# Star Wars: Battlefront 2 - custom trailer music



## Blakus

It's been a while since I shared something, but I've been so excited about this opportunity so I thought I'd post it here. Over the last 4 months I've been lucky to contribute to 10 cues for the SWBFII campaign (tv spots, trailers, etc). These were all custom scored to picture with input from the EA/DICE/Source Sound team as we went along. Working with this crew was a blast, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity.

P.S. Sorry Williams for ripping your music apart  <3

Here's three of the trailers that were released just recently:


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## jacobthestupendous

Killer!


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## MarcelM

cant see why they wouldnt hire you for the next projects aswell... great job!

gratulations!


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## ctsai89

Blakus does epic the best.


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## averystemmler

Great stuff, and it sounds like it's been a fun gig too! Congrats!


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## Blakus

Thanks guys!


Heroix said:


> cant see why they wouldnt hire you for the next projects aswell... great job!
> 
> gratulations!


I was excited to be in discussions about the campaign for the next SW game! Then the studio got shut down 2 weeks ago, hahah! Maybe I need a break from SW


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## NoamL

Goosebumps! First trailer was my favorite.


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## BlackCoyote

sounds amazing, did you write to a final cut or did they change frames around based on your track?


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## Blakus

BlackCoyote said:


> sounds amazing, did you write to a final cut or did they change frames around based on your track?


Thank you! This was super fun as I was able to write to picture. I started with a rough cut - The editors and I worked simultaneously, exchanging updates and ideas regularly. These guys were such a joy to work with!


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## Saxer

Fat!


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## Mars

Great job  Classic (and boring) question, but which strings and brass are you mainly using on these trailers ?


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## Jaap

Stunning work!


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## J-M

Congrats Blakus, great music!


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## FGBR

Great work. I'm impressed by the mixing as well, do you do that yourself?


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## MarcelM

i agree, mixing is great. ive tried often to recreate something like this but i never got the reverb quite right somehow. maybe my own mixes arent "wet" enough


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## jonathanparham

Cool powerful stuff


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## Anders Bru

Damn, this sounds really good. Beefy and strong! Congrats


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## Grizzlymv

that's awesome Blakus. Love how you transition from one theme to another. So smooth. so powerful. You nailed it perfectly!


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## Nmargiotta

Blakus said:


> Thank you! This was super fun as I was able to write to picture. I started with a rough cut - The editors and I worked simultaneously, exchanging updates and ideas regularly. These guys were such a joy to work with!



Nicely done! What a fun project. Writing to picture is so much more enjoyable, challenging and inspiring. Doesn’t get better than SW either! Great Job!


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## dannymc

fantastic, both of them. 

Danny


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## Chris Hurst

Woah, that was good. Enjoyed that.

Well done!


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## ryanstrong

@Blakus do you have these cues available by themselves? Would love to listen to without the sound design! Congrats.


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## Blakus

FGBR said:


> Great work. I'm impressed by the mixing as well, do you do that yourself?


Thank you! I provided the original music mix, but final trailer mix and integration of stems was done by the trailer mixer from Source Sound, who EA regularly works with (who is amazing). I would also get some mix feedback from him along the way. The first trailer sounds fairly close to the mix I provided, but they still squeeze more out of it. The launch trailer I linked in particular was a piece of mixing genius on their part. With so much going on I'm amazed at how they ducked and weaved everything together so cleverly.

Trailer mixing is real art, these guys are world class! I envy their skills, but not their task, haha!


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## Dan Drebing

Nice job!


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## ryanstrong

Blakus said:


> Thank you! I provided the original music mix, but final trailer mix and integration of stems was done by the trailer mixer from Source Sound, who EA regularly works with (who is amazing). I would also get some mix feedback from him along the way. The first trailer sounds fairly close to the mix I provided, but they still squeeze more out of it. The second trailer I linked in particular was a piece of mixing genius on their part. With so much going on I'm amazed at how they ducked and weaved everything together so cleverly.
> 
> Trailer mixing is real art, these guys are world class! I envy their skills, but not their task, haha!


When you were getting mix feedback was it consistent feedback? In other words I'm always wondering what issues we don't know that we have to deal with when working with samples that we should be considering.


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## Blakus

ryanstrong said:


> @Blakus do you have these cues available by themselves? Would love to listen to without the sound design! Congrats.


I would love to release the music, but unfortunately I can't share these cues. They belong to EA and are now part of a Star Wars music library for possible use in future SW related promos. I already heard one of the cues being used in a recent Playstation ad as well which was pretty cool.


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## Blakus

ryanstrong said:


> When you were getting mix feedback was it consistent feedback? In other words I'm always wondering what issues we don't know that we have to deal with when working with samples that we should be considering.


The feedback was pretty straight forward. The most common was "percussion needs to hit harder!" in order to compete with all the other sound fx etc. That was something I needed to work on quite a bit - compression etc.

The other thing was making sure things weren't too "wet". Long reverb tails don't go down well when there's so many things competing for space on the audio spectrum.


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## ryanstrong

Blakus said:


> The other thing was making sure things weren't too "wet". Long reverb tails don't go down well when there's so many things competing for space on the audio spectrum.


Makes a lot of sense and something I've wondered myself!


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## Kony

Really enjoyed these - thanks for sharing!


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## Lex

So so cool!! =)


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## Blakus

Thought I'd just mention that another one was just released today for "The Last Jedi" Season content. So much fun


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## LamaRose

Amazing work... the sky's the limit for you... or should that be _the galaxy_?


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## JW

Excellent work! Congrats!


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## ctsai89

I got the game from target at 39.99 USd! Before taxes


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## Grizzlymv

Always get better and better. So you're up for EP 9?


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## artomatic

Congrats! Much respect, @Blakus !


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## Blakus

Thanks all! 


ctsai89 said:


> I got the game from target at 39.99 USd! Before taxes


Haha, nice deal! Almost as cheap as I got it


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## Blakus

Grizzlymv said:


> Always get better and better. So you're up for EP 9?


Wait, you mean write more than a few minutes of music? *starts hyperventilating* haha. 

In all seriousness though, one day, I look forward to writing music that's not such constant high energy. But for now, the trailer world pushes me to be better, and I'm loving it


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## DR BOOWHO

It would be hard for anyone who does not like trailer music not to like this trailer music.....
Definitely going on the fridge!!


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## FGBR

Blakus said:


> Thank you! I provided the original music mix, but final trailer mix and integration of stems was done by the trailer mixer from Source Sound, who EA regularly works with (who is amazing). I would also get some mix feedback from him along the way. The first trailer sounds fairly close to the mix I provided, but they still squeeze more out of it. The second trailer I linked in particular was a piece of mixing genius on their part. With so much going on I'm amazed at how they ducked and weaved everything together so cleverly.
> 
> Trailer mixing is real art, these guys are world class! I envy their skills, but not their task, haha!



Oh, forgot to reply to this one, so I'm 5 weeks late now....  
(I had to run out to go watch the symphony that night as I remember). 

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, it really does sound remarkably good to my ears. A considerable part of that is your music of course. 

Indeed, mixing at that level takes some proper skill. Very impressive. 

And the last one sounds great as well. The Single Player one was probably my favorite of the three. That bit with the cannons/hand at 1:25 was very satisfying!


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## Blakus

DR BOOWHO said:


> It would be hard for anyone who does not like trailer music not to like this trailer music.....
> Definitely going on the fridge!!


Thank you! The fact that it's good old Williams' themes always helps too! :D



FGBR said:


> The Single Player one was probably my favorite of the three. That bit with the cannons/hand at 1:25 was very satisfying!


I think that's my favourite moment too! The cannons just worked out perfectly with the build! Working simultaneously with editors/sound designers towards the same goal makes little moments like that much more achievable! Great fun


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## DR BOOWHO

DR BOOWHO said:


> It would be hard for anyone who does not like trailer music not to like this trailer music.....
> Definitely going on the fridge!!


And after writing this I realised I hadn't clicked the "like"....What a NUMPTY!


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## Janos McKennitt

Really really great work. I'm specially impressed by the way you handle the dynamics of your (different) libraries. Sounds very homogeneous, like one big library. Just great work!


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## desert

This is so amazing, Blakus! I heard it in the cinema during the trailers and I thought to myself... "I know who wrote this trailer music. Not personally, but I know his name".


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## jacobthestupendous

desert said:


> This is so amazing, Blakus! I heard it in the cinema during the trailers and I thought to myself... "I know who wrote this trailer music. Not personally, but I know his name".


He has responded warmly to a couple of my comments on the past; I think it's safe to tell everyone I know that Blakus and I are basically best friends.


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## desert

jacobthestupendous said:


> He has responded warmly to a couple of my comments on the past; I think it's safe to tell everyone I know that Blakus and I are basically best friends.


OH NO WAY!!! can you ask him what reverb he uses? I've always wanted to know


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## jacobthestupendous

As of a year ago, he was digging Nimbus and Valhalla Room. 

... not that I'm stalking him or anything.


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## MarcusD

Blakus your midichlorians must be off the scale...

GODLIKE. 

Awesome work, as always.


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