# 20th Century Fox Intro Music (mock-up) CSS, CSB, NISS Percussion, BBCSO



## Bluemount Score (Feb 3, 2020)

I randomly had this theme stuck in my head for the last weeks or so.
Made a quick cover yesterday, to maybe get rid of that. Orchestration is not 100% like the real thing, but close.
I think the Cinematic Studio Sound fits pretty well.
Winds (barely audible, but there is a flute, oboe and clarinet doubling the strings) and Percussion are borrowed from somewhere else 






Version 1 and 2:


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## I like music (Feb 3, 2020)

Bluemount Score said:


> I randomly had this theme stuck in my head for the last weeks or so.
> Made a quick cover yesterday, to maybe get rid of that. Orchestration is not 100% like the real thing, but close.
> I think the Cinematic Studio Sound fits pretty well.
> Winds (barely audible, but there is a flute, oboe and clarinet doubling the strings) and Percussion are borrowed from somewhere else



I really like it. Good crisp on that brass. However, I feel the strings are pushed a bit too far back/too ambient?

Did you transcribe by ear?


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## Bluemount Score (Feb 3, 2020)

I like music said:


> Good crisp on that brass. However, I feel the strings are pushed a bit too far back/too ambient?
> 
> Did you transcribe by ear?


I agree! Didn't notice it as much before rendering the track yesterday, it's weird how the mix mic of CSS sounds a little ambient here, let's just say I was too lazy to add some more close mic etc.  On the other side with the brass, which I like the most here, I indeed changed the mic settings to add more room.

I mostly transcribed by ear with the original playing simultaneously. Beforehand, I took a look at the sheet music to be more clear about what instruments take part.


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## I like music (Feb 3, 2020)

Bluemount Score said:


> I agree! Didn't notice it as much before rendering the track yesterday, it's weird how the mix mic of CSS sounds a little ambient here, let's just say I was too lazy to add some more close mic etc.  On the other side with the brass, which I like the most here, I indeed changed the mic settings to add more room.
> 
> I mostly transcribed by ear with the original playing simultaneously. Beforehand, I took a look at the sheet music to be more clear about what instruments take part.



Interesting. Due to RAM issues, I stick with only the mix mic of CSS. And I do feel they lack a certain punch because of it. But I've promised I will spend no more money this year. Perhaps need to re-evaluate my template to prioritise a few close mics from CSS.

Can you tell me what the mic breakdown of your brass looks like? I liked the tone

(ps nice work on the transcription - at least to my ears it sounded good)


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## Bluemount Score (Feb 3, 2020)

I like music said:


> Interesting. Due to RAM issues, I stick with only the mix mic of CSS. And I do feel they lack a certain punch because of it. But I've promised I will spend no more money this year. Perhaps need to re-evaluate my template to prioritise a few close mics from CSS.
> 
> Can you tell me what the mic breakdown of your brass looks like? I liked the tone
> 
> (ps nice work on the transcription - at least to my ears it sounded good)


No more money this year? February just started 

I'm generally happy with the CSS mix mic on it's own, here things could have been improved a little.

Thank you! I'm also quite happy, considering how quick and spontaneously I got this done.
I currently don't have the brass settings in my head, will tell you later today as soon as I'm home.


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## I like music (Feb 3, 2020)

Bluemount Score said:


> No more money this year? February just started
> 
> I'm generally happy with the CSS mix mic on it's own, here things could have been improved a little.
> 
> ...



My wife tells me that I spent all my 2020 VST budget in 2019. Looking forward to it.


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## AdamSold (Feb 3, 2020)

great job. However, some notes are missing. I wanna point out especially that moment when there is a lot of repetition on F. In the original one there is one more F note before it goes down to D. If u do mockups do it precisely  Anyways i like the brass, sounds good. (maybe a bit too much reverb)


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## ProfoundSilence (Feb 3, 2020)

I know the RR on the shorts for trumpet are rough(I actually forgot how rough they were until I pulled the library back out recently) good thing the snare is there to cover up the attacks XD

I felt like the snare had a lot of bass in it, brass seemed pushed back a little - but strings feel like they are lightyears away. 

altiverb has a fox stage set of IR's btw


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## Bluemount Score (Feb 3, 2020)

AdamSold said:


> great job. However, some notes are missing. I wanna point out especially that moment when there is a lot of repetition on F. In the original one there is one more F note before it goes down to D. If u do mockups do it precisely  Anyways i like the brass, sounds good. (maybe a bit too much reverb)


Thank you! I got used to the missing one note very quickly yesterday. Makes totally sense now that it feels rhytmically out of place at that point.


ProfoundSilence said:


> I know the RR on the shorts for trumpet are rough(I actually forgot how rough they were until I pulled the library back out recently) good thing the snare is there to cover up the attacks XD
> 
> I felt like the snare had a lot of bass in it, brass seemed pushed back a little - but strings feel like they are lightyears away.
> 
> altiverb has a fox stage set of IR's btw


What do you mean by rough? I think they are pretty alright, despite the fact that I wished some of the otherwise very versatile shorts would have a harder attack (in this case).
I don't own Altiverb - in my example, I simply used the same medium stage dragonfly reverb preset on all instruments, which was sitting in my templare beforehand.


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## ProfoundSilence (Feb 3, 2020)

Bluemount Score said:


> What do you mean by rough? I think they are pretty alright, despite the fact that I wished some of the otherwise very versatile shorts would have a harder attack (in this case).
> I don't own Altiverb - in my example, I simply used the same medium stage dragonfly reverb preset on all instruments, which was sitting in my templare beforehand.



just was an FYI incase you really liked the fox sound.

the part around 7-9 seconds in, specifically - feels almost like machine gunning, even though I know it's not. I know CSB (like CSS) is quite edited, but I think this might be what seems to make it's fast reps seem off. (not that fast reps is easy for sampling)


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## Bluemount Score (Feb 3, 2020)

I like music said:


> Can you tell me what the mic breakdown of your brass looks like? I liked the tone


So it's

- 19,9 dB Close
- 25,4dB Main
- 3,9 dB Room

Reverb (mixed 50 / 50 with the dry signal):






That's for all brass instruments. I used 3 solo trumpets, the trombone a2 patch and 2 solo horns.

Some EQing was done as well, here what I did with the trumpets, a little less on trombones and horns:


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## I like music (Feb 3, 2020)

Bluemount Score said:


> So it's
> 
> - 19,9 dB Close
> - 25,4dB Main
> ...


Thanks for the detail. Dragon fly reverb. That's the free one right? Interesting!

Also interesting to see how you treated the trumpets.


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## Bluemount Score (Feb 3, 2020)

I like music said:


> Thanks for the detail. Dragon fly reverb. That's the free one right? Interesting!


No problem! Dragonfly is great. And best of all: it's free


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## Architekton (Feb 3, 2020)

Mix is very bad, thin and too much reverb (too roomy). Also, looks like some notes are missing. Overall, expected more.


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## ryans (Feb 3, 2020)

I like the roomy percussion! But I was REALLY missing the low brass and bass here which completes the harmony..

Ryan


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## Bluemount Score (Feb 3, 2020)

Architekton said:


> Mix is very bad, thin and too much reverb (too roomy). Also, looks like some notes are missing. Overall, expected more.


Sorry!


ryans said:


> I like the roomy percussion! But I was REALLY missing the low brass and bass here which completes the harmony..
> 
> Ryan


There was no low brass or bass on the sheet music I looked it up. To be honest, I only found the first page and the second one was missing, but I know what you mean, listening to the original (depending on the recording). I'm totally unexperienced when it comes to mock-ups.


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## Bluemount Score (Feb 3, 2020)

I added a quickly updated version to the first post where I fixed the missing F note, made brass and strings a little less wet and put the later more into the front by adding close mics... plus some minor EQ things. Still far from perfect, but perfect was not my goal when doing this little mock-up to begin with. Good enough for me to kinda like it!


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## WorshipMaestro (Feb 4, 2020)

Brass rhythms are wrong, and doesn't feel musical at all. Has a very quantized feel, which doesn't work.

I don't know what DAW you're using, but as a Cubase user I'd approach like this: put recording of original in a track. Then build a tempo track to match beats (even sub beats) with that audio. Or, you could build the track to a strict tempo, then modify your tempo track before rendering audio. Either way that would get you a ways down the road towards a more musical result.


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## Bluemount Score (Feb 4, 2020)

WorshipMaestro said:


> Brass rhythms are wrong, and doesn't feel musical at all. Has a very quantized feel, which doesn't work.
> 
> I don't know what DAW you're using, but as a Cubase user I'd approach like this: put recording of original in a track. Then build a tempo track to match beats (even sub beats) with that audio. Or, you could build the track to a strict tempo, then modify your tempo track before rendering audio. Either way that would get you a ways down the road towards a more musical result.


It's not quantized at all - but I guess I understand what you mean. I've had a pretty hard time making the ryhtm fit the original by ear. Apparently, I got used to the wrong rythm real quick 
FL Studio user here, not totally sure where to find what you are talking about in this DAW.


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## borisb2 (Feb 4, 2020)

good attempt. but I have to agree - strings are too far away and especially that shiny brass chord feeling of Cm7 followed by the F7 towards the end is lost (missing notes? or not balanced?)..

I just listened to the original - the propper II - V - I at the end hits you in the face:


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## jason.d (Feb 5, 2020)

For honest feedback, I’d have to second that the mix sounds airy and thin. I think there’s too much reverb. Also the brass part sounds a bit rushed.

All this criticism is of course when comparing to the original. It’s not bad so far but I think if you work on the timing of the notes/tempo as well as thickening/warming the mix you’ll get real close.

I love listening to demos like this, keep it up!


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## Michael Willis (Feb 14, 2020)

Bluemount Score said:


> Dragonfly is great.


Yes! Long-distance virtual fist bump 👊


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## Bluemount Score (Feb 15, 2020)

Michael Willis said:


> Yes! Long-distance virtual fist bump 👊


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