HL, I understand how you feel about wanting even more of the score to come through on the pod race. It was a tough balance to work, as the source volume was so slammed to the max without the score, that pushing the score too much would have overdriven the signal or buried the lines. As a result, the music is a little too subtle at times.

Still, I'm glad to hear it had the desired effect ... if it makes you enjoy the Pod Race sequence, then it succeeded. I find that the race doesn't feel so long-in-the-tooth with the added score -- and this is the extended version of the race to boot. Hyperspace was such a tense piece of music, and it makes the race seem that much more dangerous. Anakin comes across cooler and more in control just by the addition of this piece of music. Makes you believe a 9-year-old kid could do all this.

Of course, MF used the Battle of Yavin to great success near the end, which inspired me in the first place. I gotta give credit where credit is due.

I'm sure the original music-less version was another example of Ben Burtt overriding John Williams. It worked in the asteroid sequence of Ep II but not in the pod race sequence. You can tell that the original version was Lucas and Burtt geeking out on sound editing, thinking nothing of emotion and flow.