Popular Post crumbs 14,310 Posted October 14, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 14, 2021 No idea how this slipped under the radar but I stumbled upon this article tonight. It details a 2017 AES presentation called “Bearing Witness: The Music of Star Wars, Archiving Art and Technology,” in which Dann Thompson and Leslie Ann Jones (the Skywalker Sound employees who transferred all known scoring elements for the first six Star Wars scores) discuss their efforts to track down the scoring masters, what elements were located, how they archived all the music, etc. This is a listing for the event. An excerpt from the article: Quote New York, NY (October 20, 2017)—Thursday morning, a packed special event, “Bearing Witness: The Music of Star Wars, Archiving Art and Technology,”featured Skywalker Sound’s Leslie Ann Jones and Dann Thompson as they detailed their efforts for Sony Classics’ re-release of soundtracks from the iconic film series, Episodes I through VI. Morphing into an archival and restoration mission for the first six films, this process was, in fact, a journey through the various recording platforms from 1977 to 2005. “In April of 2012, we were asked to make a digital transfer of a half-inch master of a cue from Episode VI [Return of the Jedi] by Matt Wood, who apprenticed under [sound designer] Ben Burtt and is now the main sound supervisor for the Star Wars films,” explained Jones. The impetus was Sony Classics moving to re-release the soundtracks from Episode I through Episode VI on CD as well as vinyl alongside Episode VII. “We wanted to look for the original elements in order to make 32-bit, 192 kHz masters,” she continued, “and the search really took several weeks to find out what were the appropriate two-track elements to use. At least for the first episodes—Episodes IV, V and VI—we were looking at two-track masters, production masters, EQ copies.” At the bottom it says this presentation would be available to download, but I cannot find any trace of a recording: Quote For the full insight from Jones and Thompson, visit mobiltape.com to download a MP3 of the full presentation, which will be available in approximately one week following the 143rd AES Convention. Has anyone heard of this presentation before, or happened to attend, or have more info about what was discussed? It seems they went into great detail about the elements and their condition, how they were preserved, even the different album/film mixes and John's mixing process on the prequel OSTs with Pat Sullivan. They mention the Star Wars Main Title coming from a mag source, but what about the multi-tracks? Pretty elusive information we've been speculating for decades now! Seems like a must-have for anyone curious about the status of the Star Wars recording masters (feared missing or lost), but I cannot find any trace of where to access or watch this presentation. Anyone have any clues? Tiburon, Chewy, Jurassic Shark and 5 others 4 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,352 Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 Fascinating, I never heard of this before! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skelly 261 Posted October 15, 2021 Share Posted October 15, 2021 If it were available, it would be on this page as 17AES-AR04. I checked it in the Wayback Machine and it wasn't available even back in 2017. crumbs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datameister 2,042 Posted October 15, 2021 Share Posted October 15, 2021 That's maddening...I'd love to hear this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thx99 1,740 Posted October 15, 2021 Share Posted October 15, 2021 I'm an AES member and am thoroughly bummed by just learning about this Special Event!! I've put out some feelers... crumbs and Jurassic Shark 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Shark 12,067 Posted October 15, 2021 Share Posted October 15, 2021 THX99 to the rescue! thx99 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,480 Posted October 15, 2021 Share Posted October 15, 2021 Zzz... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rough cut 1,714 Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 This is from the same article. I’d love to hear the “full composition” of Droid Invasion from Episode I. Quote The search included European versions with different EQ curves, productions from an old Star Wars radio show and more. “For the later episodes—Episodes I, II and III—they used the masters from Pat Sullivan [mastering engineer of all Star Wars record releases],” Jones explained, “so we were able to give Sony Classics what they needed and they released a whole box set including the vinyl. But it really got us thinking again about all this fantastic music. Not only archiving it—because it was mostly on analog tape and mag—but also it really could not be used in the format it was in. There are two reasons for archiving: to transfer things to the highest resolution possible and to repurpose, so people can enjoy them…and it was a monumental task. Fortunately, Dann has had loads of experience in mag and every format that we came into contact with. “The idea was really to have a film version and a CD version [of the music] because they were not necessarily the same,” offered Jones. “[For the earliest films], the soundtracks were very much like the music that came out on the film. On the later episodes, they were not like the film at all. Many of the cues were cut from the film and were not heard in their entirety—even on the soundtrack records—because John [Williams, composer] wanted to create a listening experience on the soundtrack records. He would actually go into the mastering room with Pat and create different versions of the cues to make something [different]. That meant that the only copy of that was what was on CD; there was no edited master.” After playing the main theme for the AES audience—successfully rescued from Episode IV‘s mag—Jones offered, “You know, we’re very lucky because we get to sit in the control room and listen to all this music. It’s pretty stunning. Just as a composition and separate from the film, John is just a brilliant writer. And to do six full-length, two-hour episodes, he finds a way to sneak in these themes…I’m just in awe of this experience.” Next, the pair played a full composition, “Droid Invasion” from Episode I, previously unreleased. Following more audio examples of their restoration work, Jones posed, “Not only is this the music of Star Wars, but it is also the history of film-scoring technology. When you think about all the different formats that we have available to us, how people worked then and how they work now, it’s so different. So you should be able to hear some differences—1977 shouldn’t sound like 2007—so the cue [from Episode I] that you just heard has EQ, reverb, surround and LFE.” Brando 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jay 37,352 Posted October 17, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 17, 2021 On 17/10/2021 at 1:02 PM, rough cut said: This is from the same article. I’d love to hear the “full composition” of Droid Invasion from Episode I. Here you go WampaRat, Fabulin, rough cut and 2 others 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skelly 261 Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 On 15/10/2021 at 12:16 PM, thx99 said: I'm an AES member and am thoroughly bummed by just learning about this Special Event!! I've put out some feelers... Any luck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manakin Skywalker 4,891 Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 On 17/10/2021 at 12:22 PM, Jay said: Here you go Lol I made a couple tiny editing errors in my old edit of this cue, all of which are present in this video (I also downloaded the audio to compare the waveform, which is 100% identical). Not that I care, just a funny observation that he used my old edit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thx99 1,740 Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 10 hours ago, Skelly said: Any luck? Afraid not. My email to the chair of the Archiving technical group has gone unanswered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crumbs 14,310 Posted November 27, 2021 Author Share Posted November 27, 2021 That's a shame... thanks for trying though @thx99 How frustrating that such vital information was kept behind a paywall. I wonder if there's any way to contact Jones or Thompson and ask for some details on the surviving elements. TSMefford 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Shark 12,067 Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 They'd probably answer something like what on earth do you need that for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crumbs 14,310 Posted November 27, 2021 Author Share Posted November 27, 2021 2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said: They'd probably answer something like what on earth do you need that for? Maybe. Or they might say, "finally, someone else who cares about the minutia of these geeky things I do for a living!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WampaRat 1,105 Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 With my limited understanding of this incredible project, would something like this ever be a resource for MM (or whoever 😬) when the SW scores finally get their proper treatment? Seems like they’re doing most of the work already! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,352 Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 20 hours ago, Manakin Skywalker said: Lol I made a couple tiny editing errors in my old edit of this cue, all of which are present in this video (I also downloaded the audio to compare the waveform, which is 100% identical). Not that I care, just a funny observation that he used my old edit. Ha, that's funny! If there's a better version of this cue on YouTube, I'll replace the embed in my post Manakin Skywalker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manakin Skywalker 4,891 Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 3 hours ago, Jay said: Ha, that's funny! If there's a better version of this cue on YouTube, I'll replace the embed in my post Well, I don't mean to toot my own horn here but I did recently redo TPM from scratch this year, this time as accurately as physically possible using the best quality sources currently available... any previous editing errors have since been absolved. Alan and Jay 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverTrumpet 638 Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 Isn't that pretty close to the album version? Or am I just so used to hearing the cue in video games that I'm used to all that material now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manakin Skywalker 4,891 Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 1 hour ago, SilverTrumpet said: Isn't that pretty close to the album version? Or am I just so used to hearing the cue in video games that I'm used to all that material now. 0:51 to 0:53 and 1:06 to 1:12 is unreleased. So most of it is indeed released, but the omissions are quite noticeable in the album version (and especially in the film where it ends at 0:50). I never really paid any attention to how little is actually missing from this cue until now. That only raises the question as to why JW decided to cut those tiny segments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,346 Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 I kinda understand why he did, they kind of stand out as different from the rest of the cue somehow IMHO. crumbs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manakin Skywalker 4,891 Posted November 28, 2021 Share Posted November 28, 2021 I suppose I can understand that. Still kind of disappointing that we have to rely on video game rips for those tiny sections though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverTrumpet 638 Posted November 28, 2021 Share Posted November 28, 2021 Yeah, but on the other hand, it's wonderful we had all those games at the time to get as many clean cues as we did from the prequels. Manakin Skywalker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manakin Skywalker 4,891 Posted November 28, 2021 Share Posted November 28, 2021 Now if only the same could be said of the sequels... Brando and Faleel 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,346 Posted November 29, 2021 Share Posted November 29, 2021 16 hours ago, Manakin Skywalker said: Now if only the same could be said of the sequels... TBF aside from TROS we had a complete sheet music sourced cue list pretty much right after film release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manakin Skywalker 4,891 Posted November 29, 2021 Share Posted November 29, 2021 7 hours ago, Grace Under Pressure said: TBF aside from TROS we had a complete sheet music sourced cue list pretty much right after film release. I mean the unreleased music appearing in the video games. Lego TFA did technically have 2: "You're Han Solo" (likely aborted album edit) and "Dobra Doompa". But unfortunately nothing else thus far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,346 Posted November 29, 2021 Share Posted November 29, 2021 3 hours ago, Manakin Skywalker said: I mean the unreleased music appearing in the video games. Lego TFA did technically have 2: "You're Han Solo" (likely aborted album edit) and "Dobra Doompa". But unfortunately nothing else thus far. I know, I was just providing the counterpoint that we had the ability to know almost everything written for TFA and TLJ alot sooner than with the Prequels. Brando and Manakin Skywalker 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manakin Skywalker 4,891 Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 1 hour ago, Grace Under Pressure said: I know, I was just providing the counterpoint that we had the ability to know almost everything written for TFA and TLJ alot sooner than with the Prequels. Absolutely! Plus we have the FYC's for each of the films, which of course we did not get for the prequels. Brando 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crumbs 14,310 Posted November 30, 2021 Author Share Posted November 30, 2021 Plus isolated scores for 2 of the 3 sequels. Not perfect, but probably on par with the amount of unreleased prequel music from the video games. Brando 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbellamy 6,286 Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 What's the other isolated score besides Last Jedi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manakin Skywalker 4,891 Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 27 minutes ago, mrbellamy said: What's the other isolated score besides Last Jedi? TFA. Not officially released like TLJ was though. crumbs and BrotherSound 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post crumbs 14,310 Posted November 30, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 30, 2021 Actual footage of JJ releasing the TROS isolated score: Raiders of the SoundtrArk, BrotherSound, Alan and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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