# Starcraft: Final Metamorphosis



## Pietro (Oct 29, 2011)

Hey everyone!

This month I worked on a score for a fan animation, based on Starcraft games and books. Here's the result:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kAJSswZPvI (<script class="js-extraPhrases" type="application/json">
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kAJSswZPvI (Starcraft: Final Metamorphosis)

Soundtrack includes some references to original Starcraft music.

Here's music alone:
Listen on Soundcloud

All feedback is most welcome .

Thanks go to Valentina Dobreva and George Strezov for vocal solo recording.

Cheers!
- Piotr


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## Rob (Oct 29, 2011)

yeah Piotr!


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## zacnelson (Oct 29, 2011)

Very masterful work. You have used all the cliches that are common for this kind of thing, which is the appropriate thing to do, but you have done it in a way that reflects your intelligence and understanding of the forms. It's like listening to a suite of popular soundtrack riffs from the last 10 years condensed together. But you make it flow nicely and it never gets too repetitive despite the long 6 minute playing time. I suppose one of the keys to this is constantly varying the dynamics with swells etc and also the way you bring instruments in and out of the arrangement frequently.


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## zacnelson (Oct 29, 2011)

By the way the last 90 seconds or so is very stirring, genuinely stirring, amazing what can be done by somebody who is masterful with sample libraries. You know how to squeeze so much personality out of samples


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## MichalCielecki (Oct 29, 2011)

Yeah, definitely amazing work. One of the best things done with samples.


Cheers,
Michal


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## Saxer (Oct 30, 2011)

yeah! i like the mix... very transparent though there's so much happening!


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## Andrew Christie (Oct 30, 2011)

This is fantastic! Compositionally and sonically a great achievement!


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## BoulderBrow (Oct 30, 2011)

Holy Moley! An achievement indeed! o-[][]-o 

How long did this take you to complete, if you don't mind me asking?


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## robteehan (Oct 30, 2011)

Pretty amazing that we're now seeing custom scoring in online-only fan videos. Good production values too. 
Was this a paid gig?


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## antoniopandrade (Oct 30, 2011)

I'm loving the custom-scored machinima!

Anyway, does anyone else, after listening to this, think, "oh s*** the bar has been raised a couple notches up"?

I was literally in awe the entire time. Compositionally and sonically, an incredible achievement. Congratulations Piotr!


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## Jason (Oct 30, 2011)

Stunning work, it wouldn't be out of place in the actual official Starcraft soundtrack, let alone in a fan made film!


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## Resoded (Oct 31, 2011)

Excellent. The music is better than the video. The mixing is really spectacular!


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## Sid_Barnhoorn (Oct 31, 2011)

Excellent work, Piotr!


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## Pietro (Oct 31, 2011)

Thanks for all your comments, guys!

I was affraid, that the score will be too obtrusive sometimes. In this particular animation, I found it really difficult to balance.

@antoniopandrade: the cool thing about the video is, that it's not machinima per se. It doesn't use game engine and models. Eveything you see - models, textures, animation and effects were made from scratch, by... basically, one guy. And it took him 16 months.

The score took me 4 weeks, but in the meantime I had other projects, that were taking a priority. One of them took a whole week of that time.

This was not a paid gig. Everyone involved, was a fan of Starcraft, and afaik contributed their work for free. It was aimed to promote the creators - which is what I needed. The video has gone pretty viral - nearly 250 000 views at the moment - and that's very exciting. I'm sure it will pay off .

Thanks for watching and listening .

- Piotr


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## rpaillot (Oct 31, 2011)

Hi dear Pietro 

Amazing job. Very rich writing with some unusual chords and harmonies which reminded me "Jerry Goldsmith" at some point.

Can't wait to hear it performed by the LSO ...


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## bennyoschmann (Oct 31, 2011)

Great composition and an awesome production, Pietro! Thanks for sharing!


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## handz (Oct 31, 2011)

Hell Yeaaah!

This is very nice stuff, I must look at the video too later!


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## mac4d (Oct 31, 2011)

Sounds great to me. I'd be curious how the music only version would sound on youtube, cause to me the music sounds clearer in the youtube vid (even with all the sound fx) than on soundcloud.


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## noiseboyuk (Nov 1, 2011)

Holy Moly.


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## Andrew Christie (Nov 2, 2011)

Bumping the thread. This deserves to be heard by all


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## Marius Masalar (Nov 2, 2011)

Piotr, this is extraordinary work. Masterful use of samples and an enviable mix.

Seems like it was a fun project and you've certainly turned it into a blockbuster. Congratulations


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## nikolas (Nov 2, 2011)

WOW MAN! This WAS AWESOME! Well done Piotr! Well done!


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## Ryan Scully (Nov 2, 2011)

This is beyond impressive Piotr!



Ryan =o


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## vlado hudec (Nov 2, 2011)

Hey Piotr, very impressive !

which libraries you used there?

Thanks

V


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## Pietro (Nov 3, 2011)

Hey,

Thanks for listening, comments and bumping (Andrew) .

I used a lot of stuff, also some that I got recently and didn't have occasion to use before. I built a new template on this:

*Strings:*
Hollywood Strings
LASS

*Woodwinds:*
Hollywoodwinds
Symphobia
VSL Flute

*Brass:*
ProjectSam Orchestral Brass Classic
VSL Epic Horns (just in a couple of places)

*Percussion:*
Truestrike 1
EWQLSO
SD1 and SD2
Symphobia 2 (nice cymbals, and they are different than TS1)

*Choir:*
Requiem Light

*Adds:*
Omnisphere
Sonokinetic Tutti
Symphobia 1 & 2
Harp is from EWQLSO

Cheers!
- Piotr


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## schatzus (Nov 3, 2011)

Sonically impressive Pietro! Uber-well done.


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## Dracarys (Nov 3, 2011)

This is Colossal, with hints of Goldsmith and Zimmer, you just shamed a lot of us.
How many cue's were taken to accomplish this Unless you have a powerful enough system, or slaves, to have one template?


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## Ryan (Nov 3, 2011)

This was awesome mate.. I did even start to think about getting back to Project Sam Orchestral Brass Classic again after hearing this. 
You did really, and I mean, REALLY catch some beautiful moments with your score.

Good job. I'm in fact a bit jealous.

oh, and one mmore thing. How much did you use of HW-strings and LASS?


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## Pietro (Nov 5, 2011)

Thanks again, for watching and commenting! Much appreciated!

This was actually a single template, everything done in one project on one PC. Played just fine, maybe besides some libraries I still have on regular HDDs.

I used LASS mainly for short articulations. I had them layered with HS, which, to me, has a little too jumpy velocity layers. I did the layering by Cubase midi sends and with slight timing randomization, so the template looks pretty clean. One track for short violins I, one for violins II etc. I also had compression on HS spiccatos, helping a little for those jumpy dynamics.

I also doubled runs with LASS. But didn't have time to tweak it enough, to get it set up so clean as short articulations.

Trills are from LASS and legatos are HS.

Cheers!
- Piotr


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## Vartio (Nov 6, 2011)

Holy Christ in a chicken basket... That was awesome!


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## Alex Temple (Nov 7, 2011)

Wow... great job, can't say much more than what's already been said! I think my favorite part was that twinkly part at the very end.


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## Andrew Christie (Dec 5, 2011)

Thought this was worthy of another bump. Great stuff :D


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## Blakus (Jul 6, 2012)

Just came by this and thought it definitely deserved some more attention! I can't believe how fantastic the mix sounds. My mind also wandered towards considering Orchestral Brass Classic after I heard this! Ha! It is sonically so so pleasing and the orchestration is fantastic!


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