Request - Can someone put ANH opening theme instead of the new on in TFA for me please?

Hi there!

While this may be something really easy for all of you fan editors it’s proven to be nearly impossible for me. My old ass computer and lack of proper software are no help at all so I turn to you hoping someone can take a bit of time out of your schedules to help me out with this.

Thing is, listening to the recording of the opening theme for TFA back to back with the one in ANH or any of the other 5 for that matter shows how flat an uninspiring the new one is.

I’m sure this has been discussed elsewhere but it just bothers me too much to leave it as is. First time I saw TFA in theaters I thought it sounded weird, like the speakers volume was too low. Next 3 times I saw it I knew something was definitely off but couldn’t pinpoint what was it until I got the Bluray a couple weeks ago and played both TFA and ANH back to back. The difference is quite shocking to be honest and now I cannot stand it.

So, my folks took me to see ROTJ in theaters when I was 5 years old, it’s my first memory of ever going to the movies and like many others, I fell in love right there and then with Star Wars.

They haven’t seen TFA yet since they’re old now and don’t like to go out much but I’ll go back home in a couple weeks for a visit where we will see it together but I wish I could show it to them with a proper opening theme.

Can someone help me out with this?

I don’t need anything else to be changed, just the music up to + - 1:40 minutes.

If you want to add the Fox Fanfare and logo would be cool but it’s really not necessary.

Only other thing I would ask is for it to be 1080p and under 6GB. I don’t know if Mega is really going down or not but if it is a torrent would be just fine, if possible. Jdownloader with multiple parts would be fine too although not preferred but really, I can make my way around any method you prefer.

Thanks for your time, if any of you could do this I’d be eternally grateful!

PS. If this is the wrong place to request something like this please let me know but it seemed like the most appropriate one.

I’m not at home until Monday night but could get something done by Wednesday for you.

1080p at 6 gigs to improve a few seconds of audio? I agree that the first few notes of the main theme feel a bit flat. It just seems a bit counter-intuitive to dramatically reduce the quality of both the audio and video for the rest of the 2+ hours to improve the quality of the audio for a few seconds.

Since you’re looking for help, I’m guessing you might not have the ability to rip the BD yourself. But if by chance you do, a much better option might be for the generous person to just send you the replacement audio track so that you can remux it. It would save them from having to render the film’s video as well.

Alright, I’ve got a preview-complete with retro Fox logo and fanfare!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxJFE7MgFQ75YjN3RlcxV0ZoSDA/view?usp=drivesdk
What do you think?

In my edit these thing mostly have been addressed. It is already released. You can PM for a copy. 7.1 DTS TRUE HD mix is a lot different than a DD 5.1 Standard mix. Just by down converting this is already sounds more like the older films. Keep in Mind this is John Williams we are talking about. Also please note that your setup makes a huge difference…

Adywan, I could hug you

towne32 said:

1080p at 6 gigs to improve a few seconds of audio? I agree that the first few notes of the main theme feel a bit flat. It just seems a bit counter-intuitive to dramatically reduce the quality of both the audio and video for the rest of the 2+ hours to improve the quality of the audio for a few seconds.

Thanks for the reply!

I completely agree with you about reducing the quality just for the opening theme, I just figured it could be encoded like those BD torrents that are about 4GB in size and look and sound okay. Not great compared to the actual blu-ray of course but it’d be at least something.

Since you’re looking for help, I’m guessing you might not have the ability to rip the BD yourself. But if by chance you do, a much better option might be for the generous person to just send you the replacement audio track so that you can remux it. It would save them from having to render the film’s video as well.

Correct! As I mentioned, lack of software but mainly my computer is almost 8 years old so it doesn’t even have a bluray player/burner.

I did try with what I have. Since I cannot rip it, hmmm kat helped me with an 1080p copy, I made a VERY rudimentary mix with the ANH theme in camtastia studio (I know, I know…) and rendered it just as an incredibly amateur experiment. The opening crawl does sound better even in my crap mix, but the video came out as 10GB size (from a 3.7GB) and lost a buttload of quality.

While I would appreciate a fan-pro mix, I don’t think I could render it myself, just way over my head here.

Again, I appreciate the reply a lot!

Sherman said:

Alright, I’ve got a preview-complete with retro Fox logo and fanfare!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxJFE7MgFQ75YjN3RlcxV0ZoSDA/view?usp=drivesdk
What do you think?

That’s perfect! 😮 Thank you so much for taking the time to make this!

adywan said:

The problems with the new theme are all down to the mixing. the timing is also slightly different between TFA and ANH so joining the two together without a noticeable audio cut is going to be tough. I’d been playing about with the TFA theme for my own personal TFA edit and did some remixing to get it to sound more like the other episodes themes without having to reuse one of the original pieces of music. If anyone wants to use it ( it’s only stereo at the moment though) then they can

https://mega.nz/#!qUtjATQQ!J6RgSOoGYTnShtha-AmJSVBQPIwB-A0xQ8M7V87jlhU

Thank you Ady! You mixed that from the original TFA score?!?! I’m not even goint to attempt to figure out how because it sounds 100x better!

While you’ve just proven that mixing wasn’t right, and not only in the opening theme, but throughout it seemed the music was always too low to have the impact it should, except maybe when the X-Wings arrive at Tokadana, maybe.

I think on top of the mixing, the fact that they recorded the opening theme with the LA orchestra in the US with 90 instruments instead of the LSO in Abbey Road with 120 was also a huge misstep. I do not know why they decided to do this but it was kinda shocking to learn that the opening theme wasn’t even conducted by John Williams but the LA director. Wtf?

Here’s the source on that if anyone’s interested: http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2015/12/30/star-wars-oxygen-vol-25-the-force-awakens-part-1 Talk about opening theme starts @ 50:00 minutes.

Are you planning to release your TFA edit at some point? Are you ‘just’ re mixing sound/music and I guess color correction or a more in-depth edit? Would really love to be able to watch your version ether way, man!

xxtelecine 7xx said:

In my edit these thing mostly have been addressed. It is already released. You can PM for a copy. 7.1 DTS TRUE HD mix is a lot different than a DD 5.1 Standard mix. Just by down converting this is already sounds more like the older films. Keep in Mind this is John Williams we are talking about. Also please note that your setup makes a huge difference…

Ohh this is awesome, would love to watch your edit! I’ll try to find your thread in here to read about what you did to it.

Thank you very much for the offer, PM sent! 😄

MartyMcFly said:
I think on top of the mixing, the fact that they recorded the opening theme with the LA orchestra in the US with 90 instruments instead of the LSO in Abbey Road with 120 was also a huge misstep. I do not know why they decided to do this but it was kinda shocking to learn that the opening theme wasn’t even conducted by John Williams but the LA director. Wtf?

Here’s the source on that if anyone’s interested: http://www.rebelforceradio.com/shows/2015/12/30/star-wars-oxygen-vol-25-the-force-awakens-part-1 Talk about opening theme starts @ 50:00 minutes.

---

Thanks for posting that link MartyMcFly, hadn’t come across the site before 😃

Cheers, Paul

Most complaints about the score sounding off are sort of bs. The fact the the LSO didn’t do it and JW didn’t conduct everything has nothing to do with the fact that it sounds different (both, I believe, were done for health reasons).

The mix is a bit different than the other SW scores and the sound is different as well, but this is a different movie and a different trilogy. Each Star Wars film had a distinct main title performance before the PT where TPM’s was used for all three. Personally, I like the subtle differences between them. TFA’s first note doesn’t seem to have any percussion (or at least very little) going along with it which I assume is the reason people are complaining (ady’s version seems to add elements from the original). But I don’t have a problem with it as I don’t see it as any big of a difference than say ROTJ having the percussion come in early.

Hal 9000 said:

I wish I’d realized that the PT all used the same recording of the main theme, or I’d have replaced two of them. Anyone know if the soundtrack CDs are unique takes of the opening?

From what I’ve read, at least AoTC is definitely the same recording as TPM on the soundtrack.