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Gordy Haab's Star Wars Squadrons?


Yannick

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1 hour ago, The Float said:

Well, gave it a listen. I was half joking before but I’m pretty sure now they prohibit Haab from using any of JW’s material. 

 

Most of the time he is able to use the main themes in the games themselves, but as we've discussed before, it doesn't appear they're allowed to keep those themes for the album releases. For example most of the familiar themes were cut from the JFO album, despite appearing in the game.

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I can confirm that the lack of themes is restricted to the album. The game itself uses the familiar themes a lot, especially the force theme as well as the rebel fanfare and imperial march. In fact it seems to use a mix of the original soundtrack recordings, as well as Gordy's own compositions.

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16 minutes ago, Laserschwert said:

I can confirm that the lack of themes is restricted to the album. The game itself uses the familiar themes a lot, especially the force theme as well as the rebel fanfare and imperial march. In fact it seems to use a mix of the original soundtrack recordings, as well as Gordy's own compositions.

 

No unreleased prequel music though I assume (haven't played the game just yet). :P

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I just played through the first mission and there is some unreleased prequel music. Nothing that we don't already have that I could hear yet, but it's something. At the very least we might be able to have some cues in better quality.

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5 hours ago, TheAvengerButton said:

 

I see this sentiment a lot. In your opinion does a Star Wars score always need to have things like The Force theme, Luke's theme, etc. to be a Star Wars score?

 

Personally, I think composers have to be careful with the JW material because they shouldn't use it too much out of context (though even JW himself will sometimes do the same, but the difference is he wrote those bars). An egregious example would be hearing Leia's theme pkay with Ezra Bridger in Star Wars Rebels long before he met her in Season 2. Weirdly out of context and unnecessary. I can't imagine how characters that have nothing to do with the Force to be flying around to those familiar tones. Better to have original music when dealing with original characters and narrative.

Totally 100 percent get what you’re saying here. And I agree. It’s very dangerous to use mouse leitmotifs as a standard practice. 
 

But in the end, zero references is a problem. There’s ZERO Star Wars DNA running through it. The rebel fanfare, into the trap, imperial March, imperial danger motif from ROTJ, all could have practical application here. I mean Eve Luke’s themes gets a pass when it’s truly a “Star Wars” moment. But nothing. It all sounds flat. There’s no connective tissue. 
 

I often cite Joel McNeely’s amazing score for that Shadows of the Empire project. New stuff old stuff, applied correctly. Same with Powell, new stuff and old stuff. But it’s applied to perfectly. There’s connectivity. 
 

Giacchino did well, but think it’s weird he ignored the imperial themes. But I know he had 13 days to knock it out.
 

Haab sounds great on an orchestration level but I just really hate to see it ultimately wasted if he’s going to zig zag around JW’s themes to the point it’s just noticeable. 

4 hours ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

 

Most of the time he is able to use the main themes in the games themselves, but as we've discussed before, it doesn't appear they're allowed to keep those themes for the album releases. For example most of the familiar themes were cut from the JFO album, despite appearing in the game.

True. I thought I recalled some great moments IN game but nothing on the album. IM JUST GRUMPY

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11 hours ago, The Float said:

Totally 100 percent get what you’re saying here. And I agree. It’s very dangerous to use mouse leitmotifs as a standard practice. 
 

But in the end, zero references is a problem. There’s ZERO Star Wars DNA running through it. The rebel fanfare, into the trap, imperial March, imperial danger motif from ROTJ, all could have practical application here. I mean Eve Luke’s themes gets a pass when it’s truly a “Star Wars” moment. But nothing. It all wesounds flat. There’s no connective tissue. 
 

I often cite Joel McNeely’s amazing score for that Shadows of the Empire project. New stuff old stuff, applied correctly. Same with Powell, new stuff and old stuff. But it’s applied to perfectly. There’s connectivity. 
 

Giacchino did well, but think it’s weird he ignored the imperial themes. But I know he had 13 days to knock it out.
 

Haab sounds great on an orchestration level but I just really hate to see it ultimately wasted if he’s going to zig zag around JW’s themes to the point it’s just noticeable. 

True. I thought I recalled some great moments IN game but nothing on the album. IM JUST GRUMPY

I think we share more in common than not, then. Familiar is never bad, IMO. And having played the game there is a lot of seemingly original takes on older themes while still being plenty of new.

 

I don't really know how to feel about the score just yet. I think it's good, for sure. My favorite track so far is Imperial Ceremony and Briefing for the Imperial March pastiche at the very beginning. I don't feel that Gordy has written a good Imperial theme yet but if this is his showing on this soundtrack then it comes close go having that same martial power that the Imperial March has. Still need to give the music another listen but I've been up for more than 36 hours and my body is barely hanging on.

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1 hour ago, TheAvengerButton said:

Imperial March pastiche at the very beginning. I don't feel that Gordy has written a good Imperial theme yet but if this is his showing on this soundtrack then it comes close go having that same martial power that the Imperial March has.

How's this for pastiche?

 

Really have to listen to it several times before my brain starts to comprehend what I'm hearing...

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19 hours ago, Luke Skywalker said:

Why can powell release digitally williams music (thank godness) and gordi haab cant?

 

I imagine the process is a lot different for releasing film scores than video game scores. Also keep in mind that the Rogue One and Solo albums didn't contain too much Williams material, so they probably had the same mentality for the OST's, to release mostly the new material. We also don't know for sure if it's that they can't. It's possible Gordy primarily wanted to showcase his own material, which is understandable.

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One would think big composers like powell or giacchino would have more ego and want to release their own material only...and haab, would want to show what he is best known for, expanding and adapting williams material...truncating with microediting his compositions and arrangements is a weird decission if its a personal one and not the publishers'....

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is a cover/arr. I finished up with some friends of "Imperial Ceremony" (track 10 on the OST release). Great material from Gordy that is a cool amalgamation of nods to the Imperial March and the Death Star/Empire motif from ANH/Ep. IV.  Thought this would be a good spot to share!

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

I've been trying to figure out which tracks go with what missions. For some, they are fairly obvious but others I can't seem to match up. The track listing may be in chronological order by mission but I'm not entirely sure. I have a suspicion that the Bombing Run pieces tagged at the end of the album are for the multiplayer portion of the game. 

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  • 8 months later...

Aside from a handful of tracks on here, there is a lot of music on the official soundtrack that I've yet to hear in-game, and there's a lot of music in-game that is not on the soundtrack.

 

I've been trying to find out what tracks go where, if there are any that correspond to certain missions or which ones play during the multiplayer matches and it's been quite a journey so far. Lots of blatant copy/pastes here and there scattered throughout the soundtrack. All in all, not the greatest presentation but I also give the production team their due, due to the fact that this entire project was created in the midst of a pandemic. But if anyone has any insight, feel free to respond here.

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