Battle of the Later Indys

[Tom 6,988]

Both have elements of greatness. Which one does more for you? 

 

 

 

[Jay 46,839]

Just to be clear, you want us to vote in the poll based only on these two particular cue suites, not their entire scores?

[Tom 6,988]

Yes, just these cues.  Seems like the most original action selection from DOD.  

[Jay 46,839]

OK.  I like the Battle of Syracuse just fine but The Jungle Chase is an all-timer!

[BB-8 6,439]

Not sure we can meaningfully compare two battles separated by around 2230 years...

[Marian Schedenig 11,892]

2 hours ago, BB-8 said:

two battles separated by around 2230 years...

 

And take back 15 years, to honour the times when they were filmed.

[BB-8 6,439]

[crumbs 16,101]

Slightly odd comparison.

 

Wouldn't it be more apt to compare the complete Jungle Chase with the complete Tuk Tuk chase, and the Syracuse climax with Spalko's Gift?

 

Personally I love that all 5 films have unique musical climaxes anyway. Miracle of the Ark sounds nothing like Broken Bridge sounds nothing like Right Choice/Wrong Choice sounds nothing like Spalko's Gift sounds nothing like Centuries Join Hands.

[Tom 6,988]

 

43 minutes ago, crumbs said:

Slightly odd comparison.

 

Wouldn't it be more apt to compare the complete Jungle Chase with the complete Tuk Tuk chase, and the Syracuse climax with Spalko's Gift?

 

The Tuk Tuk chase feels like half original Williams and half Ross filling in the gaps.  Syracuse Battle sounds like fresh Williams, at least to me. But, yes, I see your point given the lack of direct symmetry.  

[Richard P 5,339]

Tuk Tuk Chase was the point where, on listening to DoD for the first time, I really felt that JW was falling back on his typical devices and not really delivering anything very new. I have to say I remain elusive as to what's so great about the Syracuse battle, but similarly I'll never be illuminated as to why Desert Chase is a masterpiece either, whereas I'm the first in line to sing the praises of anything from TLC.

 

For a direct comparison, it's KotCS AINEC. The Jungle Chase has so much fun, original material and I love its latter section.

[Parker Luciani 10,343]

35 minutes ago, Richard P said:

I'll never be illuminated as to why Desert Chase is a masterpiece either, 

Escalating tension. And then release.

[Escape_Velocity 109]

I love both scores, but Crystal Skull takes it for me. Irina’s Theme, the Adventures of Mutt, the motifs for the Russians, the Crystal Spell, A Whirl Through Acadme, Ants, the Jungle Chase, and a lot of the Nevada score not on the OST. Actually, a lot of the great little actions cues like “the waterfall” and “stepping stones” got left off the OST.

 

overall, the score actually benefits from the bizzare fusion of 40s adventure serial and 50s sci-fi genres. You get some class action music, Korngoldian swashbuckling, humorous music, but also some excellent eerie atonal an dissonant material, plus great cultural music for South America and the Russians. I could also praise Dial of Destiny like this, but Crystal Skull is the underrated gem to me.

[Yavar Moradi 4,471]

They're both very underrated scores (though despite that status, I do agree with the majority that they aren't quite on the level of the first three).

 

I would point out that, though there was a sessions leak for Crystal Skull, there wasn't for Dial of Destiny (only an iso score, right?) ...so I do think Crystal Skull has an advantage there, and I'd really one day love to have a complete release of Dial of Destiny, complete as originally composed and recorded, to more fairly assess it.

Yavar

[Xander Harris 9,808]

Anyone else kind of hate the way the brass sounds in Crystal Skull?

[gbatfatf 110]

The BFG and The Last Jedi are about the only good sounding recordings of Williams' music since like 2003.

[Jesse 323]

2 hours ago, Xander Harris said:

Anyone else kind of hate the way the brass sounds in Crystal Skull?

Weird, I heard this several times before now, but I have no problem with it. I don’t like the way the brass sounds in "The Force Awakens" though.

And I don’t like the recording of DoD very much either. It sounds kind of overproduced and as if it was recorded in too small a room. I wish more of Williams’s film scores would be recorded in concert halls like Lincoln or Schindler’s List, those sound great.

[Datameister 2,589]

9 hours ago, Xander Harris said:

Anyone else kind of hate the way the brass sounds in Crystal Skull?

 

Mainly the trumpets, yeah. I mean, "hate" is a strong word; for me, it's more that they pale in comparison to the trumpets in TOD and especially Raiders, and there are a few passages where they become a bit annoying. But all of JW's Sony recordings since that time period have sounded that way, to some degree. I can't shake the suspicion that something changed with the acoustics of that stage. Maybe it's that, plus different gear, plus different mic setups, plus aging personnel, plus changes in JW's writing style, plus...? I dunno.

[Parker Luciani 10,343]

 

4 minutes ago, Datameister said:

 

Mainly the trumpets, yeah. I mean, "hate" is a strong word; for me, it's more that they pale in comparison to the trumpets in TOD and especially Raiders, and there are a few passages where they become a bit annoying. But all of JW's Sony recordings since that time period have sounded that way, to some degree. I can't shake the suspicion that something changed with the acoustics of that stage. Maybe it's that, plus different gear, plus different mic setups, plus aging personnel, plus changes in JW's writing style, plus...? I dunno.

You can kind of hear it in the Potter 1 trailer too...

 

For me it's the snares, they sound like trash cans.

[artguy360 2,282]

11 hours ago, Sophie said:

The BFG and The Last Jedi are about the only good sounding recordings of Williams' music since like 2003.

What's wrong with the recordings for Lincoln and War Horse, for example? Those sound fantastic to my ears.

[gbatfatf 110]

22 minutes ago, artguy360 said:

What's wrong with the recordings for Lincoln and War Horse, for example? Those sound fantastic to my ears.

Multi-miked and mastered too loud. About par for the course for orchestral recordings these days.

[Holko 12,111]

3 hours ago, Datameister said:

 

Mainly the trumpets, yeah. I mean, "hate" is a strong word; for me, it's more that they pale in comparison to the trumpets in TOD and especially Raiders, and there are a few passages where they become a bit annoying. But all of JW's Sony recordings since that time period have sounded that way, to some degree. I can't shake the suspicion that something changed with the acoustics of that stage. Maybe it's that, plus different gear, plus different mic setups, plus aging personnel, plus changes in JW's writing style, plus...? I dunno.

They're particularly bad in KOCS and TFA but it's already creeping in in The Patriot here and there. And on my last listen I even noticed it in Spiderman 2.

[gbatfatf 110]

The 80s and 90s were the golden era of soundtrack sound. Azkaban was the last JW score I remember really liking the audio quality.

[crumbs 16,101]

The brass sounds magnificent in TLJ though, so it must have more to do with the recording setup than the stage.

 

And Shawn Murphy recorded all of them, so it's a bit odd.

[Datameister 2,589]

7 hours ago, Sophie said:

The 80s and 90s were the golden era of soundtrack sound. Azkaban was the last JW score I remember really liking the audio quality.

 

I'm dazzled by all JW's London recordings from around the new millennium. ROTS suffers somewhat from the percussion being recorded separately with close mics, but otherwise it still sounds spectacular. A dozen years later, Galaxy's Edge gave us another taste. Glorious.

 

1 hour ago, crumbs said:

The brass sounds magnificent in TLJ though, so it must have more to do with the recording setup than the stage.

 

And Shawn Murphy recorded all of them, so it's a bit odd.

 

For TLJ, I think the rough edges are somewhat smoothed by reverb; they went with a wetter sound for that one. But I still hear that unflattering sound in the trumpets—just not as much as in a score like KOTCS.

[Muad'Dib 2,095]

On 07/05/2026 at 12:36 PM, Xander Harris said:

Anyone else kind of hate the way the brass sounds in Crystal Skull?

 

Yes, particularly when the trumpets have to reach a very high register I don't know why but they sound... unpolished? It's strange because these are absolute pro's and yet the recording makes it sound like they struggling to reach that high register.

[Datameister 2,589]

3 hours ago, Muad'Dib said:

 

Yes, particularly when the trumpets have to reach a very high register I don't know why but they sound... unpolished? It's strange because these are absolute pro's and yet the recording makes it sound like they struggling to reach that high register.

 

The worst moments are when the trumpets have (non-staccato) octave doublings. I'm not super fond of that sound even in my favorite recordings, but it's way worse in recordings like KOTCS.

[phbart 715]

Hmm... Raiders was the first Indy, so Temple of Doom and Last Crusade are latter Indys.

 

So my vote is for Temple of Doom.

[Mr. Hooper 9,434]

16 minutes ago, phbart said:

Hmm... Raiders was the first Indy, so Temple of Doom and Last Crusade are latter Indys.

 

So my vote is for Temple of Doom.

[mrbellamy 8,271]

18 hours ago, Datameister said:

Mainly the trumpets, yeah. I mean, "hate" is a strong word; for me, it's more that they pale in comparison to the trumpets in TOD and especially Raiders, and there are a few passages where they become a bit annoying. But all of JW's Sony recordings since that time period have sounded that way, to some degree. I can't shake the suspicion that something changed with the acoustics of that stage. Maybe it's that, plus different gear, plus different mic setups, plus aging personnel, plus changes in JW's writing style, plus...? I dunno.

 

I'm not someone who really knows much about recording, orchestration, or performance technique but it's something I've picked up on too. At least as somebody who played trumpet a decade in school, this was the kind of sound that made me wanna be a trumpet player, it has this lovely ringing, brilliance. 

 

 

Compared to this similar rising gesture, which falls flatter to my ears. 

 

[Tom 6,988]

5 hours ago, phbart said:

Hmm... Raiders was the first Indy, so Temple of Doom and Last Crusade are latter Indys.

 

So my vote is for Temple of Doom.

 

4 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

 

[Xander Harris 9,808]

5 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

 

I'm not someone who really knows much about recording, orchestration, or performance technique but it's something I've picked up on too. At least as somebody who played trumpet a decade in school, this was the kind of sound that made me wanna be a trumpet player, it has this lovely ringing, brilliance. 

 

 

Compared to this similar rising gesture, which falls flatter to my ears. 

 

The difference is pretty striking. The New Brass sounds tinny and out of tune, particularly in Skull.

[Jesse 323]

14 hours ago, Datameister said:

The worst moments are when the trumpets have (non-staccato) octave doublings. I'm not super fond of that sound even in my favorite recordings, but it's way worse in recordings like KOTCS.

So im not alone in this. I agree on the trumpets in octaves. I think its the worst in TFA though. 

An example of trumpets in octaves from TFA at 0:26: 

 

 

[Datameister 2,589]

19 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

At least as somebody who played trumpet a decade in school, this was the kind of sound that made me wanna be a trumpet player, it has this lovely ringing, brilliance. 

 

"Lovely ringing brilliance" is a wonderful description of the trumpet sound I like, yeah. You can find it in a lot of JW's older LA recordings (E.T., Jurassic Park, etc.) but not so much in the last 20 years.

 

4 hours ago, Jesse said:

So im not alone in this. I agree on the trumpets in octaves. I think its the worst in TFA though. 

An example of trumpets in octaves from TFA at 0:26: 

 

Yep, great example of what I'm talking about with octaves. It also illustrates how writing style can be a factor—JW would have been way less likely to write that passage in the 80s or 90s.

[phbart 715]

On 08/05/2026 at 5:08 PM, Mr. Hooper said:

 

[Parker Luciani 10,343]

On 09/05/2026 at 6:21 AM, Jesse said:

So im not alone in this. I agree on the trumpets in octaves. I think its the worst in TFA though. 

An example of trumpets in octaves from TFA at 0:26: 

 

 

Heh, made me think of this moment:

 

 

 

0:26

On 08/05/2026 at 9:14 AM, Datameister said:

 

Galaxy's Edge gave us another taste. Glorious.

You could also throw in Powell's recording of the End Title at AIR too.

[Datameister 2,589]

2 hours ago, Rachael Foley said:

You could also throw in Powell's recording of the End Title at AIR too.

 

100%. And the quotes in Reminiscence Therapy, for that matter.