Danny Stewart's Remixes of Dominic Glynn's DW Theme
 

Dominic Glynn has been kind enough to send me the original 8-track master recordings of his 1986 Doctor Who theme. With these, I am now in the process of producing various remixed and remastered versions of his themes.

New mixes will be posted here as they are completed.

The fun has officially started. :)

That's the highest quality I've ever heard the 1986 opening. Very nice!

Thank you very much!

Total agreement here. Big thank you to Dominic and Danny. ;)

The DVD remix, quite frankly, lacks the "oomph" of the original. Danny's remix is really good. You should make it full length.

Here's a full-length remix for you guys. I've taken inspiration from all over the place for this one -- each of Dom's original themes, his 2008 remix, the original Derbyshire theme, plus a few touches of my own.

I've added the same bass layer that Dom added for his 2008 remix, plus I've extended out the bassline's intro section (as in the original Derbyshire theme) and run a filter over the entire bassline. I've also recorded an entirely new melody for the bridge.

Hope you guys like it.

First rate work once again. Love the revamped Middle 8. Keep up the good work, both of you.

Very nice! I like that the middle eight has more oomph and the bass line sounds smoother. I like it!

Here are opening and closing themes with a new bassline that has been recut to match the structure of the original Derbyshire theme.

I love them. It's awesome, it's fresh, it's... WOW!

New closing remix. This one is a bit of a departure from the original closing mix, and it uses the new bridge sound from my full-length mix above.

Looking for feedback on this one...

Trying to do a "perfect" master version of both the opening and closing. I've already been at it for almost two hours and have just finished the opening. The closing will probably take me even longer.

The goal here is not to do anything new or different, just to make the mix sound as clean, punchy, and professional as possible. Essentially just making it sound as good as it can, as it was originally intended to. Get the levels just right, apply some light reverb to certain elements, maybe some mild compression here and there. That sort of thing.

Here's what I've got so far for the opening. Feedback and suggestions are welcome.

I'm checking back every few hours and watching the download count go up. I know you guys are listening, so where are the comments? :P

So far, the remixes sound fantastic. Looking forward to the Closing Master, but take your time. The longer the wait, the better it can get.

I'm guessing that Dominic is very proud of Danny right now. :rolleyes:

Here is an updated version of the Opening Master. I've gone back over Dom's original final masters (both 1986 and 2008) to try and get closer to what he intended. I decided the bassline needed more punch, so I've compressed it some and brought it up a bit in the mix. I also corrected what seemed like minor clipping on one of the original melody tracks by lowering the volume a bit at that point. It's less noticeable now. I'll live with this for a day or two and figure out whether it's good enough, then get started on the Closing Master.

Closing Master should be done in the next couple of days.

I very much hope so.

I'm just about ready to call it a night, but I have run off a quick demo of the Closing Master. I'm not completely happy with it yet, but it should give you a rough idea of where I'm going with it.

I've played with the EQ on the bassline a bit to give it punchier highs and deeper throbbing lows. Dom's closing bassline is actually very different to his opening bassline. The opening bassline is dry and very punchy, whereas the closing bassline has significant delay on it and uses a less punchy and more twangy sound. I generally treat the opening bassline as the ideal, so I've tried to enhance the sound of the closing bassline to match it more closely.

I'm not sure what I should do with the bridge melody... as you all know, it's a point of some contention for everybody. There are a lot of people who really don't like Dom's harshly digital-sounding bridge melody. Even Dom himself has never been happy with it, and jumped at the chance to reimagine it somewhat for his 2008 version. I don't dislike it, but I do feel that it could use some work, and I'm not sure how best to approach it. Seeing as this is a remaster and not a remix, it has to stay in and stay prominent (I can't replace it like I've done with my other remixes so far), but I do have some choices regarding what I can do with it. I could leave it mostly dry, or I could try and use some effects to dull it down and blend it in a bit more. I've gone for the latter for this version, using a phase filter and some heavy reverb to help blend it in. If you all would prefer that I do something different, please let me know. I'm very much open to suggestions in this regard.

Anyway, let me know what you all think of it, and it's safe to say you can expect a new version tomorrow or the next day at some point.

EDIT: Reuploaded the mix after a minor tweak. I advised Dom to make a change to his 2008 remix and then forgot to make the same change myself!

Excellent work so far! And I think you're heading in the right direction with the bridge.

...*Speechless*

*Regains composure* Wooooooooah! Rock ON!

Oh dear... it seems I let Closing Remix 1 run away from me a bit. Here is Closing Remix 2. :P

I've combined the opening and closing basslines for this one, as well as the opening and closing melody lines.

And I'm just plain crazy. But you all knew that already.

(New version coming once I have the time to make a proper closing-style bassline out of the opening bassline.)

EDIT: Updated to version 2c. Crazier in some places, slightly less crazy in others.

Closing Remix 2c sounds great with the subtle addition of classic Derbyshire elements, especially the "swirl" at the beginning. A keeper. ;)

AAAAHHHH! AHHHHH! AWESOME!

Ah, *ahem* anyway... will there be an extended remix of the 2c version?

Amazing work Danny, I'm really enjoying it.

Something random I threw together today... no real thought or reasoning behind it, just for fun.

Closing remix done in the same style as the above.

Closing remix remastered a bit... some of the Derbyshire elements were too loud in the last mix, and Dom's bassline and melody weren't loud enough.

The closing master is proving to be a bit of a nightmare. Things aren't balanced evenly and it feels like it's causing clipping to me, but maybe I've just been at it for too long. I remember going back and forth with Pete for hours when I was working on the original Fool's Gold trying to eliminate clipping... I don't want to end up there again.

Here's a preview release of the new closing master. Comments are welcome -- bear in mind that it's definitely not ready for prime time yet.

Sorry for taking so long to respond. Thanks very much. :D

Since you asked, sure thing. :)

I'd like to make an extended theme master at some point, which will be very difficult because I don't have all the original materials to work with. Dom sent me his original 8-track, but it only contains the opening and closing themes (as well as two unused demo themes he'd forgotten about).

The way he explained it to me, that's because he went back and did the extended version several months later, borrowing the facilities of a professional production studio to do so. He used some of the tracks from his opening and closing themes, with the notable exception of the bassline. He recorded a new bassline for the extended theme, which he apparently no longer has readily available.

That means when I do the extended master, I'll have to either splice the opening and closing basslines together and make them sound coherent (which will be no small feat considering how different they sound from each other), or perhaps synthesize a new bassline myself and use that. I do own a Roland Juno-6, which is the synth Dom used to make the bassline originally, so it's possible I could get it quite close. We'll see.

EDIT: Shit... it just dawned on me that Dom used the studio's Prophet 5 to record new sound effects for his extended theme. That means he may also have used it to record the new bassline, in which case I won't be able to recreate it as perfectly as I'd hoped. I suppose I could do an opening- or closing-style bassline instead... he used the Juno for those...

Great work as always. The added classic Derbyshire ending is a nice new twist.

If Murray retires after the specials,
Glynn/Stewart for Series Five. :D

Seconded.

You really need to make a version of Keff's theme. Imagine what wonders you could do!:eek:

Unfortunately, I don't have Keff's original multitrack, so my options are extremely limited. From what I understand, Keff's original multitrack no longer exists, so there isn't anything I could do anyway. The only option left is recreation, which is something I'm working on (albeit at a very slow pace).

I just heard back from Dom about this. Apparently the multitrack for his extended theme was kept by the studio at which he recorded it, and then recorded over and thrown away decades ago. The studio itself no longer even exists today. That means everything that was done for the extended theme is lost forever. Therefore the responsibility now falls to me to somehow produce an extended master without using any of the original source materials. I believe I'm going to re-record the bassline on the Juno-6 and use that as a starting point for the final mix.

(I also heard back about Dom's use of the Prophet 5... he does not believe he solely used the Prophet 5 for the new bassline. Instead he thinks it more likely that he recorded a new bassline from the Juno and then layered it with the Prophet to boost the low end. I'm going to explore this further when I have a chance.)

DG Opening Remix 3 has now been posted on my Twitter.

http://twitter.com/dannystewart

New on Twitter:

• Extended version of Closing Remix 2c
• Fool's Gold + Glynn

http://twitter.com/dannystewart

So much for sleep... DG Closing Remix 2 has become DG Extended Remix 2. Completely overhauled.

http://twitter.com/dannystewart

What can I say? It sounds magnificent. I've listened to it twice now. Great job!

Thanks. I'm very proud of this latest one. Considering sending it off to Dom assuming he's not tired of my Who themes yet. ;)

Latest mixes now posted here (with accompanying Twitter posts)! Enjoy!

Another remix of Dominic Glynn's opening theme to Doctor Who. Oh, that's DG Opening Remix 3 for those of you keeping track.

By popular demand, an extended version of my DG Closing Remix 2c is finally on its way. Should be online tonight.

As promised, here is DG Closing Remix 2d, an extended version of 2c. A little late, but hopefully worth the delay!

So much for sleep... DG Closing Remix 2 has become DG Extended Remix 2. Completely overhauled.

DG Extended Remix 2 is being officially renamed DG Cosmos Mix after some minor tweaks. Official release (and perhaps send to Dom) shortly.

Fantastic work as always with all of these remixes. :D
Keep up the good work.





Little Miss Moffat
Sat on RTD's doormat
And wrote a good drama or two.
Then Russell retired,
Chris Chibnall got fired
And Steve made a good show of Who. - Recurring Villain

What kind of studio doesn't bother to archive its own treasured recordings?
(besides BBC and the ongoing Missing Episodes saga)

Your Honors, the Prosecution rests.

I know the sound effects from the Keff McCulloch version are a simple and tiny embellishment (whoosh, whoosh, clang and a bit of the TARDIS here and there pretty much sums it up - it's almost Goldesque), but if you want help recreating those, BBC added a sound-effects-only version of the opening and closing titles on the "Curse of Fenric" R1 DVD. It's embedded into the music only audio option for episode three, I think. Most of the sound effects are there clean, without the theme music in the way (there is a little bit of overlap with the incidental music). If you decide to recreate the sound effects for your remix, hopefully that will help.