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Ranking the Star Wars Soundtracks — Page 9

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ray_afraid said:

yhwx said:

there’s no real point distinguishing between iTunes and CD because they’re both digital and the quality difference is minute.

That’s not true. Just because it’s digital doesn’t mean it’s of the same quality at all.
Does iTunes still keep it’s MP3s around 120kbps?
And, if so, why does anybody still buy from iTunes?

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/141570/what-is-the-quality-of-the-music-sold-in-the-itunes-store

Also, nobody buys anything from iTunes anyway because of streaming services.

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Music encoded as 256kbps AAC files first came to the iTunes Store in 2007 with the launch of Apple’s iTunes Plus. That marked the debut of DRM-free music tracks encoded at a higher quality bitrate that Apple claims is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings.

As of 2007 the audio files sold in the iTunes store have been encoded using the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) codec and distributed with .m4a extensions from the iTunes store. The 256 kbps setting is an average bit rate encoding scheme, not a fixed bit rate encoding scheme. The actual sample rate is varied dynamically based on the content and time.

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Valheru_84 said:

Ultimately, like I said, it’s up to you, but it is piracy. If they release the OOT officially are you going to download that illegally too? Same logic.

As said, I haven’t ever seen the original soundtracks for sale anywhere. I’ll look into it but I don’t think they’re actually available outside non official retailers, meaning they fall into the same category for sharing copies as the DSEs do. This site well knows the grey area it falls into and I think this is where the OOT soundtracks now fall into as well. I will see if I can confirm that though before proceeding further in obtaining them via other means.

No, this isn’t accurate. They’re readily and officially available on vinyl and digital (not just iTunes, but also places where you can get them at higher bitrates). The analogy to the OOT would be if Lucasfilm officially released them on Blu-ray and digital, and you justified pirating them because there wasn’t a DVD release.

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yhwx said:

Also, nobody buys anything from iTunes anyway because of streaming services.

Hahahaha.

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TV’s Frink said:

yhwx said:

Also, nobody buys anything from iTunes anyway because of streaming services.

Hahahaha.

Frink, it would be helpful to the quality - and flow - of the discussion if you would explain yourself a little better (at times).

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
‘How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

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Well no one is picking Rogue One to be on their list, not even at the bottom. I think the score to Rogue One is pretty good. I absolutely love the track Hope! 😄 I know that it mixes music from the John Williams score but it’s a nice, neat little spin on the Imperial March.

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oojason said:

TV’s Frink said:

yhwx said:

Also, nobody buys anything from iTunes anyway because of streaming services.

Hahahaha.

Frink, it would be helpful to the quality - and flow - of the discussion if you would explain yourself a little better (at times).

I’m just find sweeping generalizations, especially ones that in my experience aren’t true, to be funny.

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You could have said so in the original hahahaha post mate.

Laughing at a poster’s opinion - without stating why you find it so funny does disrupt the flow and quality of a topic somewhat. It puts them on the backfoot - they possibly may be reluctant to post further on it - or engage in further topics elsewhere - which is something we don’t want.

Plus, it’s not so much fun being laughed at.

This isn’t a specific pop at you, Frink - though it is a general request for anyone reading this… a little more civility and understanding - give a little bit more to encourage a conversation unfold and evolve - and also have a laugh too.

 

It could, from a certain point of view, be true… (not so much the ‘no-one buys…’ part - but a significant effect)

Youtube - a streaming service - has had an effect on itunes, due to youtube’s free content, ease of use, proliferation, and more choices of differing versions of a single track (live, acoustic, piano, cover, in-session, concert, or part of a whole album etc)… people may opt to listen to music for free on there - instead purchasing tracks from itunes.

Then we move on to tv series & film etc - the streaming sites (many illegal and free)… the ability to watch a film at any time of your choosing for free (moral and legal aspect aside) - has very likely had an effect on itunes. Game Of Thrones for example - available minutes after the episode had premiered on may streaming sites - even including the porn sites!

Itunes is more of a rigid system too - other streaming services seem more loose in comparison when cataloging content (obviously that’s subjective - and some may prefer a more rigid system), as well as the more restrictive itunes formats too…

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
‘How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

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I dunno, he’s been looking a little pale lately.

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I have thick skin and a fine complexion.

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I have thick hair and fine skin.

What were we talking about?

There actually was a CD release of at least ESB that had the original art but it sounded like shit and only had like 10 of the songs.

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  1. TESB
  2. ANH
  3. TPM
  4. ROTJ
  5. SOTE (Shadows of the Empire , by Joel McNeely)

— phew, now it’s getting hard —

  1. RO

  2. TFA

— and harder —

  1. ROTS

— to complete bllsht —

  1. AOTC

I think in the case of the scores to AOTC and ROTS you can hear out that Johnny W. was still upset that George had cut out most of his music scored for a lot of scenes in AOTC (especially the whole arena fight). I remember I read that a few years ago, and obviously AOTC is the movie with the most re-used score from another SW movie. That’s the only understandable reason why both scores seems so weak to me.

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Possessed said:

There actually was a CD release of at least ESB that had the original art but it sounded like shit and only had like 10 of the songs.

Yeah I know, but I wouldn’t consider that the original ESB album on CD. It’s essentially a different program. The anthology set was closer.

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The anthology set is awesome. If you’re dying for the original track listing but don’t want to buy it from iTunes, just rip it and rearrange it in iTunes.

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

The anthology set is awesome. If you’re dying for the original track listing but don’t want to buy it from iTunes, just rip it and rearrange it in iTunes.

I used to have it. I think I gave it away. It was nice though.

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Bonus is I bought it for like $15 on Amazon from a thrift store seller. The box came jammed full of not only the anthology discs but also the prequel soundtracks. Didn’t know what they had, apparently. I’ll take em, I guess.

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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yhwx said:

yhwx said:

  1. The Empire Strickes Back
  2. Return of the Jedi
  3. The Force Awakens
  4. The Phantom Menace †
  5. Star Wars
  6. Attack of the Clones
  7. Revenge of the Sith

† I do really like this score, but due to how lists work, it has been relegated to a lower place than I might have wanted it to. (And no, I do not accept ties.)

Updated ranking, which I am pretty satisfied with:

  1. The Empire Strikes Back
    A really good soundtrack.

  2. Star Wars
    I think I pretty severely underrated this soundtrack in my original ranking. After listening through it again, I really liked it.

  3. Return of the Jedi
    Pretty good. Side note: It’s pretty much impossible to find a good version of this soundtrack that either doesn’t sound like crap or has been watered down to oblivion.

  4. The Force Awakens
    Thumbs up.

  5. Rogue One
    I think most people underrate this soundtrack, but I loved how it sounded and worked in the movie. I also liked how it tied in with the A New Hope soundtrack.

  6. The Phantom Menace
    Thumbs up. I especially like ‘Anikan’s Theme’.

  7. Attack of the Clones
    Pretty unremarkable as far as Star Wars soundtracks go.

  8. Revenge of the Sith
    Pretty much the same as Attack of the Clones.

So even though I have not watched the movie yet, I have bought the TLJ soundtrack. I’m not quite sure what to think of it. It seemed to me kind of busy in places, but that could just reflect the pace of the movie. I think this soundtrack has a bit more interest to me than TFA’s, so I’ll place it above that for now. I also loved the callbacks to earlier soundtracks.

Current ranking:

  1. The Empire Strikes Back
  2. A New Hope
  3. Return of the Jedi
  4. The Last Jedi
  5. The Force Awakens
  6. The Phantom Menace
  7. Attack of the Clones
  8. Revenge of the Sith

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Rogue One was an absolutely horrible soundtrack. Was not John Williams, was rushed out at the last minute, and is unbelievably generic. Not even worth mentioning in the same conversation as the others.

I’d probably rank the Williams soundtracks:

  1. ESB
  2. SW
  3. ROTJ
  4. TLJ
  5. TPM
  6. TFA
  7. AOTC
  8. ROTS

ESB edges out the original mainly because of “The Imperial March.” ROTJ has the Emperor’s theme which is awesome along with the rest of the music in the throne room sequence, but beyond that doesn’t quite compare with the first two in terms of original contributions. TLJ is actually better than TFA in large part because it seemed to rely more heavily on themes from the OT at appropriate moments, and its new parts seemed overall a slight step above as well. TPM scores major points for “Duel of the Fates” alone. The other two prequel soundtracks are mostly pretty forgettable, though the love theme in AOTC was pretty good. It’s just a shame the scenes it accompanied were so terrible.

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  1. RotS
  2. TESB
  3. SW
  4. RotJ
  5. AotC
  6. TFA
  7. RO
  8. TPM

TPM has it’s moments but most of it is inferior to the others imo.