Does anybody want any OST? News Posted by Ian Symes on 11th November 2016, 13:50 Yes, is the resounding answer to that question, and today’s TOS update reveals that our prayers have been answered before we even began praying. This is not an announcement that soundtrack albums are being planned, or that they’re a long term ambition, or even that they’ll be coming out soon – completely out of the blue, *four* albums are available to download right this very second, covering almost the entire history of Red Dwarf, with a fifth to follow once XII has been aired. Split across the four are a selection of cues from every series bar VIII and BTE (which is reasonable, considering there wasn’t any new, non-library music in those two series), personally re-mastered and remixed by Howard Goodall himself. This is obviously amazing, particularly as there’s a mixture of used and unused cues, some of which have never seen the light of day before. And of course, given the lack of isolated cues on the Series X and XI DVDs, this is the first opportunity to hear any clean versions of that material. Not only that, but it seems from the description that the cues have been compiled into a series of individual tracks – again, hand-crafted by the god-like genius that is Howard himself – for a better listening experience. Even from the brief previews on the store pages, this is clearly well worth the cover price. It’s not quite the perfect package – the cover art is clearly not the work of a professional in that field, and it’s a little bit fiddly to have to make four separate purchases, considering this is a digital-only affair that’s not constrained by a maximum length of any given physical medium. But bloody hell, this is a surprise, and a very welcome one at that. Absolutely incredible. And the title Eine Kleine Ductmusik may well have justified the existence of that episode.
Fun fact: back when I first did my own collection of the cues, I titled the Stasis Leak Xpress Lifts piece “Eine Kleine Liftmusik”. Great minds, etc. (Even though I stole that title from a Blur b-side. So the “great minds” in question are actually Howard Goodall and Damon Albarn, not Howard Goodall and me.)
I’ve bought every single one. Already listening to the antique extras, and some are not the exact recordings used on the show, but definitely from the same sessions. But to hear them in stereo from a master is something else. The music cues on the DVD were great, but always sounded a bit flat. These ore on a different level quality wise.
It’s a real shame the original flyby cues aren’t included from the early series, as those would sound beautiful in this kind of quality. As i expected, i think my favourite of these is the Series 7 music. I was never much of a fan of Howard’s synth music in the series, but his orchestral work can’t be beat, and I think Series 7 at its best has the best orchestral pieces in the whole show. (Not the library music). It’s wonderful to hear the Rimmer death pod sequence and the Ace Rimmer music in decent quality finally. The DVD version was hissy as hell.
Massive fucking irritating pedant point – there is an original cue in Back To Earth, namely the sound of the Creator’s doorbell. Even I’m shamed by the pissiness of that fact.
Now we just need unabridged Chris Barrie audiobooks of Last Human and Backwards for the wishlist to be complete. I am assuming these are DRM free downloads?
Yes, they are. And FLAC if you go through CD Baby. Wish there were DRM-free high quality versions of the unabridged audiobooks. It comes to something when crap cassette rips from the early 00s sound about the same as the expensive DRM-up-the-wazoo ones you can buy digitally in 2016. At least the Radio Show’s out there in affordable HQ form.
Ho. Just a small advance warning – there is also an added tax sting on the order of $7.95, so you’re talking somewhere in the region of £40-45 for the set after everything has cleared. If it was anything else by anyone else, I probably wouldn’t at that price. But given that I bought an MP3 set of about five of his classical albums a few years ago for something insane like £2, and bits of that I have listened to frequently ever since, it all evens out. He deserves it. My thinking was I’d happily have paid a tenner each in shops for all four as CDs which I’d have ripped once and never touch again. And he wouldn’t make half the royalties on those than he’d do here.
Also worth putting in writing that Eine Kleine Ductmusik includes the absolutely stunning Kennedy assassination music from Tikka, which has never, ever been available before clean in any form. When it didn’t appear on the VII DVD I did wonder if he was deliberately holding it back for something. 11 years later I’ve got my answer.
Oh man, these are so so good. I bought the lot, then just intended to test a random mp3 to make sure it worked. Even though it was just going through my tinny laptop speakers, I couldn’t resist listening to the whole thing. It’s amazing.
It is indeed amazing. One aspect not trumpeted about yet – there’s actual *new* bits on these too, not archive, but newly recorded embellishments. I’ll leave the forensics for another day, plus it would spoil the fun. I have a feeling that the title piece of ‘Captain Rimmer’s Mandolin’ is an outtake from Goodall’s ‘Inspired’ LP rather than music from the show. It’s bloody lovely whatever it is. And brand new. The whole flow though… these are not just cue-by-cue soundtrack archives. They are PROPER albums.
Actually, I think that theory about ‘Inspired’ is nonsense, it has a vocal sample which appears a few times on these albums (including on a lovely souped-up Dimension Jump suite!), so it’s all specially newly done for us greedy bastards.
Okay. My bank balance can’t manage all four at the moment (maybe one every month), but I can’t go *completely* without today, can I? So I can just about afford one of them. Which one do you recommend?
Wow, awesome! Can’t wait to listen to all of this. I assume that the reason it’s split across 4 albums is not about length but price. You’d not get many impulse buys at £32.
Let It Smeg contains the most giddy nerd thrills. Eine Kleine Ductmusik is probably the strongest musically. Captain Rimmer’s Mandolin has the highest nostalgia value. Krysis, What Krysis is the best value running-time wise plus obviously the freshest. They’re all live on Amazon and iTunes now by the way. Slightly cheaper than CD Baby (£7.99 each, £36 the lot) though more limited in terms of format choice. Incidentally, the last piece in ‘Antique Extras’. I’m saying nothing.
So I didn’t intend to splurge today, but I gave in and appear to have bought myself an early Christmas pressie… It’s certainly tricky to choose between them; it depends on what you’d prefer first, e.g. listening to previously unreleased material or revisiting more nostalgic (familiar) themes, albeit remastered in a somewhat new and original way. I agree with Darrell’s comments for each. If I was pushed to choose one, though, I’d go for “Krysis, What Krysis?” but that’s purely because it accompanies the XI blu-ray nicely (and having a listen of the clean Rimmer barbershop song is, of course, a delight – however short it is). But, of course, there are some lovely sections in each album; the opening to Captain Rimmer’s Mandolin is lovely, Eine Kleine Ductmusik has VII’s classics, which (whatever I think of the series itself) are superbly ‘epic’, and Let It Smeg includes cues from the ‘Young Rimmer’ scene in The Beginning and intriguing sections from Lemons’ depiction of India. The last piece in ‘Antique Extras’ (Let It Smeg) is indeed wonderfully bonkers – I can imagine Howard Goodall had a ball recording it.
Okay, so, yes, this is incredible news, and it’s sure nice to see something that everyone can rally with unanimous positivity behind. At least until Pete Tranter’s Sister’s new account shows up. But the really wonderful thing here for me is that while buying these from iTunes I noticed his Red Dwarf Piano Fantasies single, which I didn’t even know existed. And it’s absolutely lovely. That’s five surprise, great downloads for me instead of only four! It’s a pretty happy day, if I ignore literally everything else that’s happening in my country.
Bought Let It Smeg last night, thoroughly enjoyed it. Although a large chunk of me wishes I hadn’t just spent eight quid that I can’t really afford on something I don’t really need. Damn you, Red Dwarf fanaticism!
This is just what I needed. Phil, I bought “Goodall Inspired” a few years ago, being just a passable enough pianist to figure out the easier pieces in it. I love “Shackleton’s Cross.”
Listening to Shackleton’s Cross is my happy place, I always used to play it after a shift at my terrible last big job to destress before walking home. I make no claims to be able to play it on the piano, mind. I’ve given it many a go.
Well, I just sent in my “Rimmer Munchkin Theme” contest entry. It’s very possible that I was distracted by that steelbook business and missed a few, especially since I didn’t hear *any* instances of it in Eine Kleine Ductmusik…
Huh, Inspired seems to be unavailable through iTunes in America. I guess we got the Piano Fantasies single instead, with the two Red Dwarf tracks. That’s a shame; I’d rather have the full release. It looks great. :(
Yes, it is, and I bought it, as you’ll see above. But we were talking about Inspired, as you’ll see above.
Is the digital-only compilation “50 Howard Goodall Classics” available on US iTunes? That’s got virtually all of Inspired on it, and also has both tracks from Piano Fantasies. It’s currently £6 on UK Amazon, but it’s been half that in the past. Well worth it as an introduction to his wider work, there’s a bit of everything on it.
> Is the digital-only compilation “50 Howard Goodall Classics” available on US iTunes? I don’t see it there. I might buy the Inspired CD through Amazon UK since Howard’s website links to it. And since I still have a CD player.
The digital Inspired is longer than the CD – for a start the Red Dwarf Piano Fantasy itself isn’t on the physical release like the Tongue Tied one is. Space issues rather than any slyness.
I tell you what, i’m getting the feeling that huge fans of Star Trek TNG must have got when they saw the show in HD for the first time. Listening to the Gunman theme in FLAC on a high quality sound system is like listening to the music for the first time all over again. I love it.
I’ve noticed that the VI Underscore has a few chunks of VII in there also. This music is fucking lovely isn’t it?
I’ve noticed that the VI Underscore has a few chunks of VII in there also. I asked Howard about that, cos I noticed the Ace theme in VI too. Turns out it was written for Rimmerworld!
Incidentally, how lovely are the embellishments he’s put on Space Walk? And going from the Cat Priest theme into it, too. Just brilliant.
> Incidentally, how lovely are the embellishments he’s put on Space Walk? Is that the Blue Danube-y version of the theme from Confidence and Paranoia? I don’t have the albums yet but that’s my favourite Red Dwarf music. I remember listening to it over and over on the series 1 DVD.
That’s the one, yep. I can’t remember if “Space Walk” was an official title on the DVD cues section or just something we all always called it, but yeah. On these albums, he’s got it mixed directly in after the Cat Priest theme, and there’s also some additional string bits added and a little extra motif at the very end. It’s somehow even more delightful than the original.
Not just the Cat Priest theme, but an outtake of the Cat Priest theme! The extended Cat theme studio jam is great too.
How are people getting on with the competition? Without obviously giving any answers or clues away and spoiling the fun… it’s surprisingly hard isn’t it? Sent an entry in and am fairly convinced I’ve not got them all. There’s one instance in particular which I’ve included but am in spasms of contention about. If I listen any closer for any longer I’ll go insane and just hear everything as it. It’s an insanely fun challenge anyway. The second great Red Dwarf game this year.
I emailed my answer, then instantly spotted another one. I haven’t resubmitted an answer because I’m assuming it’s been won already? But who knows.
I’m in bits at how good the Series VII stuff is. It’s that full orchestra tango piece that made my ears boggle – what on earth did that originally accompany?! All sorts of insane conspiracy theories in my head. This album’s the first new-old classic Dwarf AV since Bodysnatcher, my ears are doing cartwheels and I haven’t stopped listening since Friday night. And I’m so happy he’s included so much from the rejected score for Blue. Always wanted to redub The Rimmer Experience with its proper bespoke faux-Disneyland soundtrack and see what it looks like. It’s quite Mr Bean-y, that Blue theme. One more thing that occured to me – how much of X I assumed was library music and was actually original. I’d almost go as far as to suggest that Goodall composed the music with the Back To Earth library music ‘style’ in mind.
Well, this is unexpected and pretty damn wonderful. Though I would have preferred the cues in chronological order myself. There’s so much more unused material then I was expecting. How will I figure out where it all goes?! So here’s something really odd I noticed. Tongue Tied is quoted at the beginning of the incredible cue when Rimmer and Kryten walk in on Asclepius. It’s not bad, just seems like an odd choice for such a cue. Thought it does go over the part where Asclepy was singing. Maybe Howard originally envisaged him singing Tongue Tied? Also, why is the cue of Cat lost in the Trojan, on the series 11 album?
It could also just be a new overdub for the LPs, that stuff is obviously harder to spot on the X/XI suites as it’s the same kit used. Loads of points where he records a new bit to cover a lull or gap in an original cue so that there’s absolutely no let-up in the momentum of the things, that could well be one. There’s quite a lot of mysteries to unravel on these, I think it might be quite the slow burn.
It could also just be a new overdub for the LPs, that stuff is obviously harder to spot on the X/XI suites as it’s the same kit used. Loads of points where he records a new bit to cover a lull or gap in an original cue so that there’s absolutely no let-up in the momentum of the things, that could well be one. There’s quite a lot of mysteries to unravel on these, I think it might be quite the slow burn. Indeed, but it does give us something to do while we wait for series XII. It seems like a majority of the score for series X was focused around the Beginning. Though it is hard to tell, due to the cues being out of order but that would make sense, being the most dramatic and action orientated episode. There is one unused cue that is definitely from the episode but I’m trying to figure out what scene it was scored for. It starts at 11:06 and is similar to the two cues centered around the explosive finale. There is a patch of silence in the episode right between the other two cues, which it slots into fairly well, when Rimmer makes his prisoner of war speech. But I’m not sure. It also times fairly well with the Blue Midget chase through the asteroids and would perhaps be a better fit for that scene tonally. Any thoughts? It’s a lovely cue in any case, with a nice ominous quote of the main theme at the end.
There is a good chance that on my deathbed, I will have forgotten many of the plot details of Series VII, but I will be able to hum the entirety of Eine Kleine Ductmusik.
The Rimmer Graveyard into Dallas ’63 into Ace Rimmer’s Theme might just have immediately landed in the list of top ten things ever to do with Red Dwarf.
Well, after much careful analysis, I’ve pinpointed the placement of most of the series XI cues. Interestingly, it seems that they are pretty much in chronological order, except strangely, Can of Worms appears first and a cue from Trojan is placed within it. Also, the Rimmer’s Officer Club cues are placed after the Rimmer monster cues. But everything else seems to be in order. For anyone interested, the time-codes are as follows, Can of Worms at 00:00, Twentica at 08:31, Samara at 12:36, Give & Take at 18:46, Officer Rimmer at 25:47 and Krysis at 33:09. Odd, the decision to put Can of Worms first. But it does mean we end on an epic church organ type piece, clearly written for the Universe scene, but which went unused. I find this interesting, as I believe it was pointed out in the Dwarfcast, how Krysis would have made a better final episode, and that scene giving a better more epic end to the series. Which would have only been increased had they used this cue.
Nah, it’s worth knowing. It’s almost certainly not Goodall’s choice and caused by Google Play’s inflexible pricing structure which cannot cope with long pieces that need to be sold ‘by the weight’ – Krysis What Krysis and Eine Kleine Ductmusik haven’t even gone up there as albums. But when I spent £43 I really don’t have in good faith on something that is then £4.56 a week later, I cannot fail to be disgusted. Maybe HG needs to be tipped off on Twitter that Google are underpricing these. I doubt it’s something he’s aware of or on board with.
I honestly, genuinely feel sorry for everyone who’s forked out thirty-odd quid on that lot, when now Google Play have put it up for less than a fiver. I’d be fucking screaming. I’d suggest that maybe it’ll change to £9.99, but a couple of them are £1.29, so probably not. But, on the other hand, Fucking Hell, that’s £4.56 well spent.
In less depressing news about these albums (because if I talk any more about the Google Play prices I may actually, literally die), I’ve just compared the previously unheard series 3 disco track to ‘Party Time’ off the series 3 DVD, and not only are they obviously the same session, they both share the same drum machine setting! Hardly a revelation but how strange/interesting that the releases of these two tracks, which presumably share the same physical piece of 1/4 inch tape, have been divorced from each other by 13 years! Something else I was speculating about… you know how there’s surprisingly little original series 3 music from Goodall? Is that possibly because the music budget was split between him and Craig Charles? It strikes me as weird that Goodall gets a ‘Music By’ credit on Timeslides because Charles provides 100% of the incidental music (Bad News, Om Song and Cash) – and may that have been a deliberate experiment in democratic appeasement after the Tongue Tied clash? The implication is that they just popped a couple of pre-existing CC tracks in at the dub, but it would have to have been a deliberate formal guest commission, no? We know they were aiming for a different sound for III, and with longer pieces tracked on like pop songs (even the outer space stings go electric), but is this a little bit of the story that has fallen off over time? Goodall scored for five, Charles scored for one? To make that theory even more believable, Goodall’s only contracted for five episodes in IV and V as well, like the ghost of a Craig Charles-shaped hole in the production budget somehow carried over…
Can I just point out that if you buy these from Google Play, Howard will get a lot less dosh for his work than if you buy them from CDBaby. As far as I’m aware they shouldn’t be that price, Google have messed up and still haven’t changed it. So while I can’t force anyone to pay full whack, I think it’s the fairest thing to do (given the work he’s put into creating and releasing this) not to buy it that way. (Also, you don’t get the FLACs on Google…)
As someone who doesn’t have a decent enough wage to be able to afford thirty odd quid to buy the lot at once, I am naturally going to jump at the chance to get them all for a fiver, even if it is a mistake. I did manage eight quid for one of them, and had intended to buy one every so often when I could afford to. I figured paying for them at least was a good thing.
Yeah, I’m not judging anyone for doing so (it may have sounded like that but I can sometimes be unwittingly sanctimonious. I mainly just wanted to point out that yes, it is an error, and I believe it’s something that Howard has been trying to get changed. Obviously people are entitled to take advantage of it (especially those not in a position to lump £40 on digital music in one go); but equally, if EVERYONE here did so – well, let’s face it, we’re pretty much the largest target audience for this stuff…
I’m not annoyed. Do you know why i’m not annoyed? Because it wasn’t available for 99p when I wanted it. Hindsight’s a bitch. But you’re paying for 10% of the filesize if you just get the mp3. I’m rather apathetic. 99p for this stuff is just as wrong in the other direction… Still worth every penny from CDBaby imho.
I bought the series 6 one from Amazon but i bought the rest from Google play yesterday for £3, i was also gonna get them bit by bit also because of the lack of funds but with them being 99p each, how could i not?
Seb, you might want to alert Howard to the fact that some twat has seemingly started uploading these to YouTube. I won’t provide a direct link here but if you just do a search and sort it by upload date you should be able to find the twat in question.
Its lucky red dwarf wasn’t a much bigger in fan circles since you wouldn’t get away with persuading fans not to do certain things. I am pretty sure you can’t get away with salvaging mistakes with star wars or star trek fandoms.
It’s not unreasonable to point out that a misprice is against the wishes of the artist and against the spirit in which they were put out for release, though, and no-one’s stopping anyone doing anything. It was just a request for people to use their head and heart before racing into an impulse Google Play purchase, as it’s a one-man operation aimed squarely at the fan hardcore, with lots of additional effort put in effectively to thank the fanbase for their support over the years. However long it took Goodall to create these albums for release, I guarantee that sales to us, even at full price, will not cover what his time is worth on pretty much any other project. It was already a big charitable favour to the fans for him to sit down for x amount of weeks and make these knowing full well his time would not be adequately renumerated, it’s a much smaller favour to ask that anyone who can afford the properly priced versions play fair and dodge the Google Play cockup. This isn’t a special offer, it’s someone suffering through a costly distributor error who may well think again before making any followups or doing them for more of his archived work.
Something else I was speculating about… you know how there’s surprisingly little original series 3 music from Goodall? Is that possibly because the music budget was split between him and Craig Charles? It strikes me as weird that Goodall gets a ‘Music By’ credit on Timeslides because Charles provides 100% of the incidental music (Bad News, Om Song and Cash) – and may that have been a deliberate experiment in democratic appeasement after the Tongue Tied clash? The implication is that they just popped a couple of pre-existing CC tracks in at the dub, but it would have to have been a deliberate formal guest commission, no? We know they were aiming for a different sound for III, and with longer pieces tracked on like pop songs (even the outer space stings go electric), but is this a little bit of the story that has fallen off over time? Goodall scored for five, Charles scored for one? To make that theory even more believable, Goodall’s only contracted for five episodes in IV and V as well, like the ghost of a Craig Charles-shaped hole in the production budget somehow carried over… That’s very interesting. Where does the info come from that he was only contracted for five episodes of IV and V? I’ve never heard this. And which episodes are they? Now that I think about it, I guess Meltdown didn’t have any score did it? But I’m pretty sure every episode of V did.
Neither Meltdown nor Terrorform feature an original score and both are tracked from stock (Meltdown features the Elvis ending but Goodall didn’t record the vocals and it was sung over the backing track of the series 3 credits), it takes until VI for him to do a complete series again. Then of course he did every episode of VII but save for Stoke, Duct Soup and a few scattered setpiece bits it went unused, but that’s another untold story…
I thought Terrorform had original score made for it, but just went unused and replaced with library music. Isn’t one of those the cue you hear at the end of Bach to Reality?
Did anything get said about the competition in the end? I am 100% certain I haven’t won it, but I am keen to discuss these albums in depth a bit more in a way which sort of breaches the spirit of the contest and I want to make sure it’s all boxed off and completed before I do. The core of it is that the cosmos is daring me to write up a very, very detailed analysis of all four LPs. With timings. And footnotes. And cross-references to the DVD extras. And unbearably incessant use of the words “overdub”, “patch” and “portamento”.
That sounds terrific Darrell! I don’t know if it would be of any help, but I’ve made some videos that show the exact placements (for the most part anyway) of the series 10 and 11 cues. If that would be useful to you in your analysis, I could send them to you privately.
I’m really hoping we get a remix of the end credits in XII. We haven’t had one since Stoke Me a Clipper when for some BIZARRE FUCKING REASON the great remix in the style of the Ace Rimmer theme got thrown out and they just straight-up recycled the Ace Rimmer theme. WHY? WHY WOULD YOU THROW OUT GREAT MUSIC SPECIFICALLY COMPOSED FOR THAT PURPOSE? I’m genuinely baffled.
I’m not baffled, ever since series V, when Red Dwarf started having more extensive score composed for it, there has been a consistent effort to toss out fantastic music composed by Mr. Goodall. Whether it’s replacing it with generic stock music or just removing it entirely. Some examples: pretty much all the music made for Holoship, Terroform, Duct Soup, Blue, Epideme, Father’s and Suns, Entangled, Twentica and Samsara, the Starbug crash in Back to Reality (which features a terrific epic rendition of the main theme) Rimmer’s diary in Rimmerworld, the opening triumphant section of the finale in Out of Time, the asteroid chase in the Beginning and a truly excellent piece for the end of Krysis. And that’s just off the top of my head. Like I said, I’m not baffled, but I am frustrated. I mean you have to wonder, when your composer creates 40 minutes of music for a series and you use about 15, is it really worth hiring him in the first place?
Has anyone figured out what the piece that comes in immediately after the end of the Ace theme in Ductmusik is/would have been intended for? Or is that the same “theme tune remix” mentioned above by KyoSo? Whatever it is, I love it, and it rounds off that whole section beautifully.
I haven’t a clue – and it’s doubly amazing because it’s from the actual orchestral sessions. As all the other orchestra pieces are from the first two episodes, yet Stoke is wall-to-wall Goodall, my bet is on Tikka, specifically the prelude to the assassination (the one replaced by the Alan Hawkshaw march piece). Another possible fit is the ‘Lister swaps Kryten’s head’ sequence. I did bab out a wild theory that it was source music recorded for a dance sequence in Identity Within, but that was just a bit of brain ballast while I was trying to work it out.
As for how much music went unused, that’s worryingly standard in the industry, all the great composers have been through it. Little comfort though when it happens. I did some bits for an ad agency last year and they didn’t use the best piece I did, plus asked for a retake on my favourite bit of another. Just one of those things. (I only humblebrag about that because I’ve had ball-all commissions since and the agency I was on the books of went under. PLEASE PAY ME TO MAKE NOISES.)
We’re talking about the cue at 6:53 right? That is a curious one. Darrell, do you mean the first assassination attempt or the second one? They both use the same stock Alan Hawkshaw piece. If you mean the first, I don’t think it was meant for that. You can hear the cue for that scene from 0:51 to 1:20. It syncs perfectly (and hilariously I might add) with Lister knocking Oswald out the window. And has actually never been heard until now, since it wasn’t used in the episode or put on the dvds. So what was this unknown cue designed for? I’ve got a couple of theories but I’m not very certain. It could have possibly been related to the funeral for Rimmer, it has a kind of pompous military march sort of feel. But it doesn’t really fit anything specifically in that scene, so I doubt it. Another possibility is the medieval scenes. If you sync it so it ends where Kryten chides Lister to memorise his cheats book, it fits decently, and segues quite well into the cue that follows. But it is more likely from Tikka. It could have been for the second assassination scene, which otherwise, has no original score. Or, what I think is most likely, it was to score Kryten’s history lesson. It times perfectly, and sounds most appropriate there of all these choices. It is a lovely cue, reminds me of Evangelion. Also, Seb, the theme tune remix KyoSo was talking about appears at 6:02 on Captain Rimmer’s Mandolin, alongside a couple of other Stoke cues.
I know it’s pretty standard in the industry, but this is almost as bad as John Williams’ treatment on the Star Wars prequels. What sort of music do you do, Darrell? And anywhere I can listen to some samples of your work?
It is a lovely cue, reminds me of Evangelion. “Both of you, dance like you want to Rim”. I’d keep going but only the two of us would get it.
What sort of music do you do, Darrell? And anywhere I can listen to some samples of your work? Sorry, I meant to reply to this then forgot, then remembered, then forgot again. I did start a Soundcloud in the hope of getting a nice big treasure chest of STUFF online, but a mixture of terrible personal archiving, vastly reduced output and general laziness has meant it never really went as planned. All the stuff I did in the noughties for podcasts & internet radio, hours of song demos, all my college projects, and at least four complete video game soundtracks are either lost forever or hidden on other people’s hard drives. This one’s alright though for what it is: https://soundcloud.com/darrell-maclaine-jones/newsfeed-24-music-suite That’s an edited suite of cues (the real ones go on a bit or are just random notes and sounds…) for a viral ad series I scored early last year for an agency. The actual client for that was kept a weird secret and the ads fucked off after a month.
Right, proper nerdy post coming up now about VII music. Maybe even borderline too nerdy for G&T. Here goes anyway.. Do you all remember the MP3s that went up on Howard Goodall’s site in the early 2000s and how exciting it was to hear clean Red Dwarf music prior to the DVDs? Well, it’s very interesting to listen to them now. Because, well… they’re actually archivally significant! https://web.archive.org/web/20050317145608/http://www.howardgoodall.co.uk/tvthemes/reddwarfpage.htm We find: – 2 x orchestral tracks from Stoke – doing a side-by-side comparison reveals that these 128kbps MP3s were the master source for the appearance of these pieces on the DVD extras for VII, right down to the very clumsy edits. Examining the AC3 waveforms shows that during these tracks the frequency range even drops, in line with the original MP3 encoding. This means these two files from the website are a generation above the ones on the DVD (and *two* lossy generations above any MP3s ripped from the DVD). Interestingly, these are the only two full-orchestra tracks on the VII extras, which confirms that the masters of the orchestral sessions were not available for the DVD. Thank god for the albums! – A suite of (again, very crudely edited) cues from Nanarchy, which opens with a little faux-guitar sting which does not appear on the VII extras and has never turned up anywhere else, never mind the episode. So that’s exclusive Red Dwarf content we find here… – A completely unique version of the Rimmer Song, never used anywhere else. Weirdly re-edited, losing the middle verse and the final chorus, but with a couple of extra repeats of the intro and one bar (the last note of the repeated intro with descending carousel notes over it) which doesn’t turn up in any other version. The mix is drier and flatter than broadcast, DVD or album, almost demo-like, with an undisguised MIDI aesthetic, but it is the only version of this song in true stereo – it sounds to me that this mix was created separately from the TV version given the flatness and unique bit. So odd that there isn’t a true stereo mix of the proper version, actually – in Blue, it is completely mono, with some added reverb and surrounded in stereo effects and audience laughter (if you vocal-cut the scene it disappears!); on the DVD extras, it is pure mono, with the metronome count-in and horrible, domestic-C90 levels of hiss; and on the album, it is given a virtual remix, a faux-stereo wash and lots of reverb plus a couple of subtle new overdubs including pizzicato strings doubling the bassline, with the whole thing panned fairly hard to the right channel (a desperate, ill-advised final attempt at making it stereo, probably), but unpicking the new work shows that the parent master is still mono. I wonder why? Obviously, the Rimmer Song would have been created in advance of filming unlike the rest of the VII music, so maybe they filmed to a rough demo/scratch mix that was ultimately used as a final master and never got a proper remix done for the edit? While we’re on the subject, the cues on the VII DVD are weird in and of themselves. A couple of inexplicable clipped edits, and more tape hiss than appears on any of the previous series’ music galleries. After some forensics I’m not convinced that they’re not sourced from an audio cassette. There’s a definite bootleggy feel to it – not an aesthetic I’m not down with, but strange for an official DVD to present a Camden market version of itself. Budgetary reasons? I know they asked HG directly for his Out Of Time stuff as GNP didn’t hold it, maybe this was the only internal copy of the VII music GNP had and there wasn’t the time/money to mither Goodall for his master tapes. Not that that’s a foolproof theory either – GNP have full stereo master tapes of the series 1 music whereas judging by ‘Archive Extras’ Goodall only has a muffled mono cassette of same. Every time I prepare to undertake a definitive chronicle of all Red Dwarf music cues, it becomes a more and more gargantuan task. I quite like that. This isn’t getting completed this decade though. It does make me get very nervous though that there are two independent archives of this stuff that both hold material the other doesn’t have, don’t seem to have a consistent retaining policy, and aren’t cross-referenced against each other. After the model shot celluloid disappeared, are the stereo quarter-inch music masters still safe? Where *are* the theme tune masters? This stuff is too artistically and historically important to go missing in this day and age…
I was doing research for a book three years ago and I have no other mode of appreciation than this insane batshittery now. I am a hilarious nerd from the 1990s.
I’m going to confess to listening to the YouTube uploads as background music for quite a stressful task (partly because if the quality was a bit naff, it wouldn’t too matter much). It’s convinced me to buy the albums; the mp3s are on Amazon, Google Music (except Eine Kleine Ductmusik), and 7digital (only Eine Kleine Ductmusik). Perhaps iTunes too but whenever I’ve tried to use them in the past it’s not ended well. CDBaby is defunct. I wonder if the FLACs are available anywhere at all now? I look forward to when real-life stress is finished in a couple of weeks and I’ll be able to devote some time and energy to listening to these albums thoroughly! In the meantime they shall make my ongoing task rather more bearable :D (I also look forward to being able to sit down and really listen to all the DVD cues – my laptop drive is temperamental and can’t be relied upon for playing anything, and my alternative setup is awkward. Ah well, one day … )
I wonder if the FLACs are available anywhere at all now? Not on Qobuz, sadly, although they do have the Piano Fantasies. https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/red-dwarf-piano-fantasies-howard-goodall/0060253723159
Can someone please help me get ahold of these tracks? I’d particularly like the audio cues from the classic series. I’m happy to acquire them legitimately if possible. :D
The Howard Goodall Red Dwarf underscores are still on Amazon.co.uk i think. although they don’t have all the music cues from the series. just some of them.
No luck – all I can find are two tracks, Piano Fantasy and Tongue Tied. Ideally I’m looking to get my hands on the Series II music cues – my new hobby is making nostalgic playlists, and I’ve always associated 2012 with happy memories of these tracks playing whilst I waited for the G&T live Dwarfcasts to start. By the way, I’ve just realised this leitmotif from Pokemon Sword & Shield sounds a lot like the Observation Dome theme: https://youtu.be/ksdFGsw0Ib8?t=80 (begins at 1:20)
Do you mean the Howard Goodall albums or the cues from the DVDs? If the former, Amazon do have them all https://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Smeg-Red-Dwarf-Underscore/dp/B01MDU3PEU/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=Howard+goodall+red+dwarf&qid=1602846781&sr=8-5 Let it Smeg – series X, Antique Extras – series I – III https://www.amazon.co.uk/Captain-Rimmers-Mandolin-Dwarf-Underscore/dp/B01MG84IVY/ref=mp_s_a_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=Howard+goodall+red+dwarf&qid=1602846959&sr=8-7 Captain Rimmer’s Mandolin – series VI, Bach to Reality – series IV, V https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eine-Kleine-Ductmusik-Dwarf-Underscore/dp/B01M73Q5A8/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=Howard+goodall+red+dwarf&qid=1602846959&sr=8-4 Eine Kleine Ductmusik – series VII https://www.amazon.co.uk/Krysis-What-Red-Dwarf-Underscore/dp/B01N3WHE2C/ref=mp_s_a_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=Howard+goodall+red+dwarf&qid=1602846959&sr=8-14 Krysis, What Krysis? – series XI
Wait, so if I buy these things from Amazon I won’t get MP3 files of the music cues for my personal listening pleasure? What are they, sheet music? Would the only way to acquire the music cues themselves be to rip them from the DVDs?
Wait, so if I buy these things from Amazon I won’t get MP3 files of the music cues for my personal listening pleasure? What are they, sheet music? Would the only way to acquire the music cues themselves be to rip them from the DVDs? The tracks are each one long piece of music, containing cues composed for the series, some of which were used in the episodes and some unused. I don’t know if they contain all of the cues on the DVDs.
Thanks for the info guys – I’d have been fuming if I paid for those tracks on Amazon and didn’t get the music I wanted. I found instructions on t’internet for decrypting my Series II DVD, so all’s well that ends well.
Thanks for the info guys – I’d have been fuming if I paid for those tracks on Amazon and didn’t get the music I wanted. I found instructions on t’internet for decrypting my Series II DVD, so all’s well that ends well. Um, any chance you could either point me in a vague direction or hint what kind of search terms bring up relevant results please? I would like to listen to the series cues on the DVDs more as well but as I’ve mentioned (ad nauseum by now) my drive is temperamental, and my alternative setup awkward. If I could get the audio off them I could listen to them AND be able to touch my laptop at the same time!