[swashmebuckle]

Around three months ago, I was contacted by a mysterious character named Admiral Snackbar.  In recognition of this fine username, I decided before even opening the PM to award this person with either my car, one night with my Burt Bacharach bootleg tape collection, or the complete midi source files to the FotG soundtracks.

Fortunately for us, Snackbar turned out to be a talented producer with a keen ear and a great deal of experience with orchestral music.  Even better, the good Admiral is a professional horn player, meaning that some of our most important solo passages will feature actual performances by a real life human™!

The track you are about to hear (assuming you click the link) represents our latest effort and is probably very close to what will appear in the final game.  If you do not click the link, I will make no guarantees about your impending aural experiences.  In pursuit of that great sound we all remember from the original LSO recordings, Snackbar has left no reverb unauditioned, even going so far as to emulate the spectral curves of the individual mics used to capture each instrument on the Abbey Road 1 soundstage.  Please report on how far your socks are knocked off, and in what direction(s), for science.  Without further ado,

http://www.macjams.com/song/69740

[CommanderDJ]

It's so... happy. And exciting.

Excellent quality, really awesomesauce. My socks were rocked off due east at a speed of 2km/s. Took my feet with them. Ow.

[CountBuggula]

Nicely done!  It's not John Williams, but it works.  Socks went in a north-by-northwesterly direction about 50', where they ran into a wall and could go no further.

[SkycladGuardian]

Very, very nice! Unfortunately, I was barefooted while listening to the track, so I am unable to provide any valuable data on my socks.

[WOLF_Angel]

It is amazing what is done with midi here.  (personally I don't think midi can quite replace actual instruments, but short of finding GOOD people to fill the gap in recording the alternative makes sense).

Swash, I wanted to know if the other posted piece was tweeked by this guy as well?  I listened to the two for comparison sake and the newer post I can defiantly hear some of the effects.  Not so much on the other.

Unfortunately I had no socks on either, but my wife in the other room asked if I was watch something.  I did not answer right away.  Then she asked if it was something from Star Wars EU.  I think that will do in place of sock data.

[chief1983]

Props for having a wife who even knows what the EU is.

[swashmebuckle]

The older preview piece is from a couple "generations" ago--it only uses the East/West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Stage Mic samples.  After making that, I went on to produce versions of the music using a mix of stage and close mic positions, to better simulate the crispness of the original recordings.  It was at that point that Admiral Snackbar contacted me and we began auditioning the various techniques to try to match the original recordings.  The current generation is primarily close mic samples (with a little bit of stage mic thrown in for some of the more spacious sounding instruments) using custom reverb and accurately modeled EQ settings for the various tracks, as well as some other tricks and black magic that I don't fully understand

[WOLF_Angel]

Props for having a wife who even knows what the EU is.

lol not only is she a geek but she looks like a cross between Drew Barrymore and Amy Lee.  She can list off just as many references from the music video on youtube "Tonight I'm Frakking You" as I can.

Thanks for the info Swash.  I thought you had changed some things on that:).

When you say Auditioner, are you using a specific program for it?  Just curious because I work for a company that has what they call Auditioner (and we are an audio company).

[swashmebuckle]

Nope, just using the word "auditioning" in the sense of listening to the same piece over and over again while trying out changes in certain parameters with the goal of improving the overall experience.  I also use that word as the aural equivalent of "envision", so it's gonna have to pull quadruple duty now that I know that it's a piece of software too

I'm not responsible for the effects and such on this latest one, but when I am trying to produce a mix, I just use a set of plain old studio monitors.  What does your Auditioner program do (if it's not top-secret)?

[Cobra]

This sounds awesome, though for some reason the first bit reminds me of the older Star Trek movies.

[WOLF_Angel]

The Auditioner is used for something other than what you are trying to do.  hence my confusion.  Basically you can input the blueprints of a building into the program and what materials are being used to build the place then get to hear what a sound system in the building will sound like before it is ever installed or the building is even built to a high degree of accuracy.  It is amazing stuff:).