's not top-tier Williams, nor is it the most original and innovative score out there, but it's still a highly enjoyable listen for me. Loads better than that other 2002 sequel film that had Williams' name attached to it...

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iTunes just put up Mansell's Black Swan score so I'm listening to it now.

Loving it so far.

Edit: This is my favorite Mansell and possibly might be my favorite score of the year.

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Sadly, few of the great moments are allowed to shine in this abysmal film. Maybe that's why the score is so unpopular?

People's negative feelings about the movie and the crap way that the score is edited in the movie color people's opinion of the score itself I think. And yes, it is easily the best arranged and selected OST of the prequels. There's still more than a few good unreleased bits.

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No, it's just an average score for a piss poor film. Williams is only human, I would imagine at times it's hard to be inspired by crap.

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The score for Attack Of The Clones still doesn't deserve the negativity it gets from a lot of people. In my opinion, I think the previously unreleased music that has surfaced in the games has really helped the listening experience for it.

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Attack of the Clones is quite a good score. It just gets pissed on so much because it isn't in the same leage as the four Star Wars scores that preceded it (which are pretty damn fantastic).

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I've been less than complimentary about it over the years, and while I think it shines often, much of the underscore is probably the dullest of the prequels, and while some action sequences are inspired (Chase Through Coruscant), some are lacklustre (Jango's Escape). But it has some wonderful flourishes though, and like Karol said, the love theme is wonderful, especially in the finale, and the Kamino motif is great. I think the OST was strong, although it could do with some tweaks, but it probably fares worst mostly because of its association with the film.

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Listened to the original First Blood album last night. Some good stuff in there. I might get the complete release at some point.

Now listening to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, after which the other Potter scores will follow, in anticipation of my copy of Deathly Hallows: Part 1 arriving. :)

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Has anybody listened t DAFT PUNK's TRON LEGACY? How is it? I'm extremely intrigued but not willing to download it before official release.

It's brilliant, but it depends on whether you want to trust someone who has it in their signature and is obviously hyped for it.

I think it will surprise people by weighting a lot more more on the orchestral side than DP's usual sound, although it certainly has their hallmarks. But people just looking for the new DP album will probably be disappointed by the majority of it. The "legacy" theme is very good, and I think it's pretty rewarding, especially after a couple of listens. Some of it veers towards TDK territory, but doesn't fall into it. Put it this way, I hope the film can live up to it.

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The score for Attack Of The Clones still doesn't deserve the negativity it gets from a lot of people. In my opinion, I think the previously unreleased music that has surfaced in the games has really helped the listening experience for it.

While it doesn't deserve the swear words that usually accompany criticisms, I don't think the negativity is unwarranted.

I've tried listening to the full OST and my problem is that much of the time the music is just *there*. It's not doing anything emotionally.

But then being Star Wars, I'm hardly placed to comment on how appropriate it is for the film.

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Has anybody listened t DAFT PUNK's TRON LEGACY? How is it? I'm extremely intrigued but not willing to download it before official release.

It's brilliant, but it depends on whether you want to trust someone who has it in their signature and is obviously hyped for it.

I think it will surprise people by weighting a lot more more on the orchestral side than DP's usual sound, although it certainly has their hallmarks. But people just looking for the new DP album will probably be disappointed by the majority of it. The "legacy" theme is very good, and I think it's pretty rewarding, especially after a couple of listens. Some of it veers towards TDK territory, but doesn't fall into it. Put it this way, I hope the film can live up to it.

It's probably me, but I find that the samples sound a little like "Teo And Tea", by Jean Michel Jarre.

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So you're sickened by someone else's listening habits? It's not like I'm listening to the sound of babies being murdered or equivalent thereof. I'm not a Zimmer fan, after all.

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