enderdrag64's Star Wars Cue by Cue

[enderdrag64 1,429]

#1.1.5 - SW (1977) - 1m2 Star Wars addendum:

Spoiler

When I made my original post I never actually did a take breakdown for this cue despite all five takes having been released in the 1997 album.

I decided to make this quick follow up post since I thought it would be interesting to go over those. In the final film the performance edit is as follows:
 

0:00-0:08 = take 19

0:08-0:41 = take 18

0:41-1:31 = take 20

1:31-1:41 = take 18

1:41-end = take 20

 

Accurate recreations of this performance edit are released on the 1977, 1997 and 2018 albums.

Curiously enough, the 1993 set uses the following takes:

0:00-2:14 of disc 1 track 2 "Main Title" = take 19 in its entirety

0:00-end of disc 4 track 2 "Main Title (Alternate)" = take 20 in its entirety

So ironically the track billed as an "alternate take" in the 1993 liner notes is actually closer to the film version than the track in the main program (the final performance edit uses 8 seconds of take 19, and 83 seconds of take 20).

 

Since no splices between takes were done on the 1993 set for either Main Title track, that almost makes me wonder if no splices were done for any ANH cues on the album. If it is true that they only used single takes for every cue, that might help explain why there are so many incorrect sections throughout the 1993 album.

 

[BachSkywalker 106]

13 hours ago, enderdrag64 said:

#1.1.5 - SW (1977) - 1m2 Star Wars addendum:

  Hide contents

Since no splices between takes were done on the 1993 set for either Main Title track, that almost makes me wonder if no splices were done for any ANH cues on the album. If it is true that they only used single takes for every cue, that might help explain why there are so many incorrect sections throughout the 1993 album.

If that's true that they mostly did single takes, that's incredible. The Star Wars score is very difficult, so playing it without ever hearing it before, and with no reference is really remarkable. Just proves what an amazing orchestra the LSO was/is.

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

39 minutes ago, BachSkywalker said:

If that's true that they mostly did single takes, that's incredible. The Star Wars score is very difficult, so playing it without ever hearing it before, and with no reference is really remarkable. Just proves what an amazing orchestra the LSO was/is.

Used, not did.

[Tallguy 5,653]

2 hours ago, enderdrag64 said:

Accurate recreations of this performance edit are released on the 1977, 1997 and 2018 albums.

 

1977 and 2018? I could have sworn that the LP used different takes. Or is it just that they are mixed differently?

[enderdrag64 1,429]

40 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

1977 and 2018? I could have sworn that the LP used different takes. Or is it just that they are mixed differently?

Yeah it's just the different mix (and also the more obvious analog edits)

 

Otherwise, the spectrograms are identical 

[ThePenitentMan1 1,298]

10 hours ago, enderdrag64 said:

0:00-0:08 = take 19

0:08-0:41 = take 18

0:41-1:31 = take 20

1:31-1:41 = take 18

1:41-end = take 20

 

Ohhhhhh...  Reading this made me realize I had just one last edit in the wrong place in my version of the Main Title: I had the last edit at 1:43 instead of 1:41.  The 1:41 edit sounds so much better, actually!   Will make this edit public (alongside an improved version of the "Original" alternate track) over the next few days.

[enderdrag64 1,429]

#1.2.5 - SW (1977) - 1m3 The War addendum:

Spoiler

When I made my original post I didn't completely analyze the takes across the different sets (I didn't start doing this properly until after I realized the 1997 set had wrong takes around #1.5 - SW (1977) - 2m3-2m4N The Little People. Before that I had assumed that the 1997 set was correct, since it had the take documentation and was marketed in FSM as having corrected all the takes.)

 

For this reason, I thought I'd do a short bonus entry to go back and do a proper take analysis:

The 1977 set has the correct takes, but is remixed and cutdown.

The 1993, 1997 and 2018 sets all have the same incorrect take from 0:00-1:10 (1993 + 1997, uncut) / 0:00-1:03 (2018, cutdown). The 1993 set also has an incorrect take from 2:15-2:58. 

 

So this means that actually in my upload I used the wrong take for 0:00-1:10, which is also used on every commercial album with the film mix. Further, due to the 1977 set being cutdown, the correct take for 0:58-1:05 has never been available outside of the film. Fortunately, the takes don't sound terribly different (they hardly even desync!), which contributed to me not noticing when I made my original post.

 

The different take is quite obvious in a spectrogram though:

(note the click around 0:03 on the 1993/1997 albums - this click isn't heard in the correct take. Curiously enough despite the 2018 set using the wrong take they did remove this click digitally, so clearly somebody must've noticed it wasn't in the film)

Hopefully if Disney ever does a new expansion of these scores, the correct film take of this cue can be premiered in complete form (and its proper mix).

 

[ThePenitentMan1 1,298]

I took another listen to it and I'm now able to tell the film take from the 1997 version.  Mike's version is going to be a revelation when it eventually happens!

[ThePenitentMan1 1,298]

On 07/05/2025 at 2:01 AM, ThePenitentMan1 said:

 

Ohhhhhh...  Reading this made me realize I had just one last edit in the wrong place in my version of the Main Title: I had the last edit at 1:43 instead of 1:41.  The 1:41 edit sounds so much better, actually!   Will make this edit public (alongside an improved version of the "Original" alternate track) over the next few days.

 

New edits are now live!

 

 

[enderdrag64 1,429]

#2.17 ESB (1980) - 5m2 Yoda Appears (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. 

 

Today we're going to be listening to 5m2 Yoda Appears.

 

This cue is only 22 bars long and was orchestrated by Al Woodbury.

 

Here's the tops of the sketch and orchestrated score:

Now let's listen to the cue together:

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with some mysterious strings as Luke collects his things and walks over to sit with R2. 

 

At 0;19 an oboe accompaniment joins in, as Luke reaches R2. 

 

Some woodwinds at 0:34 as the lamp turns on, followed quickly by more strings as Luke converses with R2. 

 

A held woodwind note as Luke stands up at 0:43, almost reminiscent of the the woodwinds heard back in the Wampa cave. 

 

One more string line 0:47 as Luke sits back down, followed by an oboe line at 1:00, which leads directly into a short rendition of the Force theme at 1:03. The final note is held ominously, leading into a loud crash at 1:16 for the first sighting of Yoda. Thus, the cue ends...

 

 

This is the first cue we've looked at in a while that underwent no picture of music edits in the final cut.

 

 

Since I don't have a recording log I'm unsure what day this cue was recorded, but based on the take numbers written in the sketch it was likely recorded in early-mid January. I'm also unsure how many takes were recorded, but according to the sketch the performance edit uses take 223.

 

 

This cue has been officially released on one album:

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

 

More specifically, 5m2 Yoda Appears can be heard:

From 3:32-end of disc 1 track 7 "Arrival on Dagobah" on the 1997 album.

 

The album doesn't have a clean opening - however, similarly to 2m2 Ben's Instruction, and thanks to the 1993 and 1997 releases of 5m1 Crash Landing being the same, you can actually use phase inversion to recover the completely clean opening.

 

Additionally the 1997 set plays at the wrong speed, though this can easily be corrected in an audio editor: it must be sped up by 0.625 to match the film.

 

For the video above I used a speed-corrected copy of the 1997 set with the clean opening recovered via the trick I just described.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

Next week we'll be listening to 5m3 Yoda's Entrance. See you then!

 

[enderdrag64 1,429]

#2.18 ESB (1980) - 5m3 Yoda's Entrance (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 5m3 Yoda's Entrance.

 

This cue is 48 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Here's the tops of the sketch and orchestrated score:

 

Now let's listen to the cue together:

At 0:00 the cue begins with some playful plucked strings as Yoda approaches Luke's camp.

 

At 0:10 this is joined by a staccato version of Yoda's A theme, as he picks up Luke's food stick and starts to eat it. This continues as he climbs the table and looks inside Luke's crate.

 

Then at 0:31, we get a playful rendition of Yoda's B theme, as he starts rummaging through all of Luke's stuff, throwing it everywhere and "making a mess".

 

This lasts until 0:52 when Yoda climbs back down from the table. Some more plucked strings are followed by swirling strings and woodwinds for R2 extending his arm at 1:02, which climaxes once he grabs the flashlight.

 

Some woodwinds accompany Yoda comedically hitting R2 with his stick, ending with some ascending brass at 1:16.

 

This leads immediately into some softer hints of the Yoda A theme on strings starting at 1:17. These continue as Luke asks for his lamp back and reveals that he's looking for Yoda. This ends with some harp at 1:44.

 

A return to the staccato strings as Yoda walks off at 1:48. Some hesitant strings and harp at 1:53, and then another brief statement of Yoda's A theme at 1:56.

Some hesitant woodwinds at 2:03 as Luke looks at R2 and decides to stand up and follow Yoda. This is followed by some more mysterious woodwinds for R2 standing by himself, followed by some final timpani as we return to C-3PO and Han aboard the Falcon. Curiously, this timpani is not actually in the sketch or the conductor's sheet, so it was likely a podium change. 

 

 

This cue went mostly unused in the final cut. There appear to have been no picture edits made to the scene, however the filmmakers evidently didn't like this cue - given that they asked for a revised ending, and ultimately dropped most of the cue in favor of silence. 

 

The following changes were made in the final cut:

0:00-1:47 = silence

1:47-2:03 = 5m3 Yoda's Entrance

2:03-end = 5m3 End Fix

 

As a result, only about 16 seconds of this cue ended up in the final film. The end got replaced by the insert I mentioned, which we'll talk about more next week. It's possible that this insert was written due to further requested changes after the podium changes mentioned earlier.

 

Personally, I wish that they had left more of this cue in the final cut. I understand why they dropped at least the beginning with the playful strings, as they might've felt it made the scene too silly, but I really do like the Yoda's theme material when Luke talks to him about seeking a Jedi Master. Then again, perhaps they cut this part out too because they felt the musical hints would spoil the surprise later when this green creature turned out to be Yoda.

 

 

Despite not having a recording log, I think it's most likely that this cue was recorded on January 7, 1980, likely the next cue recorded after 11m1 Through the Window (which also doesn't have a confirmed date - but is immediately after a string of confirmed 12/29/1979 cues and is also the first to be pictured, given that all of the other session photos we have seem to be from the same week it seems likely that cameras were there for the first week of January, and since this is only the second cue in that block it must've been recorded the first day). I'm unsure how many takes were recorded, but according to the sketch the performance edit uses takes 104 and 105.

 

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1980 on RSO Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 5m3 Yoda's Entrance can be heard:

From 0:47-end of track 3 "The Training of a Jedi Knight" on the 1980/2018 albums

From 0:47-end of disc 2 track 12 "The Training of a Jedi Knight" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 8 "Luke's Nocturnal Visitor" on the 1997 album.

 

All albums have the clean opening and ending. The 1980, 1997 and 2018 albums are all remixed, but the 1993 album appears to be the film mix.

This is the first cue we've looked at where the 1993 album replicates the 1980 album program (thankfully this cue was never microedited). Fortunately, perhaps due to the staccato nature of this cue, there is no audible overlap with the material of the preceding cue and so the 1993 album does indeed have a clean opening. 

 

Additionally, most releases of this cue play at the wrong pitch/speed, although this can easily be corrected in an audio editor:

1980 set has to be sped up by 0.40 to match film

1993 set is the correct speed

1997 set has to be sped up by 0.325 to match film

2018 set has to be slowed down by -0.240 to match film

 

For the video above I just used the 1993 set.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

Next week we'll be listening to this cue's revised ending insert, 5m3 End Fix. See you then!

 

[Jay 42,389]

18 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

all releases of this cue play at the wrong pitch/speed

[...]

1993 set is the correct speed

[...]

For the video above I used a speed corrected copy of the 1993 set.

 

Something's not right...

[enderdrag64 1,429]

3 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

Something's not right...

Corrected, sorry about that. 

[Tallguy 5,653]

Happy Star Wars Day!

 

I never tried to put this track to film since I have to admit that I never knew where it went. For instance I never realized that there was score for Artoo and Yoda's struggle over the equipment.

 

It's interesting (to me) that this has been on every single edition of ESB though most of it was not in the film!

[Jay 42,389]

On 18/05/2025 at 4:26 PM, enderdrag64 said:

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 8 "The Training of a Jedi Knight" on the 1997 album.

 

Luke's Nocturnal Visitor.

[ThePenitentMan1 1,298]

While watching the Live-To-Projection ESB, I told my brother about the insert for this cue, but I wasn't totally sure whether they actually perform it in the LTP concert.  But, as I'm sure most of you guys already know, they do!

 

Looking forward to the write-up on it! :D

[enderdrag64 1,429]

#2.19 ESB (1980) - 5m3 End Fix (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 5m3 End Fix, the insert written to replace the ending of 5m3 Yoda's Entrance, which the filmmakers evidently didn't like. 

This insert is 6 bars long and was orchestrated by Angela Morley. 

 

Here's the tops of the sketch and orchestrated score:

Now let's listen to the insert together:

 

The first 7 seconds of this insert are an exact rerecording of 2:02-2:09 of the original 5m3 Yoda's Entrance.

 

At 0:07, rather than start a new woodwind line like in the original cue, the insert doesn't do anything for the shot change at all, instead choosing to continue the hesitant woodwinds. 

 

These bleed into some subtle swirling strings for the shot change at 0:13, accompanied with some timpani as 3PO speaks. Thus, the insert ends...

 

 

This insert was used in the final cut exactly as intended, replacing the end of 5m3 Yoda's Entrance. 

 

 

Since I don't have a recording log I'm unsure what day this insert was recorded, but based on the take numbers written in the sketch it was one of the later things recorded in mid-late January. I'm also unsure how many takes were recorded, but according to the sketch the performance edit uses take 263.

 

 

This cue has never been officially released, and can't be heard on any of the commercial albums. It's not heard in the 1983 Radio Drama either. However, as mentioned before, it is used in the film (nearly) in its entirely, so that's the source I used for the video above. 

 

The opening isn't completely clean, but it's clean enough that it sounds decent. Technically the ending seems to be faded out slightly early, the timpani line should go "high, low low low, high" twice, where in the film the second one only goes "high, low low l..."

 

You could try to fix that by splicing in the full ending from 5m3 Yoda's Entrance, but since the timing of the timpani seems to be a little different I didn't do so. Hopefully the full unedited insert will be premiered one day on a future expansion.

 

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

Next week we'll be listening to 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess. See you then!

 

[ThePenitentMan1 1,298]

Frankly, the job of this insert really could've been achieved just as effectively with simple editing.  I would've greatly preferred that JW wrote a new rendition of Luke's Rescue over this.

 

(Looking back at my prior comment and this one back to back is actually hilarious.  I wasn't even thinking about it, lol.)

[Tallguy 5,653]

It sounds so editorial I would never have missed it in a release.

[Jay 42,389]

Yes it needs to be on a future expansion for completeness sake, not because it is musically interesting.

 

And I'd prefer it in the bonus tracks and not in the main program, personally

[Tallguy 5,653]

1 minute ago, Jay said:

Yes it needs to be on a future expansion for completeness sake, not because it is musically interesting.

 

And I'd prefer it in the bonus tracks and not in the main program, personally

 

It's in the movie, it's original music, not tracked. I'd go with the main program and then have the album versions as an alt.

[ThePenitentMan1 1,298]

You know, with most scores, it's pretty clear whether the program plays better with the revised film cues in the main program like with Broughton's Lost In Space, or the original cues like with Goldsmith's Alien.

 

With Empire, though?  I feel it's split pretty solidly down the middle for all but two revisions; I have two different work playlists for it where the only difference is which versions of Imperial Probe, Luke's Rescue, Probe Scanner, and Yoda's Entrance are used in the main program.  (with Carbon Freeze and Rebel Fleet/End Title it's far more clear-cut that the revisions are superior)

 

This would make a pretty good topic for a thread, actually!

[Tallguy 5,653]

47 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

This would make a pretty good topic for a thread, actually!

 

I think it might be one.  

[enderdrag64 1,429]

#2.20 ESB (1980) - 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess (Wook link)
 

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. Apologies for the late post this week, I had an extremely busy weekend.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess.

 

This cue is 61 bars long and was orchestrated by Fred Steiner.

 

Here's the tops of the sketch and orchestrated score:

A note before listening: This is another of those cues from this score for which there exist synth elements that were written and recorded with the cue, but which ended up mixed out in some releases. Due to some remnants of the synth even in the no-synth versions, I believe that it was recorded with the orchestra, but on a separate mic; and it was likely kept as a separate stem from the LCR mix so that it could be dialed out without requiring a ground-up remix.

 

The film uses the synth as intended, but I opted to also include the no-synth version as a bonus so you can compare them.

 

With that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:

 

Synth (intended and film) version:

 

No Synth version:

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with a woodwind intro as Leia works. 

 

A brass rendition of the love theme begins at 0:15 when Han steps into the room. At 0:43 the next phrase switches to woodwinds, which continues building for a while as Han leans into a kiss, climaxing at 1:18 before Threepio interrupts and the music fades to comical staccato strings.

 

Some final strings and woodwinds at 1:25 for Leia leaving builds into a harsh rendition of the Imperial March at 1:31 with some accentuations for the asteroids as we wipe back to the Imperial fleet. 

 

The theme gets less harsh as we move inside and Vader speaks to the hologram. A quick spike in intensity at 1:51 for the end of Vader's dialogue is followed immediately by swirling strings along with the B section of the theme. 

 

Back to a harsh rendition of the A theme at 2:06 as Vader walks away. This is one of my favorite renditions of the Imperial March in the entire score, I love the orchestration and particularly the percussion for the asteroids that returns in the second half.

 

The march fades away to a single held note at 2:17 as Vader enters his private room to speak to the Emperor.

 

Some woodwinds and percussion kick in at 2:21 as Vader kneels, joined by low backing strings and an ARP synth. This synth element is missing in the no synth version. 

 

Atonal woodwinds, strings and synth continue under most of the conversation, before a final lowwwwwwww-high-lowwww brass statement at 3:06, covering the transition back to Dagobah with R2 looking in through the window in the rain. Thus, the cue ends...

 

 

The film appears to have undergone a couple minor visual changes after the scene was scored, which led to a couple minor music edits in the film. The picture edits are as follows:

• 1 second of footage was removed at 1:31. It's unclear what this footage was. Initially I might've speculated that the preceding shot of the Executor could've been shortened to help hide the foreground Star Destroyer that turns invisible - but the storyboard for this shot matches the frame count of the final film exactly. The script describes a shot immediately before the dialogue where Vader is looking out the window at the asteroids and then turns to face the holograms, but it doesn't seem like this trim was long enough to cover a shot like that. 
• The next shot change was the removal of 1 second of the Vader-Emperor conversation. It's not entirely clear where the edit was made, given half the dialogue is voiceover and no music edits were made - I ended up just looping 1 seconds worth of Vader footage around 2:31. I tried to break it up into multiple smaller loops so that it wouldn't be as obvious, hopefully that worked.

These changes led to the following music edits in the final theatrical cut: 

 

0:00-1:34 = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 0:00-1:34

1:34-end = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 1:35-end

 

This looks like one edit because I'm rounding to the second but technically there are two snips in short succession around 1:34. No music edit was made for the second visual change listed above, instead the second half of the cue is allowed to play 1 second out of sync so that the final three notes play over the scene transition rather than lead into it.

 

 

The Special Edition of the film makes further visual changes, notably completely replacing the Emperor's part of the scene with all new lines recorded by Ian McDiarmid. As a result of the extended scene, this cue was looped, resulting in the following music edits in the Special Edition:

 

SE 0:00-1:34 = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 0:00-1:34

SE 1:34-2:20 = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 1:35-2:21

SE 2:20-2:57 = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 2:22-2:59

SE 2:57-end = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 2:36-end

 

 

Thanks to the date on the orchestrated sheet we know that this cue was recorded on December 29, 1979, the third day of the recording sessions. I'm unsure how many takes were recorded, but according to the sketch the performance edit uses takes 82 and 83.

 

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1980 on RSO Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess can be heard:

From 0:00-end of track 7 "Han Solo and the Princess" on the 1980/2018 albums

From 0:00-end of disc 2 track 11 "Han Solo and the Princess" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 9 "Han Solo and the Princess" on the 1997 album.

 

All releases are complete and have the clean opening and ending, but only the 1993 release has the film mix - all the others have remixes. 

 

Additionally, most releases of this cue play at the wrong pitch/speed, although this can easily be corrected in an audio editor:

• 1980: has to be sped up by 0.650 to match film
• 1993: has to be slowed down by -0.225 to match film
• 1997  has to be slowed down by -0.100 to match film
• 2018: speed is correct

 

For the synth version I just used a speed corrected version of the 1993 set.

 

For the no synth version I replaced the Emperor conversation portion from 2:21-end with the 2023 ATMOS release. We've never really discussed the 2023 ATMOS release before because its content is identical to the 2018 release, just presented in surround sound (meaning it's remixed), so it's usually irrelevant. However for this particular cue, for whatever reason, the ATMOS release is missing the synth layer, and it provides a fascinating look at what the cue sounds like without it. Since most people probably haven't heard this variant before, I figured it was worth including as a bonus in this post. I downmixed the surround track to stereo and then spliced it into the 1993 track, hopefully the different instrument panning isn't too noticeable.

 

 

The last thing to note here is that John Williams did write a concert suite somewhat based on this cue called "Han Solo and the Princess", which curiously seems not to have been recorded at the ESB sessions, but was recorded many times later by various conductors as it was published with the ESB concert suite program. I won't discuss this suite in much detail here, as much of it is original material and I felt it would be better to cover as a bonus at the end along with the other two original theme suites. Just mentioning it here so that you know I didn't forget about it. 

 

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

Next week we'll be listening to 6m2 Yoda's Teaching. See you then!

 

[Brando 2,465]

1 hour ago, enderdrag64 said:

#2.20 ESB (1980) - 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess (Wook link)
 

  Hide contents

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. Apologies for the late post this week, I had an extremely busy weekend.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess.

 

This cue is 61 bars long and was orchestrated by Fred Steiner.

 

Here's the tops of the sketch and orchestrated score:

A note before listening: This is another of those cues from this score for which there exist synth elements that were written and recorded with the cue, but which ended up mixed out in some releases. Due to some remnants of the synth even in the no-synth versions, I believe that it was recorded with the orchestra, but on a separate mic; and it was likely kept as a separate stem from the LCR mix so that it could be dialed out without requiring a ground-up remix.

 

The film uses the synth as intended, but I opted to also include the no-synth version as a bonus so you can compare them.

 

With that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:

 

Synth (intended and film) version:

 

No Synth version:

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with a woodwind intro as Leia works. 

 

A brass rendition of the love theme begins at 0:15 when Han steps into the room. At 0:43 the next phrase switches to woodwinds, which continues building for a while as Han leans into a kiss, climaxing at 1:18 before Threepio interrupts and the music fades to comical staccato strings.

 

Some final strings and woodwinds at 1:25 for Leia leaving builds into a harsh rendition of the Imperial March at 1:31 with some accentuations for the asteroids as we wipe back to the Imperial fleet. 

 

The theme gets less harsh as we move inside and Vader speaks to the hologram. A quick spike in intensity at 1:51 for the end of Vader's dialogue is followed immediately by swirling strings along with the B section of the theme. 

 

Back to a harsh rendition of the A theme at 2:06 as Vader walks away. This is one of my favorite renditions of the Imperial March in the entire score, I love the orchestration and particularly the percussion for the asteroids that returns in the second half.

 

The march fades away to a single held note at 2:17 as Vader enters his private room to speak to the Emperor.

 

Some woodwinds and percussion kick in at 2:21 as Vader kneels, joined by low backing strings and an ARP synth. This synth element is missing in the no synth version. 

 

Atonal woodwinds, strings and synth continue under most of the conversation, before a final lowwwwwwww-high-lowwww brass statement at 3:06, covering the transition back to Dagobah with R2 looking in through the window in the rain. Thus, the cue ends...

 

 

The film appears to have undergone a couple minor visual changes after the scene was scored, which led to a couple minor music edits in the film. The picture edits are as follows:

• 1 second of footage was removed at 1:31. It's unclear what this footage was. Initially I might've speculated that the preceding shot of the Executor could've been shortened to help hide the foreground Star Destroyer that turns invisible - but the storyboard for this shot matches the frame count of the final film exactly. The script describes a shot immediately before the dialogue where Vader is looking out the window at the asteroids and then turns to face the holograms, but it doesn't seem like this trim was long enough to cover a shot like that. 
• The next shot change was the removal of 1 second of the Vader-Emperor conversation. It's not entirely clear where the edit was made, given half the dialogue is voiceover and no music edits were made - I ended up just looping 1 seconds worth of Vader footage around 2:31. I tried to break it up into multiple smaller loops so that it wouldn't be as obvious, hopefully that worked.

These changes led to the following music edits in the final theatrical cut: 

 

0:00-1:34 = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 0:00-1:34

1:34-end = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 1:35-end

 

This looks like one edit because I'm rounding to the second but technically there are two snips in short succession around 1:34. No music edit was made for the second visual change listed above, instead the second half of the cue is allowed to play 1 second out of sync so that the final three notes play over the scene transition rather than lead into it.

 

 

The Special Edition of the film makes further visual changes, notably completely replacing the Emperor's part of the scene with all new lines recorded by Ian McDiarmid. As a result of the extended scene, this cue was looped, resulting in the following music edits in the Special Edition:

 

SE 0:00-1:34 = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 0:00-1:34

SE 1:34-2:20 = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 1:35-2:21

SE 2:20-2:57 = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 2:22-2:59

SE 2:57-end = 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess 2:36-end

 

 

Thanks to the date on the orchestrated sheet we know that this cue was recorded on December 29, 1979, the third day of the recording sessions. I'm unsure how many takes were recorded, but according to the sketch the performance edit uses takes 82 and 83.

 

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1980 on RSO Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 5m4-6m1 Solo and the Princess can be heard:

From 0:00-end of track 7 "Han Solo and the Princess" on the 1980/2018 albums

From 0:00-end of disc 2 track 11 "Han Solo and the Princess" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 9 "Han Solo and the Princess" on the 1997 album.

 

All releases are complete and have the clean opening and ending, but only the 1993 release has the film mix - all the others have remixes. 

 

Additionally, most releases of this cue play at the wrong pitch/speed, although this can easily be corrected in an audio editor:

• 1980: has to be sped up by 0.650 to match film
• 1993: has to be slowed down by -0.225 to match film
• 1997  has to be slowed down by -0.100 to match film
• 2018: speed is correct

 

For the synth version I just used a speed corrected version of the 1993 set.

 

For the no synth version I replaced the Emperor conversation portion from 2:21-end with the 2023 ATMOS release. We've never really discussed the 2023 ATMOS release before because its content is identical to the 2018 release, just presented in surround sound (meaning it's remixed), so it's usually irrelevant. However for this particular cue, for whatever reason, the ATMOS release is missing the synth layer, and it provides a fascinating look at what the cue sounds like without it. Since most people probably haven't heard this variant before, I figured it was worth including as a bonus in this post. I downmixed the surround track to stereo and then spliced it into the 1993 track, hopefully the different instrument panning isn't too noticeable.

 

 

The last thing to note here is that John Williams did write a concert suite somewhat based on this cue called "Han Solo and the Princess", which curiously seems not to have been recorded at the ESB sessions, but was recorded many times later by various conductors as it was published with the ESB concert suite program. I won't discuss this suite in much detail here, as much of it is original material and I felt it would be better to cover as a bonus at the end along with the other two original theme suites. Just mentioning it here so that you know I didn't forget about it. 

 

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

Next week we'll be listening to 6m2 Yoda's Teaching. See you then!

 

The first half of this cue, to me at least, is a sibling to ‘En Bateau’ from Raiders of the Lost Ark. You get a huge crescendo of the love theme in each film before it drops away for something darker to score the Ark burning the Nazi emblem and the Executor. Such a fantastic cue🤌🤌

[ThePenitentMan1 1,298]

Gosh, that synth part is barely noticeable, in either its presence or its absence.

[Tallguy 5,653]

"This cue is 61 bars long and was orchestrated by Fred Steiner." !!!

 

Have I got it right that the no-synth version is not actually in the film or on any of the major releases? It's just a mistake on the ATMOS mix?

[enderdrag64 1,429]

52 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

"This cue is 61 bars long and was orchestrated by Fred Steiner." !!!

 

Have I got it right that the no-synth version is not actually in the film or on any of the major releases? It's just a mistake on the ATMOS mix?

Correct yeah, I debated even including it since it wasn't really meant to be heard and this particular synth isn't very noticeable anyway, but I ultimately included it because I thought it was interesting and not too many people have heard the no synth version. 

[enderdrag64 1,429]

 #2.21 ESB (1980) - 6m2 Yoda's Teaching (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue. 

 

Today we're going to be listening to 6m2 Yoda's Teaching.

 

This cue is 37 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Here's the tops of the sketch and orchestrated score:

Now let's listen to the cue together:

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with a soft, almost magic intro with the vibraphone and harp, accompanied by high pitched violin.

 

This leads into a beautiful rendition of the Force theme when Obi-Wan speaks at 0:08, which flows directly into a lower-pitched rendition of Luke's theme at 0:27, climaxing when he hits his head at 0:38.

 

Yoda's playful B theme kicks in as he starts to move at 0:45, ending when he turns and squints at Luke.

 

A powerful brass transition at 0:54, and then Yoda's A theme begins at 0:59. Each phrase plays on a different set of instruments, leading into another rendition of the Force theme at 1:27.

 

One more rendition of Luke's theme plays at 1:49, and is followed by some ascending clarinets which lead into one final held note. Thus, the cue ends...

 

 

This cue appears to have been used exactly as intended in the final cut; no visual or music edits were made after scoring. 

 

 

Since I don't have a recording log I'm unsure what day this cue was recorded, but based on the take numbers written in the sketch it was likely recorded in early-mid January. I'm also unsure how many takes were recorded, but according to the sketch the performance edit uses takes 139 and 141.

 

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1980 on RSO Records' OST album

2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 6m2 Yoda's Teaching can be heard:

From 0:00-2:07 of track 11 "The City in the Clouds" on the 1980/2018 albums

From 0:00-2:07 of disc 2 track 15 "The City in the Clouds" on the 1993 album

From 0:00-2:12 of disc 1 track 10 "Jedi Master Revealed/Mynock Cave" on the 1997 album.

 

All albums have the clean opening, but none have the clean ending. The 1993 release is the only one with the film mix, every other set is remixed.

 

Additionally, most releases of this cue play at the wrong pitch/speed, although this can easily be corrected in an audio editor:

• 1980: has to be sped up by 0.800 to match film
• 1993: has to be slowed down by -0.389 to match film
• 1997: has to be sped up by 0.460 to match film
• 2018: speed is correct

 

For the edit above I used the 1993 set for most of the cue, and for the clean ending I used the ESB radio drama - there's a clean ending for this cue at ~17:25 in episode 6.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 6m3 This Is Not A Cave. See you then!

 

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

So I assume you count the tracked bit from Revised Imperial Probe, as replacing 6m3?

[BachSkywalker 106]

I know this won't be new to anyone here, but hearing this cue isolated with the scene and JW's notes interspersed throughout is simply fantastic. In just a little over 2 minutes, there are so many masterful moments, from the mysterious, but beautiful opening,  the "Force" theme, Luke's theme, the quick little traveling music as Yoda "limps forward", to the various sync points ("Luke hits his head"). It's so subtle but brilliant. I gain more and more appreciation for this score and his skills as a master craftsman, which was already very high to begin with. 

 

--And when the cellos take over the melody at 1:15 and hold just before the resolution at 1:22, it's one of my favorite movements. 

 

Genius. 

 

Thanks for doing these!

 

[ThePenitentMan1 1,298]

8 hours ago, Meredith McKay said:

So I assume you count the tracked bit from Revised Imperial Probe, as replacing 6m3?

 

What do you mean by this?

 

My first thought when reading this was the ending of Track 1 on the OST, but in that case 6m3 replaced the Revised Imperial Probe, not the other way around.

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

13 minutes ago, ThePenitentMan1 said:

 

What do you mean by this?

 

My first thought when reading this was the ending of Track 1 on the OST, but in that case 6m3 replaced the Revised Imperial Probe, not the other way around.

The strings for the star destroyer shooting Asteroids in the 1980 version, are tracked from the clean ending of Imperial Probe insert.

[Jay 42,389]

Yeah I never noticed before how Luke's theme is moving along gracefully until Luke hits his head, then it quickly peters out.  Brilliant!

[Cameron007 83]

One of the most beautiful cues in the trilogy. Never fails.

[Brando 2,465]

18 hours ago, Meredith McKay said:

The strings for the star destroyer shooting Asteroids in the 1980 version, are tracked from the clean ending of Imperial Probe insert.

Do you have a clip of this? I remember certain bits of the Imperial March are replaced but i don’t remember how they sound exactly…

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

1 hour ago, Brando said:

Do you have a clip of this? I remember certain bits of the Imperial March are replaced but i don’t remember how they sound exactly…

 

 

[enderdrag64 1,429]

1 hour ago, Brando said:

Do you have a clip of this? I remember certain bits of the Imperial March are replaced but i don’t remember how they sound exactly…

You may not remember it because not only is it very subtle but the Special Edition undoes the tracking; only the theatrical cut has it

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

1 hour ago, enderdrag64 said:

You may not remember it because not only is it very subtle but the Special Edition undoes the tracking; only the theatrical cut has it

To be fair, Brando mentioned knowing appearances of the Imperial March were replaced, and the replacements are largely only in the theatrical cut. (Pretty much only the one in Probe Scanner is actually replaced, and not just dialed out)

[Brando 2,465]

Yeah I know that 3-4 transitions from the heroes back to the Imperial fleet have the tracked sections in the theatrical and then the Special Edition (surprisingly) undoes them. It’s hard for me to remember because it’s been a few years since I’ve watched the theatrical version.

[Holko 11,382]

Yeah, I think it mostly replaces some more interesting variations with bits of or bits closer to the concert version. Trying to make the standard setting stick better I guess.

[Tallguy 5,653]

Quote

At 0:00 the cue begins with a soft, almost magic intro with the vibraphone and harp, accompanied by high pitched violin.

 

I love that setting so much. He just had such a deft touch in this era. I think he moved away from this a bit by Jedi.

 

Quote

which flows directly into a lower-pitched rendition of Luke's theme at 0:27, climaxing when he hits his head at 0:38.

 

I'm always surprise how much he uses Luke's theme - for Luke - in this film. I get the impression he moved away from it more than he actually did. That happens more in Jedi. Maybe it's just that Luke's theme felt so much like the backbone of Star Wars that it felt like it was pushed aside by the Imperial March and Yoda's theme. But it wasn't.

 

Heh. The insert at the end with the Star Destroyer. I'm not sure I care. My knee jerk reaction would be go with the original. But I blush to admit that I may not have ever noticed.

 

I don't like most of the restorations. I get that the edits in 1980 may have been clunkier than we like, but I think that almost every time they hit the emotional sweet spot of the scene better than what JW originally wrote / recorded.

 

Oh, and what an amazing mish mash City in the Clouds is! This is the kind of sequencing magic I have never been able to reproduce for a theoretical 2 LP Return of the Jedi. 

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

54 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

I love that setting so much. He just had such a deft touch in this era. I think he moved away from this a bit by Jedi.

 

 

 

The Levitation.

[enderdrag64 1,429]

#2.22 ESB (1980) - 6m3 This Is Not A Cave (Wook link)

Spoiler

Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.

 

Today we're going to be listening to 6m3 This Is Not A Cave. I'm really excited to talk about this one, this might be the most publicly documented cue in the entire saga. 

 

The BBC aired a documentary in Britain in May 1980 called "Star Wars: Music by John Williams". This documentary dedicates a large portion of its runtime to showing off behind the scenes footage of this cue in particular at various stages of the scoring process. Some of this footage was also later reused in other documentaries and bonus features. 

 

I acquired all of the behind the scenes footage of this cue that I could find, in the highest quality that I could find it, and have reordered the footage to match the actual order of the scoring process. Additionally, I did my best to remove the narration voice where possible, sometimes this was done by switching to a different documentary source that didn't have the narration, and sometimes this was done using AI. In a handful of cases, no narration-less audio existed and AI isolation wasn't possible due to overlapping voices or poor quality artifacting in the case of the orchestra sessions footage. In these cases I left the original narration intact.

 

This cue is 95 bars long, and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.

 

Here's what the tops of the sketch and orchestrated score look like:

Now let's listen to the cue together:

 

At 0:00 the cue begins with a short rendition of the Imperial March as we witness a Star Destroyer shooting asteroids and some TIE Bombers dropping ion bombs on the big asteroid that the Falcon is in. 

 

Then at 0:14, some soft pensive strings for Leia sitting in the cockpit alone. Mysterious woodwinds at 0:27 for the brief creature sighting, followed by extended piccolo at 0:38 for the longer sighting, which leads into some pulsing action fanfare as Leia runs to get Han.

 

The fanfare fizzles out around 0:57 as everyone runs out of the ship. More mysterious strings and woodwinds as they walk around outside the Falcon, until the big piccolo comes back at 1:38 for another sighting where Han shoots it. 

 

More mysterious music as Han walks up to it, and then some extended piccolo and brass for the massive Mynock sighting at 1:57. 

 

The pulsing action fanfare returns at 2:20 once the cave starts shaking after Han shoots it. This continues as the heroes run back into the ship and towards the cockpit.

 

A brass line for the POV shot at 2:58, which builds as the Falcon takes off, climaxing as it flies through the teeth, leading into an extended brass section at 3:10 as the space slug rises up out of its hole and tries to bite the Falcon. This builds into an ascending brass fanfare as the Falcon flies off. Thus, the cue ends... 

 

 

This cue went partially unused in the final cut. There appear to have been no picture edits made to the scene, however the filmmakers evidently didn't like the first half of this cue because they dropped it from the film.

 

The following changes were made in the final cut:

0:00-0:05 = 1m2 New Start 0:55-end

0:05-1:05 = silence

1:05-end = 6m3 This Is Not A Cave

 

The Special Edition is mostly the same, however it removes the tracked bit of 1m2 New Start from the beginning, instead replacing the entirety of 0:00-1:05 with silence.

 

 

The BBC documentary I mentioned earlier showed off footage of several stages of the scoring process.

 

In our first behind the scenes clip, John Williams reviews the rough cut on a Moviola with music editor Ken Wannberg, and consults the detailed timing notes, in order to decide at what points to place sync notes. This is different from the earlier spotting session, where he would've watched the rough cut with the director and producers in order to get a general sense of what scenes required music and what emotions they should convey. Instead, this viewing is much more technical, focused entirely on sync points and timing.

 

Apologies, the first half has some narration that I couldn't get rid of because it overlaps with some of their discussion. It doesn't cover anything terribly important, they're mostly just discussing timestamps and where to pause.

 

 

 

After the timing notes were taken, Williams went back to his studio and actually began sketching out the cue on a sketchpad, using his piano for reference. 

In our second behind the scenes clip, we get to watch him write out the bottom of page 5 and the start of page 6 of the sketch. The original documentary had narration over this entire clip but thankfully I was able to remove it all with AI.

 

 

It's extremely cool to see him write out page 6 at 0:12, and be able to compare it to the actual scan:

The notes he plays on piano correspond to the brass line at 2:49, though Williams plays it on the piano at a much faster tempo.

 

 

After writing out the sketch, Williams went back to Ken Wannberg to double check the timing against the picture. Once again unfortunately the first half of this clip has narration that I couldn't get rid of because it overlaps with their discussion, although the second half I was able to get clean by using another footage source:

 

 

While Williams continued working on the sketch, it seems that Herbert Spencer was hard at work in a different room orchestrating a different cue (6m5-7m1 The Magic Tree), which we'll talk more about in a couple weeks. While Spencer is orchestrating, you can hear Williams in the background continuing to come up with parts of 6m3 This Is Not A Cave using his piano. This clip is interesting because it seems to imply that Herbert Spencer and John Williams worked out of the same studio. I'm curious if any of the other orchestrators ever worked there or if they worked independently. Unfortunately this clip has some more unremovable narration in the second half but I was able to get rid of the narration over the first half, which is the part with the Williams piano playing:

 

 

After the sketch was finally complete, John Williams had a meeting with orchestrator Herbert Spencer to outline his ideas for the orchestration, and to clarify any points that might not have been obvious from the sketch. This clip I was able to find another source of without any narration, and I'm extremely glad I was because it provides a fascinating look at what these orchestrator meetings looked like. I'm curious if he had one on one meetings like this with all the orchestrators, or if Herbert Spencer as the lead relayed the information to the others. This clip also gives us more footage of John Williams demoing the cue on piano:

 

 

Finally, the orchestrated cue was ready for recording at Anvil Studios, where it was recorded in mid-January, 1980. I'm unsure exactly what date it was recorded unfortunately. I'm also unsure how many takes were recorded, but according to the sketch the performance edit uses takes 156, 157, 158, 161, 162, and 163. 

 

The BBC documentary shows 5 minutes of footage of Williams adjusting parts of the orchestra as well as the start of the recording of take 157. I was able to remove some of the narration here but not all of it, in particular there was one section of narration over some conversation that I didn't want to get rid of, and the narration over the orchestra playing couldn't be removed without severe artifacts. Fortunately, most of the footage of Williams talking to the orchestra is narration-free:

 

Other things you can see in this clip; the special black and white print with the streamers and punches - those are the moving white lines and flashing circles that indicate sync marks to the conductor. You can see how Williams refines every section of the orchestra at specific bars where necessary, and how new takes are made once the podium changes are approved. You can see how Williams asks Lionel Newman for his opinion constantly, and you can see Eric Tomlinson at the mixing table, as well as several people in attendance including George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, and Ken Wannberg. Additionally, this footage mostly shows off the first half of the cue which was dropped from the final film.

 

 

This cue has been officially released on four different albums:

1) In 1980 on RSO Records' OST album

3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set

4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)

 

More specifically, 6m3 This Is Not A Cave can be heard:

From 3:30-end of track 1 "Star Wars (Main Theme)" on the 1980/2018 albums

From 2:11-end of disc 1 track 10 "Jedi Master Revealed/Mynock Cave" on the 1997 album.

 

All albums have the clean ending, but none have the clean opening. The 1997 release is the only one with the film mix, every other set is remixed.

 

The 1980 and 2018 releases are both severely cutdown:

As you can see, the sections from 0:00-1:04, 1:50-1:58, and 3:12-3:15 were excised from the 1980 and 2018 sets, being first premiered in 1997. This is despite the BBC sessions footage mostly demonstrating the first third of the cue, which makes it the first of what will become a long tradition of Star Wars music documentaries showing sessions footage of otherwise unreleased music.


Additionally, most releases of this cue play at the wrong pitch/speed, although this can easily be corrected in an audio editor:

1980: has to be slowed down by -0.300 to match film

1997: has to be sped up by 0.490 to match film

2018: has to be slowed down by -0.900 to match film

 

For the edit above I used a speed corrected 1997 set, and I used an AI tool to isolate the clean opening - I think this came out almost perfectly, I don't hear any artifacts at all, it sounds just like the natural clean opening heard in the documentary. I didn't use the documentary as a source for this because it's both the wrong take and also the documentary sources all have relatively poor quality audio.

 

Speaking of which, for the documentary clips I used the following sources:

 - the JW Rinzler Making of Empire Strikes Back ebook which had a couple minutes of excerpts in the high quality without any narration

 - 16mm scan excerpts from the documentary posted directly to the BBC website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Farchive%2Fjohn_williams_star_wars%2Fzfxvnrd

- a VHS bootleg recording for any clips that couldn't be sourced from the two sources above.

One other note on these sources: both the BBC site video and the VHS bootleg were PAL conformed and were obviously the wrong speed, I used ffmpeg to correct the PAL speedup by converting them from 25fps to 23.976fps and adjusting the sample rate to undo the speed and pitch change.

 

I did also consult other sources with footage, like the Michel Parbot Making of documentary, but that just reuses clips from the BBC doc in poorer quality. It does have some of the music recording without narration, but the audio sounds so bad that I didn't use it.

 

That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.

 

Next week we'll be listening to 6m4 Training a Jedi, the only completely unused cue in this score (not counting inserts). See you then!

 

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

So MVsep multispeaker didn't work?

[enderdrag64 1,429]

15 minutes ago, Meredith McKay said:

So MVsep multispeaker didn't work?

The results aren't great no, here's a sample of the results for BTS 4:

20250618013443-3f5d92d52c-6m3-this-is-not-a-cave-bts-5-herbert-spencer-orchestrating._medley_vox_mt_1_vocals2_[mvsep.com].flac
 

 

There's both a lot of residue of the narration, and enough of the background voices are removed that it's hard to comprehend anything that they're saying.
Maybe a future iteration of the model might work; perhaps I'll revisit these in a couple years assuming no better sources are made available

 

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

8 minutes ago, enderdrag64 said:

The results aren't great no, here's a sample of the results for BTS 4:

20250618013443-3f5d92d52c-6m3-this-is-not-a-cave-bts-5-herbert-spencer-orchestrating._medley_vox_mt_1_vocals2_[mvsep.com].flac 3.32 MB · 1 download
 

 

There's both a lot of residue of the narration, and enough of the background voices are removed that it's hard to comprehend anything that they're saying.
Maybe a future iteration of the model might work; perhaps I'll revisit these in a couple years assuming no better sources are made available

 

Did you try Male/Female, MultiSinger, or one of the newer Karaoke models? Sometimes those will get results.

[enderdrag64 1,429]

That was multisinger, I hadn't tried the others.

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

Okay, I actually got MultiSpeaker and Medley Vox mixed up lol

[ThePenitentMan1 1,298]

Man that recording sessions footage is amazing!  I'd love to hear more of this sort of stuff on Super Deluxe versions of the Star Wars scores, like Mike did for Sound of Music and Star Trek TMP!