Behind the Scenes - Drone Star Wars Soundtrack

A behind the scenes look at the creation of my soundtrack for Corridor Digital's "Drone Star Wars" video.
Check out the full track here - / star-wars-the-drone-wa...
See the full Corridor video here - • Drone Star Wars
You can find more of my music at the sites below:
Website: blakus.com
SoundCloud: / blakus-mfm
Facebook: / blakusdotcom

[@JonAdamich]

Three days? Are you kidding me? I need to find another profession. Absolutely insane.

[@kraidenb.226]

I'd love it if you'd make a series where we can send you our own tracks and you analyse them or something :D

[@JPDC624]

That's a huge task and it should be something you pay for.

[@Pratty852]

As a Star Wars Nerd this has got me... AMAZING. I have seen Corridor Digital's video before but had no idea it was your piece. :)

[@Blakus]

Cheers Andrew, was a great little project!

[@MythixMusic1]

This is brilliant! You are a true artist Blake. Loved watching this. Very inspiring

[@Blakus]

Thanks Darius!

[@IanKitney1]

Beautiful!!

[@thekeepersmusic]

Great work!

[@gremlin19720]

Another amazing piece...............

[@kstevegeorge]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. Great work

[@Starkiller_246]

the ending part was so good! I love it

[@ChristianFernandoPerucchi]

Cant wait for hear your stuff when you go full time man! super happy for you

[@ggcq]

Awesome man!

[@CalebFaith]

Awesome video! Thanks for the walkthrough

[@Wilson10164]

excited to hear you are going full time with music!!! keep it up :)

[@PureComposition]

Great video - great music! NIce job!

[@prosper7452]

Blakus for the love of god don't stop making these kinds of videos! And just completely forget the fact that the camera is there, your character made this even more enjoyable to watch this video. Thank you very much.

[@Blakus]

Hahah! Thanks for the encouragement! I'll try and keep it up! :D

[@prosper7452]

blakus | music for media My absolute pleasure.

[@anothercrappypianist]

The webcam is a lovely touch, Blakus. It's great being able to see you.

[@johnnovak1979]

Awesome music, informative commentary and fun stand-up comedy interludes :)

[@Jorge_Camarero]

Awesome job Blakus! I've missed that you talk a bit about the mixing. Thank you because many of us were sooo expecting this!

[@ClefferNotes]

You are a genius, man...phenomenal work my friend!! :)

[@MichaelBogaMusic]

Glad I came across your videos, that was awesome and super useful, and loved how you see everything with humour! Cheers

[@Blakus]

Thanks Michael! Glad you enjoyed them.

[@ChristianFernandoPerucchi]

your music never stop amazing me man! always moving and such a great guy! awesome!

[@Blakus]

Thanks Christian! Hope you are well mate!

[@UntoldStoriesProductions]

One of the highlights of my day is seeing these walkthroughs! Man, seeing even a little bit of the behind-the-scenes process of how you produce these masterpieces is a joyful experience. I find myself learning quite a bit from just watching you explain how you work! Thank you so much and, I definitely look forward to more!

[@Blakus]

Really glad that you enjoyed it!! Thanks

[@JPDC624]

This is the class I have been looking for! You've spent the time to create nearly an hour of BTS that we have been climbing the walls to find, and here you tossed it up on KZbin free of charge. And you are a trained teacher. Doesn't get much better than this... hunting around on the VI-C site for good content does get tedious. Thanks Mate!

[@RicoDerks]

This was definitely the most epic walktrough you ever did thanks to your camera haha! Really loved it and great walktrough! Thanks Blake!

[@Blakus]

Thanks Rico! Haha! Had fun trying to figure out where to put the camera ;)

[@nigelmaguire7615]

nice walk through.😃

[@TheFilthyMcNasty]

Impressive.... MOST impressive.

[@TheRealOtakuEdits]

That looks very confusing. I'm sure it must have been though to produce such an amazing and authentic sounding star wars piece. It's really cool to get an inside look in the process of making quality music.

[@milesito5115]

Hey Blakus - glad to see you're back - creating inspiring music, sharing the love with your tutorials...thanks for all you do brother! Looking forward to more tips and inspiration next year too :)...

[@Blakus]

Thanks Miles, appreciate it!

[@chrismeyers7487]

Outstanding! Would love to see/hear your process for finding tempo and hit points!

[@ChristerWibert]

Really great to see you do more videos, Blakus! You just keep knocking it out of the park. I would love some more insights to your process, as I find it really motivating and inspiring! One thing I'm particularly interested in is how you sketch out your pieces on the piano. What does your sketch sound like and how do you translate that into the orchestra? I know you probably don't have all the time in the world, so I/we totally understand if you can't go deeper into this stuff. Good luck with the full time music year ahead!

[@Blakus]

Thanks mate! After sketching it out on piano, I usually go through everything and choose which section/instrument to take the lead in each part of the song, and play that in first (at the dynamic that I want it to be). After that, everything more easily fits into place.

[@martinfamily01]

Which sample libraries did you use for this piece Blakus? Also, I absolutely loved the music. I personally thought it was the highlight of the video!

[@ravel0528]

I think this is more realistic than a real orchestra lol!!!What a great job !!!! I wonder what is that legato violins patch in your template ? a custom library? and what library the trumpets are? they sounds 100 times better than any of mine

[@laurikoskenniemi8859]

Hey! Thanks a lot for the brilliant video - I didn't know that you would make one out of this amazing piece, but am glad as hell you did! :) I'd love to know whether you use other plugins on the tracks in addition to the VSTs and reverbs. How do you use compressors EQs and maybe saturators in your channel strips? I know it's a broad question to answer, but even some tricks and tips would be great. Once again, thank you a lot!

[@Blakus]

Sorry! Should have used popper stopper. Obviously the supposed built-in one in my new Aston Spirit isn't enough :D

[@TheDeadStormVideos]

You've got such a great speaking voice, you should work in radio!

[@gawlock87]

Respect.

[@vbnnbvcx1]

2:17 The most beautiful part

[@srgttamtam]

actually the thing you talk about at 18:00, i noticed that right away in the first place :D I think u did a good job giving a little hint to the next upcoming theme

[@Blakus]

Haha awesome! Thanks mate! :D

[@srgttamtam]

blakus | music for media I mean iam just workin as a sound engineer for three years but i mean. At least a "i think u did a good job" comes from a GERMAN engineer. Which is ofc a hundred times more valuable. xD

[@stevegalante]

Nice piece ! Not to sound annoying but I'd like to know more about the libraries used, kontakt and computer setup, etc. Thank you

[@ChrisGeddesMusic]

Sounding great as always Blakus! You had a chance to check out Berlin Brass yet? Would be interesting to hear your thoughts on it.

[@Blakus]

I haven't tried it yet! Some parts of the demos sounded nice! I decided that I don't need it at the moment.

[@crazyjack2592]

This is nice, but I would actually much more like to see what you did in the mix. The plugins you use and how you set the instruments in the stage. That´s what I struggle with the most. Any chance for this? =)

[@gepson]

I agree

[@AlbertKimMusic]

Lol that's his secret sauce, prob wouldn't share that

[@HirushanDMHIDIMA]

Hey man awesome stuff again....been waiting to see this for a long time. And dude you did this in 3 Days????that's insane!!! Also since you changed your setup and all that...have you got a new PC as well or is it still the old one??

[@Blakus]

Thank you! My PC is still the same one, going on about 4 years old now. To be honest, it still does the job fine. i7 quad core, 32gb RAM - the thing that helps most though is probably the SSDs

[@MrWoodlandMusic]

This is wonderful work Blakus. Thanks for the comments about pc, and ram etc. Did you mean to say that each and every track has an instance of Kontakt?

[@Blakus]

Thanks Patrick. Yes, every track = 1 kontakt instance.

[@gepson]

Can you explain your reverb and EQ settings? Which room, how much predelay for each section, which frequencies do you cut or boost for each instrument or section. Those informations about your settings are certainly very useful, thanks.

[@LightsandMotion]

Great stuff, well orchestrated. I´m curious about the fast staccato brass that pops up from time to time (since I´ve just run into this problem myself in my orchestrations); how do you get those quick rapid 4-notes to sound tight? Do you use Cinebrass? I find it somewhat problematic to get those kind of flares to sound strong and accentuated, instead they come out a big weak and slow / playing catch up. Would love some insight. thanks man

[@Blakus]

Hey mate, I usually find layering helps me, particularly some more dry sounding samples at a lower volume.

[@LightsandMotion]

Cool, I´ll try that. Too much verb pushes it back and makes it harder to distinguish the individual hits. I layer strings like crazy, but am usually more careful with brass. Just discovered your compositions and they're great. I´ve written music for a lot of big movie trailers and commercials, although usually not in the orchestral way, BUT it´s something I enjoy very much when I have the time, and it´s always fun to get some insights into other peoples way. thnx man

[@Jiwpgakis]

Yes, it's Christmas !

[@mr_don_key]

next time please mention the libraries used. It's very useful if you mention them, and the why.

[@MilkshakeSkateboarding]

underated

[@flyingfisbeefilms]

Oh gosh you are so subscribed to! Thanks Justin Durban

[@Blakus]

Thanks Justin, glad you enjoyed it! :D

[@saturated2350]

Hi blakus, what libraries have you used for this? Thanks :D

[@TylerGrowOfficial]

I struggle the most with drums. Any tips for when composing a nice drum beat? Do you use more than one drum plugin? And if so, how do you prefer to structure it? Would help tremendously with your feedback! Thanks :)

[@Blakus]

Percussion/drums are definitely my weakness too, I've been trying to work hard at it! It's definitely a good idea to use a combination of drum sounds - with Low/large drum sounds being more sparse / high sounds more complex with subdivision etc.

[@melodiastudio84]

I'm still struggling to use the mic positions... i want more realism in my pieces... Blakus any advice from your side... :) Would be really helpful if you do.

[@Blakus]

I mainly use decca mics in all of my libraries. I then mix in a closer mic to taste (if needed). I try not to overthink it too much!

[@melodiastudio84]

Thanks a lot.. will work on it...

[@TheHawxflight]

Quick question; How do you set up your projects? - Are you running one instance of kontakt with multiple outs or are you running one per channel? PS. Is it possible to get a blank template of one of the project files?

[@Blakus]

One instance of Kontakt per track - using instrument tracks so I can disable/freeze if necessary.

[@DanieleGaruglieri]

Hi, I'm trying to compose many pieces in John Williams style, I'm finding this very difficult, have you some advices to compose like this? Thank you. I write music from 17 years and orchestral music from 10 years just for hobby and passion.

[@Blakus]

Hi there, the best advice I can give is to study John Williams scores. Try to recreate some of his music with samples too! The process of playing in every instrument into your DAW is a great insight into how the master uses the orchestra to create his textures.

[@DanieleGaruglieri]

Hi Blakus, thank you for answering me. Actually I'm already studying some Williams orchestral score but I'm a self made composer and it's not so easy to understand every movement or fine structure. Also, I'm very busy with my work (engineer) and I've not so much time for the music, but I love it and I'll keep composing. I'll follow your advices for sure. What I'm trying to ask is if there is a sort of coherent base structure to build a piece in a more classical way like this. Anyway I already composed a piece in a Star Wars way but I want to do best, I'd like you listen to some of my works to give me some other advices (if I understand well you are a teacher) if you have time. Thank you again. :)

[@talnomix3164]

Hey, could you tell me what these 3bones growth 1&2 are? i know they are custom samples made by JB but is there anything commercial available that sounds as good as these patches?

[@chrismeyers7487]

John Williams would be proud

[@Arkogelul]

What do you mean when you say you're gonna do this full time ?

[@Blakus]

Hey Arko! At the moment I'm a full time teacher, but I'll be moving into full time music next year.

[@Arkogelul]

That's great ! I'm curious to hear what you gonna do. Have fun !

[@crazyjack2592]

So you´re only using instrument tracks in this track? And not VEP and midi channels? Why did you not use VEP in this case? =)

[@Blakus]

I decided VE Pro was an extra unnecessary step for me these days. My single machine (which is getting a little old now), handles my template fine without it.

[@bcn1gh7h4wk]

2:40 - 2:48, padawan and Sith fight over jedi lightsaber. 2:48 - 2:56, padawan gets a grip on the whole "Force" thing. 2:56 - 3:00, Sith Lord pulls harder. 3:00 - 3:10, padawan flips the table, pushes the Sith Lord instead, Sith Lord loses footing. 3:10, padawan grabs the lightsaber. _"FSSSHHHWWWWM!"_ 3:11, "Oh, you're so dead."

[@voskseyur]

I am very surprised that you do not use Vienna Ensemble, dear Blacus!

[@Blakus]

vosk seyur I prefer to work with libraries that are already recorded in great rooms. VSL requires too much fiddling for my liking :)

[@voskseyur]

You mean eg Vienna Mir and so on? :) I agree! It requires a lot of resources. It is unfortunate you did not show your work with balance, reverb, EQ and dynamics. I understand this is your secret.:) But of course it would be very interesting to learn about it, especially about your work with the orchestral space.

[@CatHarington]

Which VSTs has been used?

[@JPDC624]

My guess: Mostly Spitfire but also others plus probably some custom stuff, based on things he has said. He likes the room sound (me too) and Spitfire Symphonic Orchestra will get you going.

[@tupatube6342]

What reverb do you recommend? Lexicon or B2?

[@Blakus]

Both are really nice! I really like Valhalla Room and Phoenix Verb at the moment. B2 is realllly great too, but the cpu usage is just a little too difficult to manage for me now.

[@scartabellomusic]

blakus | music for media you mentioned Valhalla room, which I love. What libraries do you use the room on? Or is it on everything and then you hit that with the Phoenix tail? (Sounds like a spell or something) haha

[@Alsssrr]

Is there somewhere to download this work of art from?

[@Blakus]

Let me see what I can do. Because of the copyright issues, I can't sell it online anywhere, but I might consider putting up for free somewhere soon!

[@Alsssrr]

Yea, that would be fantastic! There is a Soundcloud download website where you just put the link of the song in and download it, but the quality of sound just isn't the same :(

[@Blakus]

Akle|Alex check my website, blakus.com and look at the banner at the top. :)

[@Alsssrr]

OMG!

[@Alsssrr]

Thank you so much! Merry Christmas to you as well.

[@piotr9914]

blakus... will you ever release your template so i can buy them? lol

[@Blakus]

Haha, if only it were that easy hey? Unfortunately having all the tools doesn't always help :( Knowing how to use them however, helps immensely! I spend a couple hours a week watching tutorials! Keep learning!

[@piotr9914]

blakus | music for media well, having tools that are easy to use and sounds good will always be the best. I have a template myself and i used it to do a mockup on Holst's jupiter. BML mural vol. 1 + all spitfire brass/woodwinds. CInesample percussions. and I replaced the trumpets with bravura scoring solo trumpet. They are working out straight out of the box. Spitfire is great.

[@Blakus]

Awesome! Sounds like you have some great tools already! Those libraries are great!

[@crazyjack2592]

What tutorials do you watch?

[@piotr9914]

Crazy Jack i can assure you that you wouldn't need no tutorials if you use all spitfire full orchestra products lol. and i don't work for them lol

[@1wibble2]

What I'm trying to figure out is how come your realtime ASIO performance is actually lower than the average :O

[@Blakus]

I think because of ASIO Guard 2. By giving a larger buffer to tracks that are not immediately armed, it gives the cpu some welcome "realtime" relief.

[@1wibble2]

Thanks for the info! Interesting, I'm still on Cubase 7.5 64-bit with Win 7 65 and must admit I noticed no real difference at all with ASIO Guard on or off with my RME UFX interface, the realtime asio reading is always higher and the same in both cases. But thats with ASIO Guard v1, perhaps v2 is a real difference, or maybe because I use a lot more realtime power hungry vst instruments like Diva rather than almost all sample library stuff that the behaviour is different.

[@Blakus]

Actually, you could be right about the types of instruments being the issue. I'm using many low cpu kontakt instruments with only a few very hungry plugs/synths.

[@icedbach]

I´m so impressed it´s not funny, all programmed on the fly? or some sheet music work?

[@Blakus]

Thank you! Yeah, just programmed straight into Cubase, flying a little blind, haha!

[@icedbach]

well, if this is blind then you must come from the gospels. Heard quite a bit from you but the programming here is I think the best, and I really hope you get some big breaks on trailer stuff :)

[@StephenDdunguMusic]

This is KOTOR tier, your work should be in something much greater!! (no offence to the maker of the Drone Star Wars video XD)

[@milye7163]

has hollywood hired you yet

[@AlbertKimMusic]

they have now

[@crazyjack2592]

I am first!