SonicAdventure
01-05-2018, 01:25 PM
As you might guess, the stylish formating of this post was done by Heidl. Still a collaborative effort, we decided that I would re-release it this time. As I'm still a little disappointed that it was deleted in the "20th-Century-Fox-purge" when it wasn't even distributed by them but by Disney. A shame because Heidl did put so much work and creativity into it. Well, it's back for now :)
Here's my initial release text, to give you a little background on this:
Heya Fellas.
Now that you've had a good look at Heidl's marvellous covers (regarding his work I'm running out of adjectives to describe it), it is my turn to say something about the mastering process. Right now, you might ask yourself a question: why do we need another version that combines OST and FYC into one release?
Simple: besides boasting the best available cover set this version is the best sounding and the only one where tracks from the FYC are sounding exactly like the ones from the OST. To achieve this, I just copied Patricia Sulllivan's OST mastering. Using that as a starting point, I then changed the sound into something that more closely resembles the sound of the prequels (Episodes I-III) and the original movies (Episodes IV-VI) while acknowledging that sound preferences have changed over the decades. Pat Sullivan already attempted exactly that with her mastering (judging by the sonic differences from OST to FYC) but I humbly think that she didn't take it far enough. It was lacking charm, at the same time sounding a bit hollow, too "punchy" and too crisp. I also wanted the centre of the stage to have more impact. In addition to those changes, I compressed dynamics very slightly in order to improve stage impressions and audibility of very soft passages. For me, the sound was the easiest thing to do.
But… I also wanted the score to be chronological. My biggest problem with the OST (and the FYC for that matter) for 'Star Wars: Episode VII' was that even though I could easily hear that the music was perfect, it didn't touch my heart. One probable cause was that John Williams likes to combine unrelated pieces out of order into bigger suites. This lack of consistency causes me to be unable to grasp what he is trying to say with his music, I've had this before with 'Indy 4'. But “consistency” is easier said than done. First, I had to take apart John Williams’ suites without anyone noticing, then I had to combine them differently. I’ve never felt that editing or crossfading are among my strong suites so you might hear several crossfades of mine that are a bit too short/fast or that sound odd. Still, half of them are very good despite my limitations, not even I notice them anymore. I used a list posted on JWFan.com and I followed it closely, ignoring it for just one track (“Torn Apart”). That list represents the music used within the movie so a fanatic would probably have included more music. I also created two “Alternates”; while I usually don’t like to include them, in this case I wanted John William’s other ideas represented as well and I just couldn’t do with “Alternate Beginning” or “Alternate Middle Portion”. The suites have been moved to the end with “Rey’s Theme” forming the last track.
Tracklist:
Disc ONE:
1. Main Title and The Attack on the Jakku Village 6:51
2. Kill them All 1:52
3. The Scavenger 3:41
4. I Can Fly Anything 4:07
5. Finn's Trek 1:44)
6. Follow Me and The Falcon 7:07
7. That Girl with the Staff 1:29
8. Rathtars! 4:06
9. Snoke 2:06
10. Arrival at Takodana and Finn's Confession 2:51
11. Maz's Counsel 4:07
12. The Starkiller 1:51
13. Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle 2:14
14. The Resistance and Rey's Abduction 3:52
Disc TWO:
1. Han and Leia 5:50
2. The Bombing Run 2:06
3. Inside Starkiller Base 2:52
4. Torn Apart 4:44
5. The Ways of the Force 4:44
6. The Journey Home 2:17
7. Farewell and Rey's Trip 3:53
8. Jedi Steps and Finale 10:05
9. Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle (Alternate) 2:01
10. Rey's Abduction (Alternate) 2:27
11. Scherzo for X-Wings (Concert Suite) 2:33
12. March of the Resistance (Concert Suite) 2:35
13. Rey's Theme (Concert Suite) 3:10
Artwork:
Back then Heidl spent - in his own words - an unhealthy lot of time creating 7 different artwork sets for this Edition and I encourage all of you to go to his website and download your desired sets: HQCovers (https://hqcovers.net/2016/05/14/star-wars-the-force-awakens-deluxe-edition-by-john-williams/)
FLAC (HiRes):
https://mega.nz/#!OoYjHKCb!JUxj5sQdjgTGkjwIxmVVCeHdEEQ2NNbM8ounLnu3uXY
MP3 (sorry, not true, it's FLAC in 16/44.1, fit for CD burning):
https://mega.nz/#!mxxGhBpY!tHo1ZhEGgbTQiK3m-UzeSKJPfY9wz7chSGuZrTfLeeU
Rar-Password:
Its_true_all_of_it
Have fun!
And May The Bandwidth Be With You.