# E.T. Flying theme mockup - "Project colossal" template by Rico Derks



## EricValette (Aug 27, 2021)

Hi,

Here's a mockup of the "Flying theme" originally composed by John Williams for the famous movie E.T. The extra-terrestrial.

VST instruments used:
- Cinematic Studio Strings
- Cinematic Studio Solo Strings
- Cinematic Studio Brass
- Cinematic Studio Woodwinds
- Cinematic Studio Piano
- Spitfire Audio Abbey Road One Foundations (Percussions)
- Spitfire Audio BBCSO (harp, triangle, timpani rolls)
- Spitfire Audio Albion One (high strings legato only)
- Cinesamples CineHarps (layered with BBCSO's harp)
- Cinesamples CineBrass Core & Pro (layered with CSB)
- Orchestral Tools Junkie XL Brass (layered with CSB/CineBrass on the loudest parts of the piece) & BSS
- Strezov Afflatus Strings
- Cinesamples Randy's Celeste (celesta)
- ProjectSam TrueStrike (chimes)

Mockup created on the basis of a balanced and pre-mixed orchestral template for Cubase Pro by VI-C member @ricoderks , "Project Colossal": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsxGzHQy4oVs98BePKp28fA

I wish you a good listening!


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## Circe (Aug 27, 2021)

Simply..... Incredible, I cant find differences betwen them !!


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## EricValette (Aug 27, 2021)

Circe said:


> Simply..... Incredible, I cant find differences betwen them !!


Thanks a lot, glad you liked it!


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## musicalweather (Aug 27, 2021)

Fantastic sounding mockup. I'm envious! I immediately looked into Project Colossal. Would like to read more about it, but there doesn't seem to be much written information about it without subscribing to a newsletter. Guess I'll need to watch the videos.


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## emilio_n (Aug 27, 2021)

Best Mockup ever... Congrats!


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## Zedcars (Aug 27, 2021)

Really nice work there. Sounds wonderful.

Please may I ask how long this took to put together. I’m currently working on a Superman March mock-up and it’s taking me a very long time. For example, I spent 6 hours just doing the trombones. I feel like that’s too long, so was wondering how fast other people worked.


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## Illico (Aug 28, 2021)

Zedcars said:


> ...
> Please may I ask how long this took to put together. ... I feel like that’s too long, so was wondering how fast other people worked.


I spent about *40 hours* (over 3 weeks during spare time) starting from scratch, with the scores only.
This included multiple steps:
* Preparing the template and creating the instrument tracks (one instance of Kontakt per instrument)
* Creating the associated MIDI tracks for divisi.
* Creating the group tracks, premix bus, mix bus and master bus
* Setting the gain staging.
* Create a tempo track
* MIDI editing of each section (the longer step).
* Mixing and mastering (the shortest step, but probably the worst).

This was my first mockup with CSS instruments, so it tooks times to take in hands.
I would say *between 20h and 30h* is a standard value for me, for a *3mn mockup* (_I used the 4U ProjectTime plugin_).


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## Illico (Aug 28, 2021)

Nice job Eric! It's interesting to hear subtle differences between the midi mockups. Did you use a reference audio track for mixing or tempo?


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## OleJoergensen (Aug 28, 2021)

Amazing work! Sounds very good and lively. 
Thank you for sharing.


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## EricValette (Aug 28, 2021)

musicalweather said:


> Fantastic sounding mockup. I'm envious! I immediately looked into Project Colossal. Would like to read more about it, but there doesn't seem to be much written information about it without subscribing to a newsletter. Guess I'll need to watch the videos.


Thanks a lot!  

Don't hesitate to request @ricoderks directly here on VI-C or write to: [email protected] for more information on this fabulous template


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## EricValette (Aug 28, 2021)

OleJoergensen said:


> Amazing work! Sounds very good and lively.
> Thank you for sharing.


Thanks a lot, glad you liked it!


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## EricValette (Aug 28, 2021)

emilio_n said:


> Best Mockup ever... Congrats!


Many many thanks Emilio, glad you liked it!  

I'll tell that to Blakus...


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## kabinboy (Aug 28, 2021)

Fantastic mockup! Thanks for sharing this. I learned a lot from listening to it 

Sorry if someone has already asked this question, but where did you obtain the score? I would like to try creating a mockup of my own. Thanks.


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## EricValette (Aug 28, 2021)

kabinboy said:


> Fantastic mockup! Thanks for sharing this. I learned a lot from listening to it
> 
> Sorry if someone has already asked this question, but where did you obtain the score? I would like to try creating a mockup of my own. Thanks.


Thanks a lot, glad you liked it!  

You can find the score at the publisher "Hal Leonard", collection "John Williams Signature": https://www.halleonard.com/product/4490420/flying-theme-from-iet-the-extra-terrestriali?subsiteid=1

I wish you a lot of fun!


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## EricValette (Aug 29, 2021)

Zedcars said:


> Really nice work there. Sounds wonderful.
> 
> Please may I ask how long this took to put together. I’m currently working on a Superman March mock-up and it’s taking me a very long time. For example, I spent 6 hours just doing the trombones. I feel like that’s too long, so was wondering how fast other people worked.


For this mockup, around 35 hours. This time includes the entry of notes one by one with the mouse in the piano roll of Cubase from the score.

I see very well what you mean, with my previous template, mainly OT / Spitfire, I could spend a lot of time just making a section sound correctly, most of the time for balance issues (special mention to the 4 solo horns of Berlin Brass who do not react at all the same with exactly the same CC values). @ricoderks template is fantastic on this point, because besides the mixing part is reduced to the extreme (if we like the default sound of the template, which is my case), everything is easy and copy/paste between instruments and sections actually work perfectly, it's just magic. 
Consistency is already one of the strong points of the CSS series, but Rico has really taken the logic and refinement to the extreme and the EQ settings applied to the instruments are from another world. Best investment of the year 2021 for me 

Good luck for your Superman mockup, can't wait to hear the final result, it's a very difficult one!


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## Gerald (Aug 30, 2021)

Super job Eric, c'est un travail de bénédictin que tu nous propose là, il faut tout de même beaucoup de talent pour parvenir à ce résultat, bravo !


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## EricValette (Aug 30, 2021)

Illico said:


> Nice job Eric! It's interesting to hear subtle differences between the midi mockups. Did you use a reference audio track for mixing or tempo?


Merci beaucoup Samuel ! 

A vrai dire oui, j'ai utilisé une piste de référence ainsi que les indications de la partition, mais uniquement pour approcher de façon relativement sommaire l'acoustique générale du morceau original (ici enregistré au studio MGM Scoring Stage) ainsi que l'esprit global du mix (principalement la position des instruments dans l'espace) et à vrai dire c'est bien tout, pour le reste j'ai pris quelques libertés !

Pendant longtemps, j'essayai comme beaucoup de créer des mockups qui approchaient le plus fidèlement possible le rendu original du morceau de référence, à tenter de restituer chaque note/accord/articulation/nuance le plus fidèlement possible mais cela s'avère finalement une quête sans fin terriblement chronophage et qu'il convient à chaque nouveau morceau de renouveler presque entièrement... 

Je me suis finalement éloigné de tout ça et je me considère désormais davantage comme "un chef d'orchestre virtuel" libre de réaliser sa propre restitution de l'oeuvre, dans une accoustique certe un peu "fake" au regard des outils que nous utilisons mais qui est finalement la mienne et que finalement je maîtrise (un peu comme si j'avais un orchestre invité dans ma propre salle d'enregistrement), le tout vu comme une performance unique en somme ... bref, beaucoup moins de pression dans la réalisation et surtout tout autant voire même davantage de plaisir à créer au bout du compte 

-----------------

Thank you very much Samuel! 

To tell the truth yes, I used a reference track as well as the indications of the score, but only to approach in a relatively summary way the general acoustics of the original piece (here recorded at the MGM Scoring Stage studio) as well as the spirit overall mix (mainly the position of the instruments in space) and frankly that's all, for the rest I took some liberties!

For a long time, I tried like many to create mockups that approached as closely as possible the original rendering of the reference piece, to try to restore each note / chord / articulation / nuance as faithfully as possible but it turns out to be a quest. endlessly terribly time-consuming and that it is necessary for each new piece to renew almost entirely...

I finally moved away from all that and I now consider myself more as "a virtual conductor" free to carry out his own restitution of the work, in an acoustics that is certainly a little "fake" with regard to the tools that we use but which is ultimately mine and which I finally master (a bit as if I had a guest orchestra in my own recording room), all seen as a unique performance... in short, much less pressure in the realization and especially just as much or even more pleasure to create at the end of the day


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## EricValette (Aug 30, 2021)

Gerald said:


> Super job Eric, c'est un travail de bénédictin que tu nous propose là, il faut tout de même beaucoup de talent pour parvenir à ce résultat, bravo !


Merci beaucoup Gerald, tes mots me touchent énormément !  

... et je ne vois encore que les défauts ou ce que j'aurais encore améliorer ou peaufiner davantage, la nuance qui aurait pu être mieux marquée, la note pas assez ou trop accentuée, le côté encore parfois un peu trop synthétique de certains passages, etc. ... mais tu as raison sur le fond, tout ça c'est un travail de bénédictin sur le long terme et j'espère bien, à force de temps, de patience, de travail et de pratique, pouvoir arriver un jour au niveau de réalisation de tes propres oeuvres qui demeurent toujours et encore des références absolues pour moi.


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## DGravel (Aug 30, 2021)

Fantastique! Orchestration, mixing, mastering... Quel talent. Wow!


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## EricValette (Aug 30, 2021)

DGravel said:


> Fantastique! Orchestration, mixing, mastering... Quel talent. Wow!


Merci beaucoup ! 🙂


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## ricoderks (Aug 31, 2021)

Again really impressive work! Thank you so much for your kind words. I'm really grateful and glad you're so happy with the template. Cant wait to hear more!

Rico


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## Stephen Limbaugh (Aug 31, 2021)

Should the beginnings of the string notes transition more smoothly? Each note entrance has a pretty audible dip in volume which doesn’t sound natural.


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## Ivan M. (Sep 1, 2021)

Can you share the midi file? Please?


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## EricValette (Sep 4, 2021)

Ivan M. said:


> Can you share the midi file? Please?


Hi Ivan,

Unfortunately not here, but if you are interested in the "Project Colossal" template made by VI-C member @ricoderks and you're a Cubase user, the complete file of this mockup is fully available through the dedicated private facebook group of the product.

Have a great day!


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## Steve Martin (Sep 4, 2021)

EricValette said:


> Hi,
> 
> Here's a mockup of the "Flying theme" originally composed by John Williams for the famous movie E.T. The extra-terrestrial.
> 
> ...



Hi EricValette,

sounds great! Thanks for sharing.


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## Kery Michael (Sep 4, 2021)

Loved it! Nice job.

Those final chords at the end sounded great.


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## EricValette (Sep 5, 2021)

Steve Martin said:


> Hi EricValette,
> 
> sounds great! Thanks for sharing.


Hi Steve,

Thanks a lot, glad you liked it!


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## EricValette (Sep 5, 2021)

Kery Michael said:


> Loved it! Nice job.
> 
> Those final chords at the end sounded great.


Thanks a lot Michael!


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## jules (Sep 5, 2021)

Superbe !


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## EricValette (Sep 5, 2021)

jules said:


> Superbe !


Merci beaucoup Julien !


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## dksellou (Jun 6, 2022)

EricValette said:


> Hi,
> 
> Here's a mockup of the "Flying theme" originally composed by John Williams for the famous movie E.T. The extra-terrestrial.
> 
> ...



Is this template only for Cubase? If yes, this is really incredible....


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