The Making of The Wing Commander Orchestral Recording

[@quatz1981]

Wing Commander was a massive part of my childhood and George's music was a huge factor in my love for these games. Everytime i fired up Wing Commander 3 and 4 i would sit and watch the intro scenes everytime and listen to that score kick in, it was magnificent.

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Thank you so much. That's very kind and high praise indeed!

[@SSgtRobertMorris]

Mr. Oldziey, my first contact with Wing Commander was Wing Commander 3 when I was stationed on Okinawa. I would rig the game to where I could listen to the music while I was puttering around in the barracks. I could listen to Wing Commander music (yours) endlessly.

[@Mxsmanic]

It must be wonderful to finally hear your work performed for the first time by real human musicians playing real instruments, especially after twenty years of never expecting to hear it that way. And what higher compliment than to have a fan base that is willing to reach into its own pocket to pay to have your work performed the way it deserves to be. Well done!

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Thank you so much. Yes, it really was wonderful!

[@truebluethecat]

This is awesome. Wish I knew about it sooner. I remember all this music from my childhood

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Glad you enjoyed it. It sure was fun making it!!

[@Wcsaga]

Love it. One of a few crowdfunding examples where the end result was worth it. I just wish I could have attended the recording session in person.

[@thegreenreaper6660]

Dont forget: Wing Commander is such a popular franchise, the gaming community set up its OWN F2P-release! Based on the Freespace-engine, Wing Commander Saga: the Darkest Dawn! One of the féw franchises of which i dont understand why one of today's many movie/tv show makers, hasent bought rights for, to make a 7-10-season series of this!

[@MrHicky69]

Thank you George for letting me be part of this.

[@r20090521]

Wing Commander 3 is one of my most favorite game. I Played it on Playstation when I was junior high-school student. The fantastic spectacle of music drive me into the world of star light, fleets, space battle, human drama... And after 25 years, I'm very happy to see your worthful activity. Thank you very much, sincerely.

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Thank you so very much. The fact that the games and the music mean so much to so many is one of the bright lights of my career.

[@voxelmage]

George, you have no idea what impact you music had. I only bought my original copy of the game BECAUSE of the music experience. So great, that you are re-recorded it with a real, full orchestry. Thank you so much. I bought all of the Origin Audio Soundtrack special Edition CD´s when they where distributed in Europe and even won one from Origin in a "slogan building" competition. They were so great. Hearing some parts played by a real orchestra makes my hearth run. Just being in the mood to create a planetarium show about those great space and alien themes :) PS: I want to buy a copy - so sad I missed the Kickstarter campaign. Please consider distribution it via iTunes or other channels ...

[@TheFsavage]

George, it brought many tears to my eyes! Simply an awesome job. I would've given much to have been there. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this happen!

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Frank Savage Hey Frank. Thanks so much. You were always very supportive of my work at Origin, and it always meant a lot to me. I hope you are happy and fulfilled in whatever is happening in your life. Take care!

[@moomasher]

+George Oldziey AMAZING Where can I buy this?

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

+MooMasher Gaming Send me an email. [e-mail]

[@shawnvstaden]

+Frank Savage Agreed. I'm a blob of tears watching this. I was simply looking at old Lucasarts titles after the release of Star Wars VII. Installed The Prophecy and immediately googled the composers name after I saw the credits... Pleasantly surprised and great to see how they went to create the atmosphere in games games that -ultimately- shaped who I am today and shaped my music career without realising... Thank you so much...

[@J.Wrecks]

This music really moved me as a 12 year old and still does as an Adult. I knew it was something special then.

[@Daehawk]

Loved it all. From having George Oldziey there who made to the two guys at the end gushing over gaming from the early 90's. Its so nice. I was 25 in 1994 when my wife got me my first PC. I had read and kept up and discussed PC games since the 1989 and only lacked the PC. When I got it I had years of back games to catch up on and boy did I. It took me even more years to catch up. The 1990's are heaven to me for many things and PC gaming was a huge part of that.

[@stickenchuffing4694]

Thank you so much for providing this behind the scenes look. It's fantastic to see the enthusiasm of everyone involved. Also I can vouch for everything said by those two during the end credits. Spot on. Thank you George!

Amazing document. Thank You George.

[@MsAzhriaz]

A beautiful video, it is wonderful to see the passion and emotion you put into this project come to fruition, and it looks like some of the musicians were also fans. :D An amazing project and grand execution. :) Thank you for posting this.

[@Alicatt1]

Thank you George for the insight into the recording session. Great music and wonderful playing.

[@davidcottrell1308]

GREAT JOB!!!! Love the harmonic language, orchestrational skill, great performance...great conducting...KUDOS TO ALL!!!

[@paulanerruhrpott6188]

Wow, the beginning of the track Borderworld Missions at 4:32 has a striking similarity to the opening overture of the movie Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country from Composer Cliff Eidelman. I am not sure if it was an intentional homage to him or a lucky coincidence. Both tracks are terrific pieces of music and suit the Sci-Fi settings of both the universes of Star Trek and Wing Commander very well. Looking forward to buy the CD, i was hoping for a game soundtrack like this for Wing Commander for years. Because in my youth i connected the computer with my cassette recorder while playing Wing Commander to record the music and be able to listen to the games soundtrack on the cassettes on an old-school Walkman when things like smartphones and MP3 players did not exist back then. That shows how much i already loved your music in the 90s. I also hope there will be a second edition of your CD someday with the remaining tracks from all 3 games you composed. Greetings from Germany. All the best.

[@ArvidSingle]

one of my all time favourites! Wished to be part of this...

[@fredcanavan3864]

At 5:04 I saw the guy with the Dreamtheater shirt. That was pretty cool. I flew to New York to see them at the Beacon in 2023. I bought two tickets, but the problem is that since I’m the only person I know who loves progressive jazz, or almost any jazz for that matter, while everyone was getting crushed standing during the entire concert, I had plenty of room. It was 10 times better than I imagined. They’re a couple of Berkelee guys as far as I know.

[@BjornarFrantzen]

Amazing. Loving the atmoshphere here. Great vibes.

[@claylrobinson3634]

Thanks so much with sharing this great video on the making of the Wing Commander recording. Very entertaining and interesting to see how things went last year and look forward to hearing the final product.

[@MrMoorkey]

They should remaster the game for current gen with this soundtrack!!! Wing Commander III was my first contact with Wing Commander, after making the step up from having a ZX Spectrum playing Elite, and this video gives me GOOSEBUMPS!!!

[@Sardaukar47]

Sehr cool was alles dahintersteckt... Schade dass so grossartige Spiele wie Wing Commander nicht mehr gemacht werden . Sollte ich mal ein treffer im lotto haben werde ich in ein solches projekt investieren..

[@vonsteuben6475]

+1 Bin dabei! ;)

[@johnnyhshify]

Can't believ I'm only seeing this 5 years later. Where can I get this OST?

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Thanks for the kind words! You can obtain either digital downloads and/or a CD at my website www.oldzieymusic.com Thanks!

[@DaveDexterMusic]

God damn, George, I've never played WC or heard the music (or of you, unfortunately) so this is a hell of a first impression. Wonderful composing and orchestration.

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Thank you, Dave. That's very kind of you. I really appreciate it!

[@alexanderleto7287]

A Dream of my Childhood.. And one of the best...

[@PetersonZF]

19:33 is probably my favourite part with the two old-school Wing Commander fans bonding. :D

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Yes, that was a magical moment!

[@levikats31]

Very nice!

[@nagsdeadfilms7024]

Buccaneer's Den, Valoria Ships and New Magencia are my favorite pieces of music by you. They all remind me of being at the beach and predate music from Pirates of the Carribean by almost 5 years.

[@gandalf87264]

Goodness, thanks for posting this. It brings back old memories.I plaid this game (Wing Commander 1) way back in the late 80s on my XT. That had an Intel 10 meg processor and 1 whole meg of RAM. When I upgraded to the Intel 286, the game ran way too fast play the game. In those days, computers had a turbo button on them. I used to have to turn the turbo off to make the game at a playable speed. After I upgraded to 386 and 486, the game was impossible to play.

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Greetings all! For some reason all these notifications over the last month have been going into my spam box. Just now took a look at a lot of them. Wonderful comments. It means a lot to me to hear these kind words! I'm not sure if all know there is a volume 2 campaign going, with only a few days left. If you are interested check it out! www.kickstarter.com/projects/1373816047/wing-commander-orchestral-recording-project-volume?ref=creator_nav

[@JohnMassari]

This is exciting, George! You score sounds gorgeous!

[@Igor-Mortis]

Nice to see the orchestra. I bought the games. The music is great.

[@bontragerjones]

Brilliance!

[@joelhewitt5338]

I really want a copy of this. HOW DID I MISS IT?

[@erick-gd7wo]

sounds so grand.... where the cd?

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Hi Erick. Thanks for the kind comment. If you go to www.oldzieymusic.com/wingcommanderCD.html and navigate to "support the project" there are two options of obtaining the CD and one for digital downloads. Take care!

[@erick-gd7wo]

+George Oldziey , if i can work out the money transfer from Indonesisa, i would like to get the dowmload. [e-mail] is my email

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

Hi Erick. If you can use Paypal this link should work for you www.oldzieymusic.com/wingcommanderCD.html#downloadPP

[@erick-gd7wo]

+George Oldziey sorry, i don't have pay pal and nor do i use credit card, the only option is international money transfer through bank though the process could be complicated.

[@DarkRaptor99]

Wow, hearing this took me back many years!! I loved the Wing Commander games it was a huge disappointment when the powers that be stopped producing the games. I will say the games did end up making me spend the money of a midi card over wavetable. It was an expensive investment but worth it.

[@andersdenkend]

So where the heck is the CD album? Only available on George Oldziey's website?

[@suburbanindie]

I only played Wing Commander for SNES, and don't recognize any of these tunes :-( I also noticed George Sanger was involved in that port; he worked on another personal favorite of mine: Maniac Mansion Regardless, this stuff is amazing and an inspiration to me, an amateur composer

[@Enkijamenk]

+suburbanindie You don't recognize the music because the SNES port you played was a port of Wing Commander 1. Mr. Oldziey wrote the music for Wing Commanders 3, 4, and Prophecy (5 in all but name). There aren't any consistent leitmotifs through the series, each game had its own main themes, with the exception of a few brief statements of some melodies showing up later (most-notably, some of 3's main themes have cameos at appropriate moments in 4).

[@wesleyprado2432]

15:57 Meu Deus

[@alexanderleto7287]

Wing Commander 3 and 4!!! Best games...

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

I agree :)

[@alexanderleto7287]

@@GeorgeOldziey1 thanks for your reply George. I ordered the CD to Germany and get it from you with autogramme. I played a lot of games in the 90s when I was a kid. WC3 and 4 have the best scores. Maybe one day there will be a complete real orchestra score for WC4

[@alexanderleto7287]

@@GeorgeOldziey1 I am a musician. Is there a way to get the notes?

[@nathanroberts355]

I played the wing commanderkilrathi saga the three wing commander 1 and wing commander 2 and wing commander 3 and I have a call sign cheatar

[@joelhewitt5338]

WOW! Is it too late to get a copy pf this CD? How did I miss this? It's too late isn't it. Was it just for those who contributed to Kickstarter?

[@GeorgeOldziey1]

+Joel Hewitt Hi Joel. I'm still accepting donations to offset the costs. In an attempt to be true to the original donors I need to stay consistent with the tier levels, which are $20 or more for the digital downloads, and $100 or more for an autographed CD (which includes the downloads as well). If you're interested I'd be happy to send a Paypal request to you. Best, George

[@frankmattes8185]

+George Oldziey Hi George, i would be interested as well, please send a paypal request.