Falcon Patrol II diary.

[Mano-]

After reading Doddsy´s diary I decided to make of my own.

Day 1.
My first plan was to make 1942. But after reading "STIL v63 - SID Tune Information List", I found out that it was a cover based on the movie, 633 squadron. By pure luck the same day I stumbled upon a random review of # Falcon Patrol II # on the remix64 frontpage. Soooo, the SID is like 30 seconds long or something. Well I guess I can work with that, I like the melody and it checked out on the STIL list.

So now there is some possibilities to ponder.
1.) I like the SID but don't know what to do about it. -> "future projects" Folder
2.) I like the SID and I know more or less what I should do with it.
3.) I like the SID but there is already 100 remixes of it. I usually quick listen to every remix with decent rating so I don't unintentionally release something similar. But then again, this is how I work and think .If any of you reading this are happy with your remix and want others to hear what you have done. By all means, release your work.

If this diary is gonna work I will obviously have to choose 2.), otherwise it would end quite abruptly. So now its time to start Fl studio and load in a piano for playing out the melody. 30 ich seconds is not that long, my plan is to make it at least 3 minutes. So I need to work out some variations, countermelody etc.
After about 1 hour I a came up with some variations. Now I think I have a solid ground to begin on.



I will try to do a update every 1-2 weeks or when I find time to do it.

[Mano-]

Day 2.
I like the old Superman intro by J.Williams , I think I will go with the low rhythm and use that as my base. And for that I need some low brass, strings and woodwinds. I'm guessing I will need double basses, cellos, trombones, tubas, horns and some low woodwinds like bassoons. I will have to layer them in different ways to sound somewhat close to the original. I also need percussion. Snare drums, timpani, cymbals and perhaps some deep sounding drums. After trying out various combination of sounds I ended up with this.



I loaded up a full strings patch instead for the double basses (Some string libraries have these patches. Like East West Hollywood Strings). I also took a random bass patch from Zebra 2 for more low end punch.

[Doddsy]

Interesting diary and track appears to be progressing nicely..

[C64GLeN]

I'm a fan of the Falcon Patrol II SID, and I really like they way you are going with this. Looking forward to more.

[Commie_User]

I agree.

My mind's eye - ear? - conjures up a marching band sound as opposed to something a bit Hollywood for a completed arrangement.

I had a go with this music myself - results somewhere in my huge pile - and came up with a more Edwardian quartet thing, with violins and cello. It did actually sound good. I used some pack or other by London Strings.

[Mordi]

Cool! Interesting read. I like how you used Zebra 2 to fill out the low-end. That's my favorite softsynth. Would be interesting to see a pic/video of how your project is laid out. Maybe when it's closer to complete.

[Mano-]

My mind's eye - ear? - conjures up a marching band sound as opposed to something a bit Hollywood for a completed arrangement.

Its a good idea. But the problem with most brass/drum orchestral libraries is that almost every one of them is epic/Hollywood sounding.

I like how you used Zebra 2 to fill out the low-end. That's my favorite softsynth.

Zebra 2 is indeed an amazing softsynth.

Would be interesting to see a pic/video of how your project is laid out.

More pictures will come later. I have never recorded video, will have to do some research first.

[Chris Abbott]

Oooh, I will be keeping an eye on this. If you're doing a marching band thing you would have to concentrate on more of the individual instruments, pay a lot more attention to the woodwind, and restrict the rhythm to what's playable in real-life: in this case, glockenspiel, snare drum or two, and bass drum. And if strings are there, score the violins/violins 2/violas/cello/bass separately instead of using a "full strings" patch.

Good woodwinds are hard to find though. We had to beg for them for BIT SC from Orchestral tools

[Chris Abbott]

Good brass is hard to find too, actually.

Having said that, Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 is £99, and for what you get, that's astonishing value.

[Mano-]

Personally when I'm thinking marching band, I'm thinking 100s of people playing in an arena or something.
like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNe0ZUD19EE . Just that particular sound might be very hard to achieve due the enormous about of brass/drums involved. But I'm going to experiment with some solo instruments and see what I can come up with.

edit.
1 min 20 sek Wip. But I might just scrap it all and try a marching band version instead.



Added Trumpets, Trombones, Horns, solo Flute, solo Clarinet, solo Bassoon and Xylophone to play the melody.

[Mordi]

Nice! Makes me think of the "Police Academy" movies for some reason. I'm not familiar with the source, but this would fit well into any modern military-themed game or movie for sure.

[Doddsy]

Good sound.

[Commie_User]

Oh, that is so nearly there!

If I may recommend, try sourcing copies of SOUNDIRON HIGH SCHOOL DRUMS and, I think, CHRIS HEIN HORNS. CINEBRASS should be alright, too.

Those should push you all the way over.

[Mano-]

I own several libraries from Soundiron, good quality and low prices, but I have totally missed High School Drums. And for 49$ it actually sounds very good. I purchased Cinebrass several years ago at some black Friday event (50-60% off), solid library.

[Mano-]

Have been busy with other things so I have not done much at all. I did buy the School Drum sample set and I have been checking out some YouTube videos. The astrophotography / aurora season is soon over and I will probably have more time for music.