# Thomas Bergersen - Reach For The Skies Mockup



## Guffy (Nov 5, 2016)

Had some fun today trying to do a mockup of this Two Steps From Hell piece.
I wanted to try one from their Two Steps From Heaven album as it's all live and more of a challenge to emulate. Great ear training as well


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## Gerald (Nov 6, 2016)

Nice work!


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## dannymc (Nov 6, 2016)

god i didn't realize thomas bergersen made this more traditional sound as well as the epic/trailer stuff. is this a new or older track? any sounds like you done a great job with it Fugdup 

Danny


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## Guffy (Nov 6, 2016)

dannymc said:


> god i didn't realize thomas bergersen made this more traditional sound as well as the epic/trailer stuff. is this a new or older track? any sounds like you done a great job with it Fugdup
> 
> Danny



Yeah, he did a whole album with these kind of tracks back in 2012, album called Two Steps From Heaven.

Cheers


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## Marcin M (Nov 6, 2016)

dannymc said:


> god i didn't realize thomas bergersen made this more traditional sound as well as the epic/trailer stuff. is this a new or older track? any sounds like you done a great job with it Fugdup
> 
> Danny


So you didn't hear their albums like: two steps from heaven, miracles, illumina, dreams and imaginations, colin frake?


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## dannymc (Nov 6, 2016)

> So you didn't hear their albums like: two steps from heaven, miracles, illumina, dreams and imaginations, colin frake?



i dont listen to an awful lot of their stuff, just the more well known tracks i find on spotify and what i come across on soundcloud. 

Danny


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## byzantium (Nov 7, 2016)

Nice. Strings LASS?


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## BigImpactSound (Nov 7, 2016)

Nice job!


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## Guffy (Nov 7, 2016)

byzantium said:


> Nice. Strings LASS?


CSS


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## byzantium (Nov 7, 2016)

Fugdup said:


> CSS


Fantastic. 
Brass too.


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## desert (Nov 7, 2016)

Another amazing mockup!


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## SciFlyBoy (Nov 9, 2016)

Very excellent. There are a lot of inner workings in the orchestrations. How did you go about deconstructing the original piece and breaking down each individual parts? I assume this is all by ear?


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## Guffy (Nov 9, 2016)

SciFlyBoy said:


> Very excellent. There are a lot of inner workings in the orchestrations. How did you go about deconstructing the original piece and breaking down each individual parts? I assume this is all by ear?



Yeah, by ear.

It's really just me listening closely. It's not always easy to hear what's going on, but that's one of the things you can easier 'guess' your way through as you get more experienced.

The string runs are probably way off most of the time. I could sit and listen through it a bunch of times, or try to find another way to get it right, but instead i just went with something that i think works with the rest of the arrangement.

Thanks for the comments


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## SciFlyBoy (Nov 10, 2016)

Fugdup said:


> The string runs are probably way off most of the time. I could sit and listen through it a bunch of times, or try to find another way to get it right, but instead i just went with something that i think works with the rest of the arrangement...


Yeah, I do the same thing, too. Try to make the middle parts make harmonic sense if I can't tell exactly what they are doing.

So now that you deconstructed a Bergersen piece is there anything you learned or have taken away from it about how he orchestrates or how he went about constructing this piece? Is there anything that you'd now do differently in constructing your pieces?


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## WhiteNoiz (Nov 10, 2016)

SciFlyBoy said:


> So now that you deconstructed a Bergersen piece is there anything you learned or have taken away from it about how he orchestrates or how he went about constructing this piece? Is there anything that you'd now do differently in constructing your pieces?



Well, I've done a few and I really like the complexity and attention to detail. There's motifs and little patterns everywhere and everything seems to contribute so much. It's wonderfully rich. A lot of movement and interesting things in the patterns etc. and the progressions. Personally, I don't know if I'd "copy" anything but it's nice to incorporate that perspective in a way.

Here's the https://instaud.io/private/db4f3aaeceb7d240bd5c4df901bee8628e0036bc (Prologue from Colin Frake). Didn't try awefully hard on it, but I enjoy figuring them out.

I like the LOTR/dark/mysterious vibes.

"Casablanca" is a good example of the rhythmic patterns and their alterations... I'd quite messed that one up, hehe. But again, a good exercise.

---

Now, concerning the Op track (as to not hijack further), the runs don't sound all that wrong to me (though I'm not to be too trusted on tonal issues, haha), but I especially dig the repetitions.  I think the brass may be a bit overpowered though. Also, it's maybe a bit dry and kinda timbrally flat (maybe try some sat?), but it's very decent overall. Fugdup, I've always quite liked what I've heard from you, so...  (Especially the OT Metropolis track and some other one)


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