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AES: Saving The Music of Star Wars - Skywalker Sound Presentation on Archiving & Restoring the first 6 Star Wars scores


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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.”

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
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?

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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. :lol:

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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. 

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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!"

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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!

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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. :lol:

 

Ha, that's funny! If there's a better version of this cue on YouTube, I'll replace the embed in my post 

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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 :P 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.

 

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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