Reconstructing Dominic Glynn's full-length theme

[Danny Stewart]

My latest project involving Dom's multitracks is an attempt to reconstruct the full-length extended version of his theme. Seeing as the original multitracks have long since been destroyed (a tragic loss), I have tasked myself with attempting to use the available material along with my own recreations of the missing elements to recapture the extended theme as closely as possible. Fortunately, the way Dom created the original full-length theme makes this significantly easier on me -- he essentially just combined the multitracks of the opening and closing themes together (sans bassline), then recorded a new bassline to go underneath and some additional sound effects to go on top. So far, I have done the same, and created a nearly perfect replica of the layout of the extended theme using every track but the basslines. That's more than half my work already done.

However what's left is the really challenging part. I am tasked with figuring out the best way to recreate the missing bassline and sound effects, and then actually doing it. Back in 2006, I spent several weeks working closely with Dom on a recreation of his entire theme from the ground up. I resynthesized everything on modern software synthesizers; namely the Arturia Minimoog V, CS-80V, and Native Instruments FM7. On the whole, the recreation was not all that great, but it was passable, and I learned a lot about Dom's theme from doing it (and especially from working with him on it). The other night I produced a draft version of the full-length theme, using more refined versions of the very same sounds that I started back in 2006 to fill in what was missing (the bassline and the additional sound effects). The bassline comes from the Minimoog V, and the sound effects come from the CS-80V.

After working on it for several hours, I sent a test version to Dom to see what he thought of it. He said it was an impressive attempt, but that the bass sound needed more work, as there was "some unpredictability of the real old analogue stuff missing." It needed to sound dirtier. So I went back and worked on it a bit more, tweaking the sound and adding some light distortion to it, then adding in another bass sound off the U-NO-62 (a soft synth based on the Roland Juno synthesizers). I have an actual Juno-6, which is the exact synthesizer Dom used to create the original bass sound, but I'm afraid I'm not good enough to play in the entire bassline live the way he did. I'm also not able to get the sound exactly right... we speculate that he may have added to the bass sound of the full-length mix by bolstering the low end frequencies with the studio's Prophet 5 synth, which would explain why. In the meantime, I think I'll have better luck going the software synth route.

As of tonight, I sent my second attempt to Dom and got some additional feedback. Progress is being made but he advised more resonance on the filter of the bassline. I've now done this, and a third version is now ready. I've already sent it to Dom to get his opinion, but your thoughts and comments are welcome as well. Also, please note that future mixes will be posted in M4A format instead of MP3. M4A provides a slightly higher quality file at a slightly smaller size.

[Ben Dawson]

I downloaded the file, but it wouldn't play on any media player, including iTunes.

[Danny Stewart]

Originally Posted by Ben Dawson

I downloaded the file, but it wouldn't play on any media player, including iTunes.

How very curious. The forums are renaming the file automatically from .m4a to .m4a.mp3.

I figured out what caused it, though, and have fixed it now, so try downloading again. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

[Danny Stewart]

Dom and I have now settled on a final master version of the full-length recreation. I'm very pleased with it, and by the sound of it, so is he.