It’s exactly as you might expect: sample libraries are at the point of being able to convincingly recreate entire symphony orchestras, close to original recordings. Composer Simon Passmore has done that with Star Wars and Apple’s Logic Pro.
It’s pretty stunning, and he promises more soon (plus a walkthrough of how this was made):
Let’s skip right to the main question I think most of us have, which is which sample libraries did he use? (Yeah, that didn’t sound like the default Logic content, did it?)
I think the key ingredient is Infinite Brass, and along with that I use CSW/CinePerc/CineHarp/CSS+Vista and Simple Sam Piano
Translation:
Aaron Venture Infinite Brass ($449)
Cinematic Studio Woodwinds ($399)
Cinesamples CinePerc ($749)
Cinesamples CineHarps ($279)
Cinematic Studio Strings ($399)
Vista Strings ($339)
Simple Sam piano I’m guessing is Simple Sam’s Signature Grand ($49.95)
Sum total: $2713.95 before taxes.
I imagine you could achieve good results with other libraries, though. (If you want to get into the weeds in comparison, YouTube has you. Both of those sound awfully nice to me and… well, Simon used both of them in combination.) What may be most impressive is all that MIDI automation. The Force is strong with this one.
Please Disney, don’t hurt him! Here’s what he’s got to say – I’d love to see this continue.
First of six short Star Wars mock-ups using my favourite bits of music from the first six films. Next one (some time next year) will be from Empire, either The Asteroid Field or Imperial March.
All created with commercial sample libraries, very happy to answer any questions on the libraries & methods used in the comments.
Also please consider subscribing to my channel if you’d like to see short tutorials on how I make these, as well as other mock-ups. I’m not great at social media but it would really help me if you subscribed! Planning to have a look at the music from Pixar’s The Incredibles next along with something from Empire, as well as potentially making a short walkthrough for this Star Wars mock-up.
If there’s enough interest I might also share some of my own general tips and tricks that I find help mock-ups sound more realistic. I’m not the best at mixing/mastering so definitely won’t be giving any advice on that, but I do have some useful ideas about how to play the instruments in to help give a more realistic sound.
I’m going to leave this work to those of y’all who do it and just marvel.
Now, if you’re ready for some uncanny valley – and if you want to make any nearby trumpet players spit out their coffee – listen to Star Wars: A New Hope transposed up to C major.
See, you thought you didn’t have perfect pitch and still this sounds … odd.
“No … no! It’s not true! That’s impossible!” Without fracking, for most orchestras, yeah… dunno, LSO could probably have handled this.
Well, back to plunking out atonal basslines and then applying a bunch of quantization just to produce a one-note techno bass. Good night.
Tags: Apple Logic, Apple Logic Pro, Cinematic Studio Strings, Cinematic Studio Woodwinds, Cinesamples, Infinite Brass, John Williams, Logic Pro, Mac, orchestras, orchestration, sci-fi, Software, soundware, Vista Strings