# STAR WARS: Kinect - I mixed and mastered the large live orchestral score



## John Rodd

Hi all, 

I had a blast mixing and mastering Gordy Haab's awesome live orchestral score for *STAR WARS: Kinect* - an upcoming Xbox 360 game by LucasArts. It will be released April 3, 2012. The score features an 89 piece live orchestra (the *London Symphony Orchestra*) and the *London Voices choir*. The project was 100% live - no samples were used whatsoever. (a rare thing, these days)

Here is a quote from the lead composer Gordy Haab (that he provided me for my website)
_
"My large live orchestral score for Kinect STAR WARS needed a very specific sound, and I knew I could rely on my long-time collaborator John Rodd to deliver exactly the sound that I needed. The sound of this new Star Wars score needed to exactly match the rich legacy of the John Williams STAR WARS scores - and John Rodd completely nailed it. The 89 piece London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices choir sounded glorious, and has thrilled my clients at LucasArts and Microsoft. John has outstanding musical sensibilities, knowledge of the orchestra, and an amazing ear for richness of sound.... and is also a really great guy to work with. Highly recommended."
- Gordy Haab, Composer
_
and

Check out the limited edition Xbox 360 STAR WARS Kinect console!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Limited-Kinect-Star-Bundle/dp/B0050SY300 (http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Limited- ... B0050SY300)

:mrgreen:


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## germancomponist

Congratulations, John! 

Yeah, I know why I always liked your work so very much!


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## Patrick de Caumette

Congrats John! =o


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## John Rodd

thanks guys! :D


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## John Rodd

Here is the E3 trailer for the game. Looks like fun

:D 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRtZ5SqKPmI


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## synergy543

John, what a cool gig! LSO, wow. For those of us without an Xbox, is there some way we can hear a sample of this mix?


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## EastWest Lurker

Congrats John.


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## John Rodd

synergy543 @ Sat Feb 18 said:


> John, what a cool gig! LSO, wow. *For those of us without an Xbox, is there some way we can hear a sample of this mix?*



Hopefully there will be a score release of some sort...... if/when that happens I'll post a link here.

 

john


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## John Rodd

Update : a few days ago KINECT: STAR WARS was the #1 selling game in the WORLD. 

:mrgreen:


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## John Rodd

UPDATE: 

*Star Wars Kinect *- I’m thrilled that my work finally gets to be heard outside of the (recently #1 selling in the world) game. Click on the link below to *hear the kick-ass big live orchestral score (LSO) for free* and read an interview with lead composer Gordy Haab and co-composer Kyle Newmaster. Bravo maestros! :mrgreen: 

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2012/05/ ... oundtrack/


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## Casey Edwards

John Rodd @ Wed May 16 said:


> UPDATE:
> 
> *Star Wars Kinect *- I’m thrilled that my work finally gets to be heard outside of the (recently #1 selling in the world) game. Click on the link below to *hear the kick-ass big live orchestral score (LSO) for free* and read an interview with lead composer Gordy Haab and co-composer Kyle Newmaster. Bravo maestros! :mrgreen:
> 
> http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2012/05/ ... oundtrack/



Listened to this yesterday as soon as Gordy announced it on his Facebook page, and FREAKIN' WOW!!! Fantastic compositions and fantastic mixing job. Well done all the way around guys!


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## EastWest Lurker

Congrats, John.


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## Christian F. Perucchi

Hearing right now Again!!!! This is how i like to start my Day!!
Badass Work Gordy, Kyle and John!!!
Cheers!


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## germancomponist

Very cool, Sir!


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## synthetic

Wow, sounds amazing.

What are they, like, 16? Talented little punks.


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## synergy543

synthetic @ Thu May 17 said:


> Wow, sounds amazing.
> 
> What are they, like, 16? Talented little punks.



:mrgreen: 

What Libs were used on this? :wink: 

Someone should drag those uber-talented bad-assed little punks over here to teach use a few tricks. That's some absolutely incredible orchestration! Truly astonishing. o=< 

nice mixing too....I wonder what kind of organization was involved in a mix like that?
(notes, instrumental balance, etc.) Was it a tough mix or did the LSO play itself?


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## nikolas

Yeah, saw it on Facebook, but didn't notice this thread!

Huge congratulations John!


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## John Rodd

synergy543 @ Thu May 17 said:


> ....... nice mixing too....I wonder what kind of organization was involved in a mix like that?
> (notes, instrumental balance, etc.) Was it a tough mix or did the LSO play itself?



I mixed & also mastered the score.... it was tough in that I had to exactly match the CDs of the John Williams scores.... with a somewhat smaller orchestra and a MUCH smaller choir.

The clients were all incredibly happy with the end result..... I'm very proud of what I did, and Gordy and Kyle wrote & orchestrated mind-bogglingly great music for the project. :D


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## synergy543

Thanks John, no questions that's a milestone achievement. My hat's off to you!

Were the mixes single takes or composites of stems and snippets from different takes? 

I've heard that many live mixes require using various phrases from different stems and combining them all together to create a single plausible performance. This could make mixing a live performance very daunting due to mic bleeding, tempo, intonation and dynamic differences. With the LSO, was this necessary?


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## John Rodd

synergy543 @ Fri May 18 said:


> Thanks John, no questions that's a milestone achievement. My hat's off to you!
> 
> Were the mixes single takes or composites of stems and snippets from different takes?
> 
> I've heard that many live mixes require using various phrases from different stems and combining them all together to create a single plausible performance. This could make mixing a live performance very daunting due to mic bleeding, tempo, intonation and dynamic differences. With the LSO, was this necessary?



The usual way to record a live orchestra does not involve any "stem mixes" .... but simply all the mics going to their own track on the "multitrack"

so if there are 25 mics out - they go to 25 mono audio tracks. (the "multitrack")

In this case - the orchestra all played together.... and the choir was added later in a single recording pass (no doubling)

yes there were some edits to the orchestra multitrack.... but think of using a razor blade to cut all the way across the tape (as it used to be done) .... so all tracks were cut at the same time.

does that make sense?  

so no - - - no stem mixes were involved in creating the mix... just the multitrack was edited and mixed - and this is completely usual for this kind of project.

cheers

John


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## synergy543

Yeah makes sense. 

What great players to work with and what a great team!


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## John Rodd

synergy543 @ Fri May 18 said:


> What great players to work with and *what a great team!*



Absolutely !!! :D


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## bwherry

DAYUM!! I totally need this as a soundtrack album. Well done, John! (and Gordy and Kyle and the LSO, of course)

Oh, I found this YouTube vid with some recording footage from Abbey Road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=KFmsdkIugio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?&amp;v=KFmsdkIugio)

Brian


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