# Transcribed: Danny Elfman - Black Beauty



## Land of Missing Parts (Feb 9, 2019)

Here's my midi mockup of "Main Titles" from _Black Beauty_.
Music composed by Danny Elfman.



Transcribed by ear from the soundtrack.


I picked up Embertone's Joshua Bell Violin and Shire Whistle and wanted to do a mockup to put them through their paces. JB Violin doesn't have the kind of molto vibrato that I'd really need to match the recording but I did my best.

Comments and criticisms are appreciated, particularly any mixing, balancing, and orchestration thoughts you might have. If anyone has actual sheets for this, please let me know. I'd love to see what I got wrong.

Thanks for listening. 

Joshua Bell Violin, Shire Whistle, Cinematic Studio Strings, Caspian Brass, Adventure Brass, Berlin Woodwinds (Legacy), Chocolate Audio Harp.


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## Bill the Lesser (Feb 10, 2019)

Wow, I'm impressed! Well done, what a lot of work! I went back and forth a bit, of course there are little differences here and there but nothing that really changes anything. Your mix sounds somewhat compressed compared to the original, but compositionally I think you nailed it. I bet you learned a lot. I don't have the patience for transcription even though I know the time spent would be worth it.


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## whiskers (Feb 10, 2019)

The more I hear it, the more I think I need to pick up CSS.

Great job buddy


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## Land of Missing Parts (Feb 10, 2019)

Bill the Lesser said:


> I bet you learned a lot. I don't have the patience for transcription even though I know the time spent would be worth it.


Thanks Bill. I still have much to learn, but the exercise did get me thinking about how to make better use of the double bass, and how to dial in more subtle degrees of dynamic change. I started out with more extreme dynamics and little by little had to keep backing everything off.

Another thing I noticed (and I should stress that this is just guesswork) is that when the brass comes in to fill the lower midrange, the strings don't stay and get louder--which would probably sound muddy--but they instead move to a higher range.

Most of what I learned just comes down to feeling though since the song is, compositionally, simpler than I thought at the outset.



whiskers said:


> The more I hear it, the kids I think I need to pick up CSS.
> 
> Great job buddy


Thanks Whiskers, I'm surprised you don't already have it. Out of curiosity, what do you use for your workhorse strings?


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## TheSigillite (Feb 10, 2019)

Land of Missing Parts said:


> Here's my midi mockup of "Main Titles" from _Black Beauty_.
> Music composed by Danny Elfman.
> 
> 
> ...




WOW!!! Great work on this! One of my favorite Elfman Scores. You made great use of those instruments. I can't offer much in terms of critique, but you have a new soundcloud follower and look forward to more.


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## Emmanuel Rousseau (Feb 10, 2019)

Great work ! I love this score and it was a pleasure listening to your mockup.

My only complain would be that sometimes I feel the solo violin and whistle share too much of the same MIDI data, rhythmically speaking. Especially at 0:20, where it sounds a bit static compared to the original.

Other than that, bravo !


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## Nesciochamp (Feb 11, 2019)

Nailed it!

It is noticeable that you didn't emulate the original solo instruments, but one should ask if that's really the goal since they are simply not the same.

Really loved it, chapeau!

Cheers, 

Nipduif

Edit: you got a new follower


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## OleJoergensen (Feb 11, 2019)

It sounds great, wonderful mockup. The audio quality is excelent! 
How do you do....?


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## Shantar (Feb 11, 2019)

Impressive! Sounds stellar!


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## Land of Missing Parts (Feb 11, 2019)

whitewasteland said:


> Great work ! I love this score and it was a pleasure listening to your mockup.


Thank you whitewasteland, I took inspiration from your excellent mockups so it means a lot.


Nesciochamp said:


> It is noticeable that you didn't emulate the original solo instruments, but one should ask if that's really the goal since they are simply not the same.


Yeah, I like JB Violin but I don't think it can really match this player, or at least I wasn't able to figure out a way. Maybe I'll check out Emotional Violin and Chris Hein and see if they have options to get a little more expressivo.


OleJoergensen said:


> How do you do....?


I'd be happy to share what I know, though I'm not sure specifically what you're asking about. I map the tempo, then listen to a part--say the whistle--and match it as best I can with an instrument I have, then just play along as best as I can. I start with the most obvious parts and work through those until eventually my own version sounds like it's got the essentials. But it will inevitably feel like it's still missing some bits, and for that I just kind of guess. I think that's pretty much it, I wasn't terribly technical about it and haven't actually figured out the chords or anything, although I think Elfman tends to be more triadic, at least in this phase of his career.


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## OleJoergensen (Feb 11, 2019)

Im sorry, Ive should have been more specific.
I was thinking about your excellent Audio quality.
Which processor do you use and how...?


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## Land of Missing Parts (Feb 11, 2019)

OleJoergensen said:


> Im sorry, Ive should have been more specific.
> I was thinking about your excellent Audio quality.
> Which processor do you use and how...?


Ah, for processing effects I use Fabfilter Pro-Q 3 for EQ, EAReverb for reverb and spacialization (didn't need a lot here). And a bit of Logic's stock VCA compression on the JB Violin.

On my master bus I just slapped on Softube's Tape and Ozone 8 Essentials and dialed up presets.

The reason I like Pro-Q 3 and EAReverb is that they give good visual tools to see what's going on when my ears might not actually be able to tell. And they are intuitive to use.


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## Mike Fox (Mar 12, 2022)

@Land of Missing Parts 

Do you still have this piece available to listen to? I remember being pretty blown away by it when i first heard it!


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## Land of Missing Parts (Mar 12, 2022)

Mike Fox said:


> @Land of Missing Parts
> 
> Do you still have this piece available to listen to? I remember being pretty blown away by it when i first heard it!


I re-uploaded it. Sorry about that, not sure what happened. Thanks for the kind words.


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## Mike Fox (Mar 12, 2022)

Land of Missing Parts said:


> I re-uploaded it. Sorry about that, not sure what happened. Thanks for the kind words.


Awesome, thanks!


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