Star Trek VI Overture - Orchestral Cover

Your Music
1

Genre/Style: Sci-Fi Film Score

Creative Vision for the Track:
This is the first Star Trek movie I was able to see in theaters. With all respect to Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, and Leonard Rosenman who came before him, I think Cliff Eidelman absolutely killed it with this one. It’s some of my favorite Trek music from one of the top Trek films.

Like my other film score covers, I wanted to get it as close as possible to the original with this one. So I tempo matched it with the original recording. Fun Fact: apparently the recording of this overture used on the soundtrack album is slightly different than the version used on the film’s opening credits. When I lined up the end of my version up with the end of the music in the film, my music came in about 2 seconds after the film’s music. I think they made more of a pause in the middle where it slows way down.

Besides making it sound the same, I challenged myself to do it as fast as I could. My first one of these orchestral covers took about a month to get everything right. This one took four days. So I’m happy with my workflow improvement.

Composition Details (Tempo, Key, Main Chords etc):
This starts in Cm but changes keys and meters several times.
It starts at about 82bpm in 6/4, gets up to about 145 in 4/4, slows way down, then finishes at around 134.

Main Instruments used:
Standard orchestral instruments plus piano.
I used BBCSO and Hollywood Orchestra for everything but the piano.
The piano was a mix of EastWest’s Steinway and LABS’ Phillip Glass piano.

For the video I put the midi notes over the actual opening credits from Star Trek VI, mainly because I wanted to have that explosion at the end.

4 Likes
2

Mike,

Great job on this. I had to listen to the original on youtube, as I wasn’t familiar with it; you captured it extremely well, and to do it in just 4 days- that defies logic (as Spock might say…)!

:^)

Steven

2 Likes
3

Great job Mike. I’m a big Star Trek geek and this is my style of music–those classic Hollywood film score pieces. Only took you four days?? Wow!

1 Like
4

I really wish there were more Cliff Eidelman movie scores. I think he stands right up there with Goldsmith and Horner.

1 Like
5

Agreed. Lots of great film composers that haven’t gotten their due. Although Erich Korngold was well respected and acknowledged, in his day, I wish more people today knew his music. He really is one of the great film composers of all time. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra just did a classic Hollywood concert (their new concert hall is in the old Warner Grand Theater) where they performed a suite from Korngold’s “Captain Blood” score. Really great music.

6

Wonderful job Mike! I have to say, I’m extremely loving your gaming and sci fi stuff… :smiley:

1 Like
7

Thanks so much! I’m working on a God of War related piece right now.

1 Like
8

I love Cris Velasco’s music for God of War. I don’t remember which one he did, but I use his music as a template for a lot of what I try to do for more cinematic styles. “The Barbarian King Returns” is probably my favorite.