What's new

STAR WARS: The Asteroid Field | Orchestral mockup (Excerpt)

Diego Leal E

New Member
Hello there, fellow composers!

A couple of days ago I decided to venture into making a brief orchestral mockup of "The Asteroid Field" from STAR WARS: The Empire Strikes Back.

One of my personal challenges was to keep the essence of the original cue but adding my personal tweaks here and there.

I consider it far from "perfect" but I will appreciate your feedback! This is the start of a beautiful journey as I would like to dive more into STAR WARS soundtracks this way.

By the way, this is my first time posting in the forum, nice to meet you! :)


- Diego Leal E.

 
This is (IMO) one of the very best tracks Williams ever wrote, so ... you took up a huge challenge here! ;)
The very start of your excerpt does unfortunately not quite pull the listener in. The short notes you used for the strings here don't quite sound like it does in the original. It is a lot more messy and dynamic. I'd say, some layering of unquantized midi would help a lot. The notes also need dynamic. Yours are totally flat ... all notes the same velocity.

The lack of dynamics is also a problem of all of the rest of the excerpt. You really need to use more velocity and CC 1/CC 11 work to make this come alive. Your brass is especially flat. Try to listen to the original as sculpt those crescendo/decrescendo action with your mod-wheel.

Also, it sounds like you are writing the notes in the key editor. Am I right? Try playing some stuff in and if you cannot do that, make it slower to play it in. If that is still to hard, then at least try to find some chance-based de-quantisation and learn to move notes backwards and forwards until it sounds right. Won't practice your keyboard skills and will be a lot of work, but your ears will profit.

The woodwinds and percussion work quite well IMO, so, maybe start with the strings and brass.
 
This is (IMO) one of the very best tracks Williams ever wrote, so ... you took up a huge challenge here! ;)
The very start of your excerpt does unfortunately not quite pull the listener in. The short notes you used for the strings here don't quite sound like it does in the original. It is a lot more messy and dynamic. I'd say, some layering of unquantized midi would help a lot. The notes also need dynamic. Yours are totally flat ... all notes the same velocity.

The lack of dynamics is also a problem of all of the rest of the excerpt. You really need to use more velocity and CC 1/CC 11 work to make this come alive. Your brass is especially flat. Try to listen to the original as sculpt those crescendo/decrescendo action with your mod-wheel.

Also, it sounds like you are writing the notes in the key editor. Am I right? Try playing some stuff in and if you cannot do that, make it slower to play it in. If that is still to hard, then at least try to find some chance-based de-quantisation and learn to move notes backwards and forwards until it sounds right. Won't practice your keyboard skills and will be a lot of work, but your ears will profit.

The woodwinds and percussion work quite well IMO, so, maybe start with the strings and brass.

Thank you very much, for all your recommendations!
 
I don't know the original work, so I can't compare, but I really like how "cut off" everything sounds. Very crisp mockup! :)

Thanks a lot, Berlin! In case you want to listen and compare it to the original, you can have a look here:

Starting at 2:14

 
Possibly Williams finest Cue and a smorgasbord of musical techniques. Unfortunately you have chosen one the hardest bit's to mock up as Full Sections like this can really show up a sample lIbrary and you get the organ effect. I'd follow MGdepp's advice and go crazy with the CC data. Pay particular attention to note entries as the are never as smooth as a switch ( keyboard)....also mess up the timing a lot...

best

e
 
Possibly Williams finest Cue and a smorgasbord of musical techniques. Unfortunately you have chosen one the hardest bit's to mock up as Full Sections like this can really show up a sample lIbrary and you get the organ effect. I'd follow MGdepp's advice and go crazy with the CC data. Pay particular attention to note entries as the are never as smooth as a switch ( keyboard)....also mess up the timing a lot...

best

e


Thank you for the tips, Ed!
 
Top Bottom