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Merlin Sharing their music?

I noticed the Katanga music being used at Flamingo too, it took a while for fellows to recognise it! Apparently the manager at Flamingo used to work for Towers or Merlin and was given the chance to use the music for said park. In a strange way, the Katanga music does suit the Zoo at Flamingo (but that's beside the point).
 
That's actually quite naughty of them, the music may be Royalty Free but the music was written for the Towers and should only be played there.

Ah well
 
siralgenon said:
The old Katanga Canyon music is actually from Star Wars / Star Trek, can't remember which one :)
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I always thought it sounded like a bad pastiche of Star Wars - it was definitely not from any of John Williams' scores though.
 
waffa said:
I know the old Katanga music was used in a Disney advert, probably was a licensed track.


Merlin allow a horrifically small budget for music these days, it's rather an afterthought.
I doubt we'd ever see the likes of Hex with a real orchestra or epic sweeping scores because they won't pay it.
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Do we know for a fact that Hex's theme was done by a real orchestra? I know it's far more lavish than the tinny synths of the Towers Street theme, but I'm not entirely convinced it's genuinely orchestral...

Also, I'd point to Th13teen as being a great example of modern Merlin composition, it's properly chilling and atmospheric and musical!
 
Magrathea said:
waffa said:
I know the old Katanga music was used in a Disney advert, probably was a licensed track.


Merlin allow a horrifically small budget for music these days, it's rather an afterthought.
I doubt we'd ever see the likes of Hex with a real orchestra or epic sweeping scores because they won't pay it.
Click to expand...

Do we know for a fact that Hex's theme was done by a real orchestra? I know it's far more lavish than the tinny synths of the Towers Street theme, but I'm not entirely convinced it's genuinely orchestral...

Also, I'd point to Th13teen as being a great example of modern Merlin composition, it's properly chilling and atmospheric and musical!
Click to expand...

It wouldn't have been a full orchestra regardless - just a string section, small brass section plus percussion (including timps). The choir is clearly real and would have been recorded separately to the orchestra. IMO I think it was recorded live, the strings sound far too realistic to be synths - especially given it would have been composed in 1999/2000. If you listen to some of the synthesised stuff of that era (Crimson Tide soundtrack 1995) you'll hear that synthesised strings are the hardest to make sound really realistic, even with huge movie budgets, let alone sound design for a theme park ride.
 
Strings and Choirs were real, all other instrumentation was embellished with samples, mostly http://vsl.co.at/

I think it was the most real players used for a Merlin composition, all the other pieces only had the odd live instrument, probably played by the composer himself. I know Ian Habgood played in his trumpet lines, and Graham Smart would play the instruments himself. Mutiny Bay has a small brass ensemble and Toadies Crazy Cars had some guitars.
 
I used to be mates with Dave Buckley (Duel, Tomb Blaster etc) and he showed me his works in progress years ago for Duel (the track he was working on was the Agnus Die queue line music) and it was entirely digital - with audio samples and midi.
 
When in Gardaland last week, I bought a full CD with park music that was released this year. Cost €6.90.

:D
 
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