Creating a Hero's Theme [Studio Time: S3E2]

Today we cover the nuance of building a theme around a heroic character! Chord selection, mixing techniques, presenting to the filmmakers and much more.
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[@junkiexlofficial]

Hey guys - remember to leave your questions here! I may not get to them right away, but will make an effort to get to them ASAP!

[@davidefant3045]

Thanks so much for this Tom, Studio Time seasons are my favorite video ever! Some quick and easy questions: 1. Is there much difference, sonically, from the original sound track published on digital platforms (Spotify etc.) and the mix done at the dubbing stage? 2. Is there any mastering involved after the mix at the dubbing stage is done? Or that is only for the original sound track release? 3. Beside some suggestions from orchestrator and arranger, is there any assistant composer helping you out with writing minor parts and some programming or do you do everything by yourself? 4. Writing a score a that level is a big endeavor, and I was wondering how many people are there in your team helping you out so you can focus on what you do best? (I'm thinking, if there are many assistants, a manger, etc. or you work pretty much by yourself with a small team). Your desire to share is second to none! Thanks again so much! Can't wait for episode 3. :)

[@davewincent6118]

Junkie XL hello why you have 5studios in your house ? im courios:)

[@LG51hacker]

Do you plan a single anytime soon?

[@KerwinYoungComposer]

Question: What is the orchestration for the live score recordings? Woods/Brass/Timp + Perc/Pno, Hp, Stgs?

[@almur88]

hi! do you do score transcripts for orchestra yourself or do you have them done by your assistants? thnx!

[@Spoilermixer787]

"Super simple, I'm a real bad piano player".... The humble words of an Icon in the music world. Thanks for this video Tom. You're an inspiration. 🌎

[@Musiken]

He said the same while playing the iconic "Doof warrior" riff. Made me laugh

[@sejtaridiss]

Phenomenal theme! I love that Junkie is so openly showing us his workflow, not only becasue of obvious educational reasons, but mostly because of immidiate boost of confidence that young composers can get from it - seeing how even the simplest tune can be transformed into a great, moving piece camls nerves and forces you to spend more time doing solid orchestration indstead of wasting it on doubting your skinny piano sketch :) Thank you!

[@achillesamusic]

Dat ! (:

[@AlexeyFilippenkoPlummet]

Well, after watching Hans Zimmer's masterclass I'm absolutely sure now that the best melodies for cinema are the simplest, since you can build up so much on them and still have that same motive going and glueing the whole thing together. Complex tunes just can't expand at 1.5-2hours.

[@zachary963]

My favorite part is when he plays piano and says “im not a very good pianist” and i think, hey.... i could play that!!

[@RamonRodgers]

Please don't ever stop what you're doing. If you do some of us are screwed! If more icons like you were willing to talk through and lecture their technique the quality of music in the world would be so much better. You just smashed a few problems i struggled with. I appreciate you!!!

[@davidefant3045]

Remember that feeling when you were a child on Christams' eve? Or when you grew up in your teens and couldn't wait getting up in the morning and rushing to the music store because that day your favorite band on earth just released a new album? Well... Same feeling here, so excited, can't wait to watch these episodes the second they're out! Thanks so much Tom for this!

[@daleturner]

Waaaasssssup Davide?!?!? (Sound Chalet, yes?) Happy holidays mayun! See you soon!!

[@davidefant3045]

@@daleturnerHey Dale!!! Yes, that's me. Scoring non stop lately. 🦉 And for you, KZbinrs out there, Dale is one of the best ears on planet earth: could transcribe precisely a sparrow chirping, an hippo roaring and a turkey gurgling, ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

[@daleturner]

@@davidefant3045 Lol!!! We will TOTALLY have to catch up, and share our "Score-or" stories, hahaha!!!! And you are FAAAAR too kind, regarding my earballs--but I thank you for the hilarity!!! EYE TRAINING is where it's truly at, har har har!!!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS Davide!! Miss you mightily, mayun!!

[@davidefant3045]

@@daleturner Ahah! Miss you too very much! Definitely have to catch up with you! Happy holidays to you too!

[@angelocast]

So beautiful. I also love to start with piano and simple melodies. Then from there you can expand, twist, cut, and always go back home. Thank you master! Love your videos! I am watching all of them now! JUNKIE XL MARATHON!

[@BerndKistenmacher]

Actually nothing else brings more fun into my life than your studio times. Thank you!

[@Yes12ok]

I liked that movie, not of my favourites, except for this EPIC music of yours 🥺. You make every movie looks way much better with your greatness. Truly a masterpiece

[@MechaBorne]

Yes! This is awesome! I’ve been wanting to work on film scores for a while but it’s hard knowing where to start in this genre without classical training

[@Da5eK]

15:41 Kinda sounds as if Jeremy Soule remade the theme from The Terminator.

[@antonisfakiris505]

Such a beautiful cue!! Great work Tom!!

[@Trassel242]

This is such a beautiful theme, I was struck by it, the London Suite and Shrike's theme from the Mortal Engines soundtrack. It is so fascinating to hear you discuss the process of making these soundtrack pieces and how your thought process went and how it's made.

[@jingleskhanaudioproductions]

thanks for the in-depth view!

[@nero008]

Can't have enough of this !

[@Konstantinous1]

what a day what a lovely day ❤️

[@oscarmike1131]

Really glad to hear woodwinds incorporated so well here. Had always being my complaint with your scores so glad it’s in full force here. Can’t wait to hear the whole thing

[@OliKember]

Fantastic, as always. A great season so far, I'm excited for the rest!

[@siddharth_r1]

Such beautiful music! Feels like Junkie was possessed by the soul of Ennio morricone while writing this 👏🏼

[@patrykscelina]

Great video as always. Thank You for your time Tom.

[@Septienjr]

Hi there, Junkie XL, thank you for sharing your knowledge, experience, love and passion for what you do, it's very inspiring! It's really nice to see that other people were able to fulfill this beautiful path which is film composing, thank you! Btw, may I ask what piano library are you using for your JXL Paradise Piano 1? Sounds wonderful! Warmest regards Pepois

[@Girish3282]

it's from Vienna Symphonic Library Synth & Piano.

[@LucknLoLer]

So many tipps...thank you Tom and btw...close to 100k subs !!! Keep on

[@PSYCHOBEVO]

I loved this movie and your music 👍👍

[@straightouttaalderaan6672]

Love the new intro!

[@molem348]

Awesome stuff! The melody reminds me of The Terminator theme in places :-)

[@momolovic3909]

Thank you for sharing your beautiful work, that is awsome. One question, what is your technic to synchronise sound and pictures ? It might be difficult to mix between a sad moment to an epic one for instense, manage the tempo of a part and another one, I'm curious to know

[@naedolor]

That motive that goes =do re mib si= is actually part of the main theme from the 1984 Dune movie. It's funny because you start in do minor and you transpose to mi minor, the same key as the original. kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJ6XdmerorVsh8U You either didn't know about it, or you loved it so much that you made it your own. Either way is kinda disconcerting.

[@j.lindback]

Thank you for sharing!

[@StefUllrichMusic]

31:03 baaaa daa daa daaaaa..... DUNE

[@erendemir8724]

Amazing movie !

[@jdalmauv1]

Thank you very much!!

[@Mike-el1ry]

Awesome work! Would love to know what your most used reverb plugin is. For example whats on this/most of your projects or your default piano sound. Forgive me if you've already done a video on this. Thanks! 👍🏻

[@victornoagbodji]

thanks for doing this Tom. i have a question about the click tracks/lanes you have. i noticed maybe 3. there is the tempo track, a click track that says "printed" and then an automation for the "printed" track. i hope you can go over those and explain how you use them. thanks and happy holidays!

[@derksendd]

Zo fijn als je dit deeld

[@stuckmannen3876]

love this!

[@joostvanbunnik7646]

amazing Tom. Mijn dank.

[@williamgreen6479]

How do I get into scoring films? I've been wanting to practice but can't find anything but old black and white films to score. BTW, Love your videos and more importantly your music!

[@AngryMan88]

Please release JL score...... ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@davidparasz4465]

Hi Tom: When you compose your experimental suites at the beginning of the project, are you writing to picture, or are you just stretching out a theme based more on the general feeling you are getting from watching the film? Then getting approval from the director on the musical style before you start writing cues to actual scenes? Thanks.

[@stuckmannen3876]

solid work dude! :)

[@FaresSamiPhys]

Why you didn't released the best cue on this movie which was (Hester/Shrike) Piano when Shrike dies...please could put on KZbin.

[@ShaneCrixus]

Does the mix you submit alter from the final mix? I assume they’d need to turn everything down to mix around the dialogue, but that would alter the relative levels of the individual instruments?

[@mixedbyclaudio]

Hello Tom, big Fan and i love your Videos, what Sample Rate and Bit Rate you compose, mixing and record? greetings from Switzerland

[@chriscapaudio]

I know you like the Brainworx SSL Console. Have you used any other Console Plug-ins like Waves NLS, Waves SSL E-Channel or even outboard gear! Just curious as to your choice! Love your work; Thank you for your vids!!!

[@GianlucaCalesso]

Amazing as always Tom! When the videos about cubase 10 template will be out?

[@simonlegrec]

First class sound... tom let me write a sequenz for a movie. .

[@DrotosGabor]

I liked it, thank you!

[@abdeljalilgryryd9094]

I dont knw why when i watch studio time i feel im very mature person

[@lukdub]

The fastest 32 minutes of the day...

[@KerwinYoungComposer]

Beautiful melody!

[@nicksaya]

Wow Tom. Is your buffer up really high. Looks like you have a lot of latency when playing the keyboard. I assume u are in mix session and have buffer up?

[@richdewhittaker1746]

That second theme near the end reminds me of a theme from Dune slightly...

[@hein_Solo]

Do you have some delay on your keys while you pressing it?!?

[@2_ly686]

You are the best

[@musicbysukoon]

Much love x @musicbysukoon

[@acifaxjr]

Does anyone know what piano this is?? 😭😭😭 i need to know lol

[@TwiissTnM4Gz]

Are all his live instruments from kontakt?

[@MichelSchallenberg]

The VCA thing is interesting. I did the same thing on a project today with group tracks. Is there a specific reason why doing it with VCA is better?

[@terminatormunky]

In some ways it's just preference and situational. VCA allows you to control the faders without any audio routing being done, whereas a group requires you to route signals through it. Sometimes you want to VCA two things that aren't in the same signal path

[@MichelSchallenberg]

​@@terminatormunky Yeah that makes sense. I thought the group thing is cool because that way you can do automation on tracks that already have automation. But when you have reverb on a group track it might be a difference to change the volume on that than to change the volume of the tracks that go into it. Don't know. I guess i'll experiment with VCA's now, didn't even know they exist.

[@ashishkujur3951]

Which piano you r using in the beginning

[@guyh3403]

*drool*

[@gostek9071]

are u music god!!!????!!!??

[@luckystrke]

5:24 This reminded me of The Cure & The Cause (Dennis Ferrer Remix) kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5ytdIKVe9eEh5o#t=0m31s (30 seconds in)

[@gostek9071]

i feel batman movie here!!!!

[@tolgatokoglu]

please open subtitles maestro...

[@PowerRedBullTypology]

3:19 he sounds pronounces "super simpel" sounds dutch rather than english...Maybe he forgot he was speaking english rather than dutch

[@zachary963]

P O W E R - R E D - B U L L curious, where are you from? Im an American and that’s exactly how id pronounce it. In fact, his accent there sounds more English than elsewhere

[@sachamht]

The look on your face makes me think this midi flute is frustrating you :p

[@AnthonyWoodruffe]

The only reason I’m going to watch Mortal Engines is because you wrote the score.

[@ItsDextrin]

why do you keep squinting your eyes when looking at the main monitor?

[@thomaskolb8785]

Its Dextrin When you are over 50, you will know.

[@BlipBloop33]

Sorry but I can’t get past the fact that the first line is ripped from the terminator theme