Great production Mike.   Also very nice idea on the 'blockbuster' multi.   Thanks for sharing.   I have also really liked the Chamber spiccs doubled with it as well (when extra definition is needed.)

All the best,

 Sounds amazing!

Best,

Jay

No problem; and thanks, everyone for the kind words!

_Mike

It should probably go without saying that the "John Williams" sound is no more the John Williams sound than mine is, as even a cursory examination of his (and my) influences should make abundantly clear.

But that being said anyway, what sets JW apart is not his orchestration; it's his use of cohesive symphonic structure within the context of film cues; two things which are almost always mutually exclusive. If you know 10 guys here who can do that, tell them to step up and take their rightful places as the new top-call guys, because as of yet, that's an ability almost totally absent from the landscape.

I'm sure you only come across like you've got an ax to grind due to some sort of internet thing.  Nonetheless, I don't expect you'll be hearing anything different, musically, from me, anytime soon.  Especially inasmuch as any comparison to JW makes me giddy as a schoolgirl.

_Mike

...well that's the thing: I bristle at this idea that anyone can just "do a Williams" thing.  That's ridiculous; everyone I've heard who set out to do that failed, usually because while they might understand the orchestrational approach, that doesn't magically imbue them with the symphonic sensibilities.  They sound like people doing JW who don't actually understand what he's doing.  Bad impressions.

Having just written 84 mintues of score in 5 weeks, I can attest to having zero time to second-guess or attempt to do anything compositionally other than get the cues done, and right now. If someone says to you, "Do what you do, right now, and don't think about it because there is no time," and it's internally cohesive and competent, then it's a pretty safe bet what's coming out is you.  It's your first instinct, your comfort zone, that which you've internalized, that which you understand, can control, and have mastered.  Nothing's worse than deliberately trying to do something you wouldn't actually do, to sound like somebody else (or not sound like somebody).  Personal style is always in there, and over time, takes many forks and roads; you don't have to force it and you don't have to sweat it.

As I look down at the pile of reference scores I cracked open from time to time on this score, which are still on the floor, I notice the usual suspects: Ravel, Schumann, Barber, Holst, Penderecki, and no Williams.  But that's where "Williams" lies, in all ways, anyways.  It's an amalgum.

_Mike

John Williams isn't exactly original, if you know the repertoire.  I'm curious who you think has managed to redefine this style of music in the last 100 years?

In any case - and this will probably bother you to no end - 95% of work comes to me BECAUSE of my sound, not in spite of it.  I find it interesting you keep mentioning CE3K, because I honestly have never seen that film end-to-end (it feels really boring to me) and I don't own the score in any form.  There are a few JW scores I was just never motivated to seek out, that's one of them, 1941 is another, I hated Catch Me if You Can, and if memory serves, Seven Years in Tibet was a giant WTF for me.  But I'm so curious now I have to go get it.

I'm also very curious to hear your original music.  Which I'm assuming has no Williams in it, and thus none of his influences.  I'm not 100% sure what that leaves behind, but I'm dying to hear it!

_Mike

Monitors-wise, I primarily use B&W 800D's.

_Mike

Well his music is right there in the VSL demos.  It doesn't have any John Williams whatsoever, as the insufferable Limey Robbins was around in music before John Williams was known for film scoring.  Like me.  Though my music probably sounds something like John Williams because I steal from the same composers he steals from.   Just joking.  I don't actually steal, though I cannot help being influenced. 

Now if you want to talk about stealing, don't even get me started on James Horner. There is an example of somebody consciously, calculatingly, deliberately and coldly lifting from every composer from Robert Schumann to Charles Ives.

Don't forget who Charles Ives influenced strongly either.

I'm out of here because I have to practice my archery at least twice a week and don't have anymore time.

Awesome music Mike.  I read one of your older threads on the star trek mockup and was wondering if your still using the same reverb settings?  It seems like everyone is always raving about Todd AO but you seem to be using other scoring stages and using different ones for each section.  I was wondering if you could tell me in more detail how you set your reverb for Captial City for each section?