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  • Imperial March - John Williams

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    There is quite some fuzz on different fora about modelled products since there is a full brass section of Sample Modelling available now. I became very eager to know if sampled instruments could to this difficult task: the Imperial March from Star Wars (of course the one) written by John Williams.

    I have chosen for a full VSL version for the woodwinds, (Dimension) brass and (Orchestra) strings. The string section is supported by the solo strings. I have used MIR Teldex Studio, but with the Large Scoring Stage 1 of Numerical Sound (as part of the Forti package) as insert in the VSL convolution plugin. I followed the tempo of the original performance of John Williams as conductor, which is quite slower than indicated in the score (104 vs. 112). Actually I would prefer a faster version: it gives me more the impression of an expansive army. But who am I to discuss the choice of Mr.Williams himself?

    It was very hard to get that specific sound of the original recording: it is quite dry, but sounds very full and lively. The woodwinds sound from far generally (strangely enough), there are some serious intonation issues here and there. So, after all, I just tried to get as much as possible not a copy of this performance soundwise, but moreover my interpretation of this piece with all possible tools I have in order to do justice to this wonderful composition.

    Without knowing the original I would have used a somewhat more lush verb to be honest, but this one keeps things clean (enough) I hope and is not too far away from the original.
    Furthermore I did some tweaking of the brass sound to have it more brassy than VSL by default does, moreover to find out if this works out anyway.

    Since there is always a never ending discussion on many fora of virtual versions versus the real one(s), I would like to state here that in my point of view nothing compares with the energy of all those musicians directed by such a legendary soundtrack composer as John Williams himself (although some people may dispute his status in turn). Maybe we will be capable to realize a realistic emulation soundwise in the future better and better, but I think it won't give me ever the listening experience I had during his Imperial March for example.

    However dear forum members, it is such a nice job being busy with detailed programming, randomizing parameters, looking for the best plugin settings, trying to get the best sound in all instruments etc.. I hope that you will enjoy at least musically this virtual version. As before: do not hesitate to give me your opinion, comments, suggestions etc..

    BTW There is another version of this piece on the site of Fauxharmonic available. Just to compare, if interested.


  •  I think you could be interested about this : http://www.vsl.co.at/Player2.aspx?Lang=1&DemoID=5782

    Best and good job for your demo !

    Mathieu


  • I just overlooked this. Great performance of course (as usual with Jay Bacal)! Thanks.