Which background music? (Synthesiser or full orchestra?)
- Thread starter DizzyMan
- Start date
I also found the later TNG scores to be terribly generic and 'safe'.
As one person already said, if only they'd have let the composers do their own thing, but with the resources of a full orchestra.
But some of the synth stuff is great too...I still really dig the "Evolution" score.
As one person already said, if only they'd have let the composers do their own thing, but with the resources of a full orchestra.
But some of the synth stuff is great too...I still really dig the "Evolution" score.
In the early seasons they did use synthesisers more, but most of the score was still orchestral. Apart from that cue in EAF and a couple of scores after they didn't sounded dated to me or had any significant impact.
Nevermind that one of the fan's favourite cues was done with a synthesiser...
"Tell Admiral Hanson...we have engaged the Borg!" Anyone?
So the full orchestra always was there, they just used synthesiser sometimes to add an extra flavour in the early seasons. There were both good and bad uses of them.
But in any event the music done by Ron Jones, Chattaway in his first two or three scores and McCarthy until the Fourth Season was better than 90% of the music that was done after, specially in TNG. Before that I would hardly get disapoint with a score..but after there were many times were I wished something more melodic or energetic..
This was partially fixed in latter DS9, VOY and ENT which did got some interesting music thankfully.
If I had to rank TNG Seasons by music it would be 3,2,1,4,7,6,5. 5 was the worst season, but by the 6th they were starting to recuperate, and then every year was better than the previous one, right untill the 3rd Season of Enterprise. I only saw some episodes of the fourth, but suposedely they stared using all synth scores?
How did that turned out?
Nevermind that one of the fan's favourite cues was done with a synthesiser...
"Tell Admiral Hanson...we have engaged the Borg!" Anyone?
So the full orchestra always was there, they just used synthesiser sometimes to add an extra flavour in the early seasons. There were both good and bad uses of them.
But in any event the music done by Ron Jones, Chattaway in his first two or three scores and McCarthy until the Fourth Season was better than 90% of the music that was done after, specially in TNG. Before that I would hardly get disapoint with a score..but after there were many times were I wished something more melodic or energetic..
This was partially fixed in latter DS9, VOY and ENT which did got some interesting music thankfully.
If I had to rank TNG Seasons by music it would be 3,2,1,4,7,6,5. 5 was the worst season, but by the 6th they were starting to recuperate, and then every year was better than the previous one, right untill the 3rd Season of Enterprise. I only saw some episodes of the fourth, but suposedely they stared using all synth scores?
How did that turned out?
Music like the shows themselves, are supposed to be of their time. You can't fight that, even when depicting the future. Looking at TOS they got that right by being faithful to the there and then. Definately not bland, that's for sure. Okay, sometimes a little too contemporary when it came to Space Hippies! But barring some amazing scores by Ron Jones and Jay Chattaway with the Borg and Picard's flute themes, the music never strayed from the theory classical never dates. Maybe that's true, but it's also mostly a depressing bore to listen to!
If you don't like synth, give episodes like Where No One Has Gone Before & Heart of Glory another try. I get chills with those in particular. After the reliable McCarthy wallpaper, Enterprise was finally heading in a new direction... with all the critisism that comes with change. Trip's MacGuyver-esque escape scene in Terra Prime and the spooky music surrounding those Orion ladies in Bound stick in my head and that can only be a good thing.
If you don't like synth, give episodes like Where No One Has Gone Before & Heart of Glory another try. I get chills with those in particular. After the reliable McCarthy wallpaper, Enterprise was finally heading in a new direction... with all the critisism that comes with change. Trip's MacGuyver-esque escape scene in Terra Prime and the spooky music surrounding those Orion ladies in Bound stick in my head and that can only be a good thing.
Well, call me a stuffy old coot most of whose favourite music was written by people long dead (Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov), but I think if music is good it can outlive its trend-setting popularity.
And while I'm not suggesting the incidential music of the show for the first three seasons was anywhere near that category, I think it was good then and it's good now.
I think they realized the score slumpo and attempted to bring new blood into it with Enterprise with John Frizzell and Brian tyler scoring two a piece, and even Shirley Walker submitting a demo to try to get in (didn't sadly).
Full orchestra. The music from TNG's first season generally grates on my nerves with the strange exception of "Skin of Evil" and "Conspiracy."
^^Except, as stated, the music from TNG's early seasons did use a full orchestra in every episode. It's just that, in many cases, that orchestra included a synthesizer as one of its instruments.
Yeah, but the synthesizer in that full orchestra just stood out like a bleating goat. UGH.
Except, as already discussed, on season 4 of Enterprise, where most of the season relied on pure synth scores that mimicked an orchestral sound. Aren't people reading the whole thread before they post?
number6
Vice Admiral
Where do you get that information?? There were definitely episodes where this was more obvious, but I don't believe that Season 4 was exclusively synths. There are AFM union rules in place to prevent that from happening.
Who pissed in your bowl of cheerios this morning?? You wanna dial back that bit of 'tude before posting??
I'm pretty sure that it was just the episodes that Kevin Kiner was brought in for that used synth as their main voice. Dennis McCarthy did say in an interview that Kiner was there to assist with electronic music that year.
www.startreksoundtracks.com puts Kiner's number of episodes at 8, so less than half of season four by my count were episodes that used electronic music as their main voice.
www.startreksoundtracks.com puts Kiner's number of episodes at 8, so less than half of season four by my count were episodes that used electronic music as their main voice.
I prefer a mix, like some of STNG's first two seasons. I just listened to the synthesizer music from WNOHGB, and its really beautiful and stunning. There's no reason why the two can't work together. BTW I totally disagree that they are lighter, the 1st season of STNG has some of the best and most recognizable music in all of ST history! It often combined the elegant synthesizers with grand traditional themes from ST making ST sound modern yet on a grand scale for TV...Datalore, The Big Goodbye, WNWHGB, 1101001, Heart of Glory all stand out in my head as being good examples.
RAMA
RAMA
They were reproducing the overkill background music of TOS.....however, look on the good work of the first 2 seasons of STNG--after Encounter at Farpoint and some other early eps--they improved the level of the music excesses....and then when Berman became more of a force, they sadly did away with a regular bombastic movie sound, which most be regret to this day.
RAMA
I agree with Rama 100%.
How can some people call themselves "Sci Fi" fans is beyond my understanding.
The Synthesizer stuff (as mentioned SEVERAL times by others) just "accented" the orchestral score and make it better and more "sci fiey" so to speak.
You guys remember the old movie "Forbidden Planet"? I dare anyone to tell me that the score in that movie is "boring" and "dates" the movie. If you do, hand in your Sci-Fi card and walk out the door, 'cause you ain't a true Sci-Fi fan.
How can some people call themselves "Sci Fi" fans is beyond my understanding.
The Synthesizer stuff (as mentioned SEVERAL times by others) just "accented" the orchestral score and make it better and more "sci fiey" so to speak.
You guys remember the old movie "Forbidden Planet"? I dare anyone to tell me that the score in that movie is "boring" and "dates" the movie. If you do, hand in your Sci-Fi card and walk out the door, 'cause you ain't a true Sci-Fi fan.
number6
Vice Admiral
The synthesized score of Forbidden Planet seriously dates the film.
The synthesized sounds for TOS was brilliant, organic and inventive.
It's not about being a fan about sci-fi. It's about creating something that's timeless.
Space1999 series two had dreadful music..
Series one had a symphonic score and production values that rivaled sci-fi films at the time.
My "card" stays with me.
TNG's synth stuff in season one and two was pure cheese. It was awful. It sounds like something off of a Gloria Estefan R&B Ballad. Pure rubbish.
The synthesized sounds for TOS was brilliant, organic and inventive.
It's not about being a fan about sci-fi. It's about creating something that's timeless.
Space1999 series two had dreadful music..
Series one had a symphonic score and production values that rivaled sci-fi films at the time.
My "card" stays with me.
TNG's synth stuff in season one and two was pure cheese. It was awful. It sounds like something off of a Gloria Estefan R&B Ballad. Pure rubbish.
^^^ I don't know what to tell ya. I have nothing against orchestral scores.
As for "films" being dated; newsflash for ya, EVERY film is dated to some degree. Could you seriously watch "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and not say it's dated?
But why should "dated" make a difference at all? I would argue that elements in movies or shows that "date" them actually add to the value of them (in some ways preserving what the writers and producers of that era wanted to create)
Would I call TNG dated? A lot of it is, but more for the type of storytelling and production values more than the "music" (which was all mostly orchestral scores backed by, as someone above mentioned, Yamaha DX7 and Roland D50 "Bell Pad" type sounds, which was very minimal)
Frankly, I wish TNG would have stuck to using synthesizers along with orchestral scores (If they had gotten their hands on a Korg 01/W or Korg Wavestation, pure synth heaven
)
Season 4 and above suffered big time because of it, and Voyager was major bland city (there's only so much string emsemble music that can be done before it gets boring and bland)
As for "films" being dated; newsflash for ya, EVERY film is dated to some degree. Could you seriously watch "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and not say it's dated?
But why should "dated" make a difference at all? I would argue that elements in movies or shows that "date" them actually add to the value of them (in some ways preserving what the writers and producers of that era wanted to create)
Would I call TNG dated? A lot of it is, but more for the type of storytelling and production values more than the "music" (which was all mostly orchestral scores backed by, as someone above mentioned, Yamaha DX7 and Roland D50 "Bell Pad" type sounds, which was very minimal)
Frankly, I wish TNG would have stuck to using synthesizers along with orchestral scores (If they had gotten their hands on a Korg 01/W or Korg Wavestation, pure synth heaven
)Season 4 and above suffered big time because of it, and Voyager was major bland city (there's only so much string emsemble music that can be done before it gets boring and bland)
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