# My three days of snorting cocaine and transcribing Mike Verta's Batman



## douggibson (Jan 18, 2017)

Just kidding. I did not transcribe any Mike Verta.

OK, just kidding again. I did transcribe. No drugs other than coffee was used. ;-( (my days of snorting cocaine at strip clubs are long gone. - well they never actually started)

The true context of the story is my wife is due to give birth this weekend, and so I cleared out my work schedule for the week. On Sunday I thought: Well..... I don't really feel like composing so why not work on some transcribing.I think I had some of the posts on these forums in my mind. 

Not sure of what to work on I went to Mike's Youtube channel to see if there was anything of interest. I had never heard his Batman Simulator ride before. Growing up I was always a big fan of the animation series and the music for the series. So I downloaded it, and began transcribing. I pretty much have not been doing anything else except about 12-14 hours a day transcribing this piece. (thus the title of the the thread). It's just a really fun piece of music, and sent me down a rabbit hole.

I notated everything in Sibelius and I only use Note-performer for playback.
Anyway, I am posting what I have done, and asking for feedback and suggestions for improvement. I am now hitting the "wall", where ear fatigue is setting in, and quite frankly I want to see this strange thing called "the sun". 

To be clear, if this was a gig it would be a first draft... as I know some of the nuances are missing (three day cocaine binges tend to lack nuance). I have no doubt after some time away from it, coming back with fresh ears, I will forehead slap myself. 

However I did manage to reach two of my goals (I hope)

1. Get all the way to the end
2. be in the "ball-park" (i.e you can at least recognize the tune.... I hope)

One disclaimer: I am only intending on using Note-performer. Some of the cool effects in the piece are not possible to sound 100% realistic. This is one of the things I actually love about Note-performer: it's imperfections. Good enough to know what it is intended to sound like, but inferior to be used for actual production. I say this as in no way do I want to infringe, or give an impression a infringement, on another composers work could occur. (This is why I am not uploading my PDF score)

On that note: Mr. Verta if you come across this and there is any issues with me posting this please let me know and I will take it down straight away. My intention in posting this, aside from my request above, is to acknowledge this forum thread, and Mr. Verta's advice and composition inspired (Thanks for writing such a cool piece !) my transcribing binge. That's all.

ORIGINAL VERSION


TRANSCRIPTION - VIA SIBELIUS PLAYBACK


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## gsilbers (Jan 18, 2017)

damn, this post had everything. needs to be placed as "post of the month" on Frederick's VI control wall.


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## baileysounds (Jan 18, 2017)

Best post I've ever seen on vi tbh - top work


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## devonmyles (Jan 18, 2017)

Excellent stuff.


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## Paul T McGraw (Jan 18, 2017)

Awesome! Thank you for sharing this. Biggest lessons learned so far:
1) you have a great ear
2) the NotePerformer-Sibelius combination is amazing for the price! Heck, it's really just flat out amazing when you consider that it is also about 5% as much work to use it as a VST within a DAW.
3) your willingness to share this is very much appreciated.

Now, Mike always talks about how much a composer learns from transcribing by ear. What do you think you learned from this project? And thanks again.


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## ghandizilla (Jan 18, 2017)

Impressive work: I'm still miles away of being able to do it, but the fact you managed to do that is really enlightening!


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## nicoroy123 (Jan 18, 2017)

I know it is probably not possible because of copyrights but it would be amazing to have access to the score, from an academic stand point. Wonderful piece to study and learn. I am wondering if Mike would evantully agree and sell the score?

I would gladly pay for this.


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## mverta (Jan 18, 2017)

Fuckin' right _on_, brother. Not bad at all... If there's one thing I hate, it's that film scores are treated like the nuclear launch codes. I'm happy to give it out. Now, I'm afraid the score for this is at the bottom of a 10-foot pile of bins in my storage facility, but I'll take a look, and if I can get at it, I'll scan it for any and all to peruse.

P.S. I hadn't heard this since, well.. about 1999 I guess. Amazing that there's about a billion-and-a-half things I'd do differently, today, especially orchestration-wise. Isn't that just the way?


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## tack (Jan 18, 2017)

mverta said:


> Amazing that there's about a billion-and-a-half things I'd do differently, today, especially orchestration-wise.


Would it be possible to start with the top 5?


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## wst3 (Jan 18, 2017)

First thought - well done Doug!!! You have a good ear!

Second thought - you did that with what????

Third thought - not at all surprised at Mike's response(s).

Great post, great thread!


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## synergy543 (Jan 18, 2017)

Class? Mike, this piece sounds terrific already. Which is why it would be intriguing to have a class on ripping this apart and looking at what you might do differently and why.

I'd help you dig to the bottom of that 10-foot pile if I was nearby. I can help prepare the scans if you'd like (killer detailed PS clean up).


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## Steve Martin (Jan 18, 2017)

mverta said:


> Now, I'm afraid the score for this is at the bottom of a 10-foot pile of bins in my storage facility, but I'll take a look, and if I can get at it, I'll scan it for any and all to peruse.
> 
> P.S. I hadn't heard this since, well.. about 1999 I guess. Amazing that there's about a billion-and-a-half things I'd do differently, today, especially orchestration-wise. Isn't that just the way?



Hi Mike,

that would be great if you could do that. I'd be in the line up for that also. I'd be happy to pay for a copy as well.


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## ricoderks (Jan 18, 2017)

This post instantly send me back to 6 years old me and seeing Batman for the first time! Great job transcribing this piece! Congratz!


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## desert (Jan 18, 2017)

Great ear! How many takes before you transcribed everything?


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## ryans (Jan 18, 2017)

Love the part at 3:02.. was that a little battle of hoth reference? 

Great work,

Ryan


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## mverta (Jan 18, 2017)

ryans said:


> Love the part at 3:02.. was that a little battle of hoth reference?
> 
> Great work,
> 
> Ryan



I see what you're saying there, yeah... actually, part of what I was asked to do was keep a fair amount of Elfman in the thing, and he loves tritones, so that's what motivated that figure more than anything. But the rhythm/figure sure sounds almost straight out of that Empire cue to me, too. You know, I'm probably never more than a stone's throw from something Williams, because Williams.


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## mverta (Jan 18, 2017)

Well, getting the score is a vital component in the transcribing practice; not for the stuff you got right, but for what you didn't, and for what you couldn't possibly have gotten right (orchestrational things happening in full ensemble passages, for example.) So I will get this out, and will likely recruit some of the help offered here to help do so. 

To another of your points - there were NO overdubs or striping of any kind. This is a single performance, live, by the ensemble. The effect at 3:40 is multilayered, but ultra-present is a ratchet. There are also "ad-lib" sweeping harp glissandos "behind" that. The trumpets are obviously pulling a lot of weight with dissonances there, but strings and woods are also doing a descending run pattern, designed to work with what the trumpets are doing. I call it "focused clusters," though there is probably a name for it. Basically, I work out a cluster (I actually take a fair amount of time with this; good clusters aren't just a few half-steps on top of each other. Finding the right voicing given the range and timbre is really sensitive.) and distribute it across groups so that together they form the goal, but across multiple colors and rhythms. It's a little hard to describe. I learned it by seeing it a bunch. 

Percussion-wise, in the orchestra, I was in the percussion section. Because I was a piano player and could read, I was given mallets and timp. So definitely a "sweet tooth" there, and also a little "one day I'm going to write percussion parts that don't suck for the players." And I also know how fast we can move around back there. I absolutely make percussion orchestration choices based on the number of players and what's possible. 

Casino Royale thing - this was written in 1999. 

The flow; the structure; the developing story. It's the thing I talk about the most; it's the single biggest thing that delineates today's scoring from yesteryear's. This piece is (hopefully) representative of the goal - everything in it was motivated by picture and action on screen; this is underscore. But take the picture away, and the piece is still a self-supporting, cohesive piece of music (we hope). It's _music_. It serves both masters, dramatically. Learning how to develop and modulate and pace out an idea is, again, what I spend so much time teaching in my classes, and still I have to concede that some of it just comes with time, assuming you're practicing properly and on the right path. Ravel defined it as "continuity of interest." 

This was a fantastic effort, and I guarantee you learned things you didn't realize you've learned. When we get you the score, a billion neural connections will spawn and strengthen, and _you shall become more powerful...



tack said:



Would it be possible to start with the top 5? 

Click to expand...

 _

TOP five? Man, I can think of 5 things in the first bar alone...  Maybe we'll do a breakdown/analysis of it for a class at some point if there's interest.


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## ctsai89 (Jan 18, 2017)

cocaine! haha way to get everyone's attention on this forum


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## G.R. Baumann (Jan 19, 2017)

douggibson said:


> (i.e you can at least recognize the tune.... I hope)


What music was that? 

Your take on Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin? 

CHAPEAU... EXCELLENT!


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## JimmyPoppa (Jan 20, 2017)

[QUOTE="Maybe we'll do a breakdown/analysis of it for a class at some point if there's interest.
[/QUOTE]

There's definitely interest. This would be an extremely interesting class.


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