# Mockup of Hans Zimmer's - 'Matera' (from James Bond - No Time to Die soundrack)



## muk (Oct 16, 2021)

Hi everyone,

Hope you have all seen the new James Bond 'No Time to Die'. It has a strong soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Especially the gorgeous writing for strings resonated strongly with me. It inspired me to transcribe and create a mockup of the track 'Matera':

View attachment Matera - Hans Zimmer - No Time do Die mockup.mp3


Working on the mockup I wished I owned Hans Zimmer Strings. They would have been perfect for this. I couldn't recreate the seating positions of the string sections without them. Everything else is as faithful a recreation as I could make.

Would love to know what you guys think!

Original track:


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## quickbrownf0x (Oct 16, 2021)

muk said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> Hope you have all seen the new James Bond 'No Time to Die'. It has a strong soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. Especially the gorgeous writing for strings resonated strongly with me. It inspired me to create a mockup of the track 'Matera'.
> 
> ...


Dude, this is very nice.  I don't recognize the libraries - what'd you use?


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## muk (Oct 16, 2021)

quickbrownf0x said:


> Dude, this is very nice.  I don't recognize the libraries - what'd you use?



Thanks. No surprise the libraries are not recognizeable - I used a wild mix of different libraries.

Woodwinds: The bass flute is Cinematic Studio Woodwinds. By the way, I am pretty sure that it is an alto flute in the recording. I didn't have an alto flute that could provide the beautiful airy quality of the recording. So I chose the CSW bass flute which came closest. 

Brass: Horn, trombones, and tuba are Spitfire BBCSO.

Percussion: Timpani, Gran Cassa, and cymbals are True Strike 1.

Strings: a mixture of Cinematic Studio Strings and Light & Sound Chamber Strings, with a bit of Spitfire Chamber Strings and Spitfire BBCSO mixed in (mainly for the room ambiance). I think that's all.


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## Markrs (Oct 16, 2021)

This is a top quality mock-up especially by ear!


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## muk (Oct 17, 2021)

Markrs said:


> This is a top quality mock-up especially by ear!


Thank you Mark! Yes, all done by ear. I don't think that the score has been published. I had to transcribe it myself by ear.


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## Michael Antrum (Oct 17, 2021)

Muk,

You have captured the essence of this music perfectly........I've been listening to this CD in the car a lot recently as I've been doing a fair bot of travelling. Great work.....


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## muk (Oct 18, 2021)

Michael, thanks for your kind words! It's a fantastic soundtrack, isn't it?


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## Michael Antrum (Oct 18, 2021)

muk said:


> Michael, thanks for your kind words! It's a fantastic soundtrack, isn't it?


I think he's judged it very well. HZ should be very proud of this one....


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## muk (Oct 19, 2021)

Absolutely. For reference, here is John Barry's track from "Her Majesty's Secret Service" that Hans Zimmer recomposed:



I love how he brought back the flute in a totally different role.


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## Michael Antrum (Oct 19, 2021)

I'm a big John Barry fan myself. He's a local boy for me - born in York, where his father owned a chain of cinemas.

He's always been a big influence on me. You might enjoy this little tale, told by Sir Michael Caine for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall to commemorate his life...


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## Gerald (Oct 20, 2021)

Yes! Very nice work!


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## muk (Oct 21, 2021)

Thank you Gerald!

And thank you for the link Michael, very interesting.


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## muk (Oct 24, 2021)

Thinking of making a short video tutorial about this mockup. Would that be of interest to anybody?


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## Michael Antrum (Oct 24, 2021)

Yes, I would rather be keen on that, but I do appreciate that it’s a lot of work.

I always find it interesting to see how others approach their work. Are you a Cubase bunny ?

Also I recently bought HZ Strings on the recent 50% sale. (I know, but by the time I get the Vat back it was under £ 300.00, and I’ve always wanted it) and this might be the perfect thing to try it on….


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## muk (Oct 24, 2021)

Michael Antrum said:


> Yes, I would rather be keen on that, but I do appreciate that it’s a lot of work.
> 
> I always find it interesting to see how others approach their work. Are you a Cubase bunny ?


Yes, I am using Cubase 11 with VE Pro 7. I'd have to do some cleaning up in that project first. I started with a CSS only template, and then kept adding stuff as I felt necessary when working on the piece. So the naming and structure would need some tidying. Also I'd have to work with text boxes, no voice over. That will be rather boring I guess. But it should get the info across.

Hans Zimmer Strings should be a great choice for this piece. The soundtrack was recorded at Air Lyndhurst. And in 'Matera' you can hear that Hans Zimmer used the same seating that he did for Hans Zimmer strings. This library would be the natural choice. If I owned it I'd certainly have tried with it first.

Any particular things you'd be looking for in such a video?


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## Michael Antrum (Oct 24, 2021)

(You are going to regret asking, I think.)

Well, I find that too many videos spend too much time in the minutiae rather than the workflow, which is what I find most interesting and more variable between different people.

What I mean by this is someone will spend ten minutes going through exactly how they set up a reverb, or other effect, when these things tend to be a matter of taste - and they always seem to have the midi already in.

So what I'd particularly like to see is how about you go through the process from scratch...

Where do you start - CD and pencil and paper, or do you load a wav into cubase as an audio track ?

Do you work out the orchestration on paper/ stave, or directly enter it into the DAW ? Do you play it in or write it in ?

Do you use a template, or build it as you progress. Separate tracks or Expression Maps. How you choose to apply your library articulations.

Obviously you would only need to do this for a couple of the lines - otherwise it would take you ages, but a potted overview of what you did would be very illuminating.

That would be what I'd hope to see. ( I'm so demanding).

Oh yeah, you should definitely leave in the swearing for authenticity....

But I do know how much work these things are, so please don't feel obliged because you offered to do it......

I will say that I am interested in different aspects because I have what could be considered a musical disability....I am completely deaf in my left ear. This is unfortunate in that I have no idea if the first violins are to left, right, or have nipped out to the pub for a quick one. (well I might notice that one).

So my focus is much more on the music than the sound per se. One of the reasons I'm such a big fan of VSL Synchron Series is that they have some fine mixes (or so I'm told- I wouldn't know) which I can just load up and use.


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## muk (Oct 24, 2021)

Michael Antrum said:


> Well, I find that too many videos spend too much time in the minutiae rather than the workflow, which is what I find most interesting and more variable between different people.


Heck, after your first post I took up a pencil and started to note some ideas how I would go about making such a video. And know what I wrote? 'How to do it - step by step'. Seems our ideas are pretty aligned  It's definitely a lot of work, but I think focusing on the workflow instead of the technical details would be more interesting.


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## Michael Antrum (Oct 24, 2021)

Well if you do find the time, I will be first in the queue with my popcorn.....


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## jbuhler (Oct 25, 2021)

muk said:


> Thinking of making a short video tutorial about this mockup. Would that be of interest to anybody?


Videos of mock-up work are always interesting. Just be sure to show the midi and your automation so folks can follow along.


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## muk (Oct 26, 2021)

jbuhler said:


> Videos of mock-up work are always interesting. Just be sure to show the midi and your automation so folks can follow along.


Thanks for your input. I'll make sure to show my midi and cc1 data.


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