Airwolf Extended Themes officially released!

As of March 26th the limited edition 2CD album "Airwolf Extended Themes" is available for purchase on http://www.airwolfthemes.com. It was a long road: almost 8 years of development... and almost 20 years of conceiving. Thanks for your patience. Enjoy!

Airwolf Extended Themes CD1 FINAL TEASERS

Here they are. Twenty two teasers for Airwolf Extended Themes "Main Themes CD1" - your first chance to sample the entire "main theme" material.

While some of the tracks were already previewed on this blog, almost everything has been updated since then, so make sure to check each and every one of them. Highlights:

• Track 01: a first taste of the ambient intro
• Track 19: a first ever reveal of the mystery intro part. This is the original opening for the Pilot created by Sylvester Levay which was turned down by Donald P. Bellisario
• Track 17: showcasing post-Descending Bridge parts that were NOT part of the original on-air version. The Ascending Bridge is one of my proudest moments of the entire CD (Sylvester Levay praised my execution of the horn/trombone staccatos).
• Track 06: received the heaviest upgrade of all reengineered Airwolf Main Themes EP tracks
• Track 22: reinterpretation of my first Airwolf Theme cover release dating back to 1997
• Track 14: waited the longest to be showcased (first "final" version completed mid-2011)

I'll appreciate any comments and questions you might have, so feel free to leave them either in the comments section of this post or on our facebook profile. In particular I'd be interested to know

• which track you like best so far (and why)
• what surprised you the most

Enjoy!

01 08 [04:25.00] Pilot - Journey to Red Star (TV) (extended) Sly [preview]
02 16 [03:25.00] Pilot - Kafir palace raid + Red Star Test Run Sly [preview]
03 18 [00:34.60] Season 1 - Teaser Sly [preview]
04 12 [04:41.20] Season 1 - Opening/Closing (extended) Sly [preview]
05 23 [00:58.40] Season 1 - Slow main theme Sly [preview]
06 04 [06:35.40] Pilot, Season 1 - Synth theme (extended) Sly [preview]
07 20 [00:33.00] Season 2 - 'SWEET BRITCHES' teaser Ian [preview]
08 02 [00:42.20] Season 2 - 'SWEET BRITCHES'/'FIRESTORM' Intro Ian [preview]
09 02 [04:11.40] Season 2 - 'SWEET BRITCHES'/'FIRESTORM' (extended) - Tribute to Lance LeGault Ian [preview]
10 21 [00:32.00] Season 2 - 'SWEET BRITCHES' epilogue - Tribute to Ernest Borgnine Ian [preview]
11 19 [00:27.60] Season 1 - Closing Sly [preview]
12 17 [00:35.00] Season 2 - 'FIRESTORM' teaser Ian [preview]
13 03 [05:00.00] Season 2 - 'FALLEN ANGEL'/'HX-1' Sly [preview]
14 10 [06:05.00] Season 2 - Aerial (extended) Udi [preview]
15 11 [04:12.60] Season 3 - Opening/Aerial (extended) Sly [preview]
16 01 [06:00.00] Season 2/3 - Generic Closing (extended) Sly [preview]
17 05 [03:40.00] Pilot, Season 3 - Journey to Red Star (Movie)/'EAGLES' aerial (extended) Sly [preview]
18 06 [06:10.40] Pilot, Season 1, Season 2 - Minimalist (extended) Sly [preview]
19 14 [05:16.60] Pilot - Orchestral suite Sly [preview]
20 22 [00:51.00] Pilot - Closing (Movie) Sly [preview]
21 15 [03:25.60] [*BONUS TRACK*] Season 2/3 - Generic Closing (regular length) Sly [preview]
22 13 [04:41.00] [*BONUS TRACK*] Season 1, Season 3 - Special JMS Mix Sly [preview]
Total: [73:03.00]

Tracks 16, 13, 06, 18 featured on Airwolf Main Themes EP (as tracks 01, 02, 03, 04 respectively) have been partially re-recorded, remixed and remastered for this release.

For teasers of CD2 head on to Mark's blog: FINAL TEASERS for CD2 of Airwolf Extended Themes

Final CD1 teasers done

Just a quick note to let you know that I have just finished editing all CD1 teasers and they will be made available early next week. Lots of previously unheard gems coming up. I think it will be well worth the wait.

Stay tuned.

Road to AET, part 1

Over the course of this blog's lifetime I must have mentioned a couple of times that it took about twenty years for me to get to where we are now. Since I was going to write it down at some point anyway, I thought it might be also interesting for you to learn how it all began. Let's go back in time.

1991 (est.)

Poland was undergoing economic, social and cultural transformation. TV shows from beyond the ocean slowly started to trickle down. It was probably somewhere in 1991 when my neighbour from the fourth floor, Paweł (who influenced my taste in music and sci-fi a lot) told me:

"You know, there's this TV show about this very smart guy. You should watch it, because the theme song is similar to Jarre's "Orient Express". It's called "MacGyver"."

Paweł introduced me to the electronic music of Jean Michel Jarre (whom I also met) a year earlier and I became an instant fan. "MacGyver" theme was also love at first "sight" (actually I do *see* music thanks to my synæsthesia).

I got my first keyboard (a Casio MT-640) in September 1990 and as far as I remember whenever I heard something I liked I wanted to be able to play it myself. "MacGyver" theme was where my passion for performing TV show music started.

At that time I was still very young and I was naively assuming that basically *any* music could be purchased on a cassette tape. Even though my attempts to get a hold of a "MacGyver soundtrack" (that I presumed existed) kept on failing, I was persistent.

Spring 1994

Can you imagine my surprise when finally my question "do you happen to have music from MacGyver?" was answered with a definite "YES" three years later? It was in an old camping van converted to a cassette store located at the market approx. 200 meters from where I lived at that time. Boy, was I excited to finally make some progress. The theme was available on the "Koto... plays Science-Fiction Movie Themes" (please visit spacesynth.net for more information about this album)

My excitement wore off a little bit having discovered it was a cover album done in a style (called "spacesynth" or "space disco") that was not to my liking at that time. That being said, have a quick look at the track listing:

Do you see what I did here?

Yes. Track 3 was my first exposure to the Airwolf theme ever, and to the words "Airwolf" and "Levay" in general. My initial reaction was far from what you would expect coming from me. To put it mildly: I did not like it. I found it to be a boring and repetitive piece of music and one of the least interesting pieces on the album (even though I found the main melody to be quite catchy). I hope to get a time machine one day, go back to 1994 and show my past-self from 1994 the "Airwolf Extended Themes" cover signed by Sylvester Levay. The look on that little bastard's face will be priceless!

Fall 1994

Several months later I was browsing the TV guide. A broadcast schedule of "Polsat" for Wednesdays caught my eye: 8:00pm: "Airwolf". "Ah, that boring track" I thought instantly (please keep in mind that at that moment I had no idea what the show was about - I only knew Koto's cover version of the main theme and the name of the original composer). After short consideration, I decided that since I already heard the theme music I should perhaps at least see what the show is about. Especially given how far Koto's rendition of "MacGyver" was from the original I thought it deserved a chance.

Now that I think of it, it was one of the most important decisions in my entire life so far.

I immediately noticed that the actual theme music is simply another league. I also loved the premise of the show, the characters and obviously, the helicopter. But the main theme did something to my brain. I'm not sure how I arrived at this habit but since the airing of fourth episode I would record on tape ALL main theme versions that would appear in every episode. I would do that twice: on the original airing on Wednesday evenings and then once again during Thursday reruns around 12 pm and 3 pm (on second viewing I knew pretty much exactly when the music is actually going to start). I would always record the teaser trailer, opening theme, all incarnations of the main theme within the episode and the closing credits. All my tapes were labeled with a date (always a Wednesday).

Recording gear that I used. Photo from here

Between 1991 and 1994 there were a couple of TV shows with theme music that I enjoyed. "Airwolf", however was a different beast: none of the other shows I watched featured the main theme *inside* the episode. Not only "Airwolf" had this, but the main theme versions were different pretty much in every episode.

The surprise

Polsat broadcasts were far from being perfect: the episodes were not aired in order and some were missing altogether ('MIND OF THE MACHINE' or 'THE HUNTED'). Luckily the shuffling would only occur within the confines of a season, with one notable exception. Polsat was somewhere around the first quarter of Season 2, it must have been February or March 1995. It was Wednesday around 8:00 pm, the commercial break was over and I was patiently (right...) waiting with my fingers ready on the "Rec" and "Play" buttons on my recording gear. To my surprise, instead of the Ascending Bridge used in Season 2 teaser trailers I heard Season 1 teaser music. Polsat aired a "lost" Season 1 episode: 'BITE OF THE JACKAL'. It was a real treat for me, main-theme-wise. Being an early episode it contained many interesting variations of the main theme: the unusual Ascending Bridge orchestral arrangement during Archangel pickup; the mid-episode start-up with unusual ending (included on Airwolf Extended Themes obviously!); the extended finale aerial with weird sound effect near the end. But the biggest excitement for me was to hear the closing credits (please note that by that time I hadn't seen 'DADDY'S GONE A HUNT'N' yet): not only they were done in minimalist fashion (no main theme melody, muffled drums), they were done in the E-key (which was only used for Season 1 teasers) and when I heard the second verse I was pretty much like "OMG a saxophone! No way!". I was so excited that I woke up around 5-6am the next morning just to listen to the recording a couple more times before going to school.

The birthday gift

Another memorable moment happened on my birthday in 1995. On May 10th Polsat aired the third season episode "Eagles", which featured an aerial with a unique synthesizer + orchestral version of the main theme, with some additional brass staccatos during the Ascending Bridge. Neither this version nor said staccatos were ever used in the show again. It was the best birthday gift I could possibly get at that time.

The snort

I mentioned earlier that I pretty much naively assumed that there is a soundtrack release available for everything. It must have been somewhere in 1995: my Aunt from the U.S. was on the phone and I spoke briefly to her. I asked if she could check for "Airwolf" soundtrack release in the U.S. As I was asking her, my elder sister was passing by and commented on what she'd just heard with a "yeah, right" patronizing type snort. Well, guess I showed her: not only I have the soundtrack after 18 years - there's also my name on it!

To be continued...

Pilot Closing Theme (UPDATED)

UPDATE 19.02.2013: Scroll to the bottom of the post for new information.

High time for another preview! Today, as requested on our facebook profile, track pre-prod #22 (as of today CD1 track 20): Airwolf Main Theme - Pilot - Closing.

Compared to other renditions of the main theme, this one's quite a different beast. It has no drums, no famous bass pattern, it's considerably slower and only a first couple of notes of the main theme phrases are played.

While this track was used for closing titles in the Pilot episode only (both TV and movie versions) it was frequently used in Season 1 during the "journey to the lair" sequences, albeit with one small difference - the Pilot version had an additional synth string sound doubling the main theme lead sound.

This track appeared quite late on the track list. When CD1 was pretty much fixed at 17 tracks, Mark approached me to do it. After initial hesitation I agreed and... ended up producing three other tracks instead. Citing schedule constraints I decided not to pursue it.

The real reason of my reluctance towards doing "Pilot - Closing" was that I knew that the dreamy spacious main lead sound was the same as in "Pilot, Season 1 - Synth theme (extended)" (EP track 03, AET CD1 track 06, pre-prod #04). I was never happy about how it came out and I was already after 10+ (ten) reworks of said track. I knew that if I came up with something better for "Pilot - Closing" I wouldn't be able to live with myself without reworking "Pilot, Season 1 - Synth theme (extended)" again to include the new improved sound, and I didn't want to go through yet another rework of it.

I decided to pursue it anyway for the sake of completeness and for the sake of hitting 22 track mark for the CD. I also realized that in the end I'd rather do the rework of track pre-prod #04 than remain dissatisfied with what I had. Obviously it all paid off - "Pilot, Season 1 - Synth theme (extended)" lead sound is better than ever and miles ahead of the previous version.

One last thing: I liked the slow main theme so much that I reused a couple of seconds of it as an additional intro for "Pilot, Season 3 - Journey to Red Star (Movie)/'EAGLES' aerial (extended)" - much like it was done in 'TO SNARE A WOLF'.

Enjoy!

Preview: Airwolf Main Theme - Pilot - Closing

UPDATE 19.02.2013: Last week or so I found out that the TV and Movie versions of the Pilot Closing theme are slightly different. The TV version was shortened to accomodate credits length (the last bass note is too "sudden") while the Movie is unedited (so it keeps playing over the "Belisarius" logo). My rendition was unfortunately based on the shortened version, but no reason for worries anymore. On Sunday, after a week of hesitation I decided to rerecord the track so that it now matches the full, unedited Movie version and the ending sounds more natural. This also adds approximately three seconds to CD1 playtime.

A Saturday to remember

Last week the unthinkable happened: on Saturday, January 26th I finally met the man who messed up my brainwaves 18 years ago - the original composer of the Airwolf Main Theme: Sylvester Levay. All thanks to Martin Grant of the Airwolf Documentary for which he gave an extensive interview with many interesting tidbits.

Mark J. Cairns, Sylvester Levay, Jan Michal Szulew in front of Sylvester Levay's studio

The following might sound cliché, but seriously, Sylvester is a wonderful host and a very flamboyant guy. We (Mark and me - Airwolf Themes; Martin, Marcus and Per - Airwolf Documentary) spent an entire day together in his studio on the outskirts of Munich and got a real kick out of it. Sly has really surprised us with how much he actually remembers about the main theme which he wrote 29 years ago. A copy of CD1 that I gave to Sly was given the "ultimate audition" - i.e. using his sound system in the studio. We mostly went through the orchestral tracks and Sly praised my execution of brass parts (specifically lead trumpets and horn staccatos in ascending bridges).

After the final notes of "Journey to Red Star (Movie version)"

The last track we auditioned was obviously the big orchestral main theme from the pilot episode. When we were leaving for the interview Sly gave me his final verdict:

and the final verdict is in...

"This is serious s#!t"

This was a truly amazing, exciting and an unforgettable weekend; I never actually imagined this would happen and if someone told me back in 1994 when I first heard the Airwolf Theme (which I found utterly boring at that time as it was Koto's cover version!) that I would someday meet its creator... you know. I don't think my 12-year old brain would dare to comprehend it.

"Great work!"

Thanks to:
Sylvester Levay and his family for being wonderful hosts. And for the incredible Weißwurst!
Mark J. Cairns for taking care of the logistics for me
Martin Grant for arranging for this to happen
Mövenpick Airport Munich hotel staff for making the best scrambled eggs I had in my entire life.

Please check Airwolf Documentary and Airwolf Themes blogs for related information about this event.

Minor CD1 tracklist changes

As promised by the "subject to change without notice" disclaimer a couple of days after announcing the CD1 tracklist we made some minor track order changes, mostly related to Season 1:

• "Pilot, Season 3 - Journey to Red Star (Movie)/'EAGLES' aerial (extended)" is now moved way down to the latter half of the CD (after "Season 2/3 - Generic Closing (extended)")
• Season 1 tracks are significantly reordered

Also the track durations have been aligned to the 75 frames per second Red Book CD standard.

Go to the AET CD1 tracklist for details.

Track titles are still subject to change (their musical content won't though).

"String? It's done." - CD1 content finished

Good news, everyone! I have just finished my last tweaks of all CD1 tracks. Therefore as of today CD1 material is done and I'm pleased to announce the official CD1 tracklist with proper tracknames, durations and target track order. I ended up with 22 tracks and exactly 73 minutes of music. And, I also managed to finish before the end of 2012 ;)

LINN-drum roll...

About Season 4 Main Theme

My recent mention of the CD1 tracklist changes sprouted several discussions about the "continued" omission of Season 4 main theme.

I'm not a big fan of neither Season 4 nor its incarnation of the Airwolf Main Theme, and neither is Mark. But that has nothing to do with the omission: "Season 4 Main Theme" has been on Mark's "Airwolf Themes Sequel Album" tracklist since the early 2000s (March 29th, 2004 to be exact) and then on mine since 2006, when I officially joined the project. We scrapped it the instant the Season 4 Main Theme was publicly released in March 2010 in its original form and in stereo. The track (pre-production number 09) was already a "work in progress" at that time (my first and only mockup was done in 2007).

This is a lesson learned from Jean Michel Jarre cover scene that I used to be active on a couple of years ago: no matter how perfect your replica cover is - people will ALWAYS go for the original provided it's available. In case of Season 4 Main Theme - it is, and there is simply no added value (neither for me nor for you) in recreating it. It makes, however, perfect sense to avoid redundancy and use those 3-4 minutes to make room for other, unreleased yet, music.

Wouldn't you agree?

The official Season 4 Main Theme can be purchased via Amazon.

Big CD1 tracklist changes

As you might have already read between the lines of one of Mark's latest posts over at his blog, CD1 tracklist has undergone some serious changes, the most important being the track count. If you remember the tracklist you'll know that there were 16 tracks (numbered 01-17 without 09). I'm proud to announce that CD1 has just passed the 20 track mark and will contain (as of today) 22 (that's TWENTY TWO) tracks. That's over twenty variations of the Main Theme. Our strategy concerning taking the wraps off those secret new tracks is not yet defined, but let me just give you a hint what these new tracks DO NOT include:

• Season 4 Theme
• Season 2 Opening Theme(s)
• "Birds of Paradise" aerial

Also, one of the tracks from the pre-production list has been scrapped.

We are also almost done with the final ordering of CD1 tracks (auditions pending) - it will be nothing like the current pre-production list. The new order will also explain the presence of some of the yet unannounced material.

Stay tuned.

Airwolf Main Theme Orchestral Suite - The Holy Grail - sneak peek

At long last. After a slight delay (I was distracted yesterday by some other Mach 1+ flying object) I give you a preview of the Airwolf Main Theme (Orchestral Suite), aka "The Holy Grail" of Airwolf Themes. For those who just tuned in - that's the Gabrielle's death + Moffett Sand Dune Chase segment from the pilot episode, including one minute of yet undisclosed extra music material. There was a discussion below the last post about what it could possibly be and needless to say some of the guesses were very interesting!

That "couple of tweaks" that I mentioned in my last post turned into way over fifteen (yesterday) and then additional six (this afternoon). Fun fact: in case of this track I frequently audition my latest changes together with the original video from the episode. Anyway, this little delay came out for good after all. Here we go. This. Is. It.

Airwolf Main Theme (Orchestral Suite from Pilot)

Go easy on me! Enjoy.

The extra minute is not in this preview yet.

The Holy Grail and the rest

Welcome back with another post that qualifies as "long overdue". Let's recap.

The Holy Grail

In my previous post I announced that all recording has been completed and the only thing left to do was to transcribe track 14 (the full Orchestral Main Theme, the Holy Grail of Airwolf Themes) so that it can be recorded by Mark. That turned out to be not exactly accurate - I ended up recording it myself. There were a couple of reasons behind this but the most important factors were the logistics and... pride. The challenge of doing the Orchestral Main Theme properly (as I already made two attempts; in 1998 and 2002 - some of you might still have these mono 56kbps mp3s...) has haunted me for ages; much like Mark's "Airwolf II". This was by far my most challenging, complex and time consuming piece to date. The amount of tweaks and fine tuning to make it sound realistic is enormous (at least by my standards). Some of the instrument tracks carry up to 5 parameter envelopes.

The recordings of this Holy Grail finished a month ago, and by September 8th I managed to achieve an "acceptable" mix. At that point I was almost ready to post teasers, but with tracks like this you need to put them on a shelf and let them... rot a little bit. Rot, so that after initial excitement you start to be less biased, engage criticism - you really need a love-hate relationship with them. There are a couple of tweaks that still need to be done, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to give you something at the end of this week.

Per popular demand the track is based on the Pilot version of the Orchestral Main Theme and not only includes the Main Theme alone, but also the "Gabrielle's Death" segment. If you look at the CD1 pre-production tracklist though, you'll notice that the track is 5:18, while the original "Gabrielle's Death + Sand Dune Chase" segment is closer to 4:15. Well, the album IS called "Airwolf Extended Themes", isn't it? I won't reveal what the extra minute is just yet, but it definitely isn't a plain extension of the Main Theme part, no siree! It's a completely different segment of music, which gives track 14 a "suite" feel.

The rest

Besides track 14, I've been busy making tweaks to other tracks. You'll notice on the CD1 pre-production tracklist that tracks 04 and 06 are now green. Track 04 (Season 1 Synth Theme) is now much more refined and dynamic than the EP version and upgrades in Track 06 are mostly related to maintaining consistency with track 04. Track 05 also received some upgrades (more dynamic than what was previewed) and so did Track 10 (UDI's Main Theme), speaking of which - it's one of the very few that have not been previewed yet (completed Aug 2011)! If time permits tracks 01 and 03 will be revamped as well (so it probably still makes sense to grab the EP, as while all the tracks will be on CD1 they will sound differently). This work will wrap up by the end of October.

Stay tuned for track 14 previews.

3rd Season done!

Who likes good news? Everyone? Then good news, everyone! All tracks that were supposed to be recorded in my studio are accounted for. Track 11 was completed last Sunday (July 15th) morning and track 13 in the evening. The remaining work now is to do the orchestral transcription of track 14 and try to even out sonic differences between all my tracks before doing the final master. So we're definitely getting there.

But, onto track 11 - "3rd Season Aerial Theme (extended)". It was a very interesting track to do, as it presented a couple of challenges - in both sound design, mixing and structure.

Sound design and mixing

Season 3 Main Theme is a curious breed: it was based on Ian Freebairn-Smith's Main Theme from "Sweet Britches" and "Firestorm" - many of the synthesizer part recordings were reused and it is the most apparent in the Ascending Bridge where the rapid synth brass part is clearly the same as (with regards to rhythmic "feel" and sound) in the mentioned Season 2 episodes. Ascending Bridge was my first clue to this discovery and soon I began to hear more similiarities. Ian's main lead sound is definitely present throughout entire Season 3 main theme, although it was "modernised" by overlaying a synth horn (in the first halves of verses) and synth trumpet (in the second halves of verses) on top of it - much like in most Season 2 main theme renditions. The secondary lead sound (which you can hear playing solo in my "Minimalist" main theme versions, e.g. track 4 on Airwolf Main Themes EP) was also upgraded by overlaying a "twinkling" sound on top of it (can be distinctly heard during the final seconds of Season 3 Opening Credits).

Season 3 introduced a new "twangy" sound that plays the famous bass pattern. It's always been a tough nut to crack for me - my synæsthesia kept giving up on it. Until finally, while playing around with FX section on my XS6 I discovered that it is essentially the same sound Levay used since S1, yet processed with a decent Gated Reverb. The sound changes during Ascending Bridge - it has a strong flanger effect applied (which makes each note - even though repeated - sound slightly different). Anyway, having been immensely happy about figuring out the bass sound, I recorded the bass lines... and only 30 months later the track was completed. Yes, you read that right: that's a thirty (30). Why such a long time, you ask? (if you don't ask, skip to the next paragraph). It's quite simple - I wanted to produce my Season 3 version much like the original was, i.e. first have Ian's version and then build on top of the parts that were eventually reused in 1986. It seemed like the natural thing to do. And since the sound design for Ian's track took me a while... there you have it.

Structure

That was an interesting piece of the puzzle as well. The problem with Season 3 Main Theme was that there was only ONE version which was used over and over again. The most interesting mix was used in "Day of Jeopardy" - it featured an extended intro starting with the "twangy" sequence playing solo for a couple of seconds. Needless to say I put that in. I also duplicated the first verse right after the Descending Bridge, which was done in "Where Have All The Children Gone". So, there aren't really any surprises, but it's still great to listen to.

Previews

3rd Season Aerial Theme (extended)

3rd Season Aerial Theme (extended) - bass lines

Enjoy!

Mornin', Sheriff - Sweet Britches/Firestorm complete

And another one done - the 2nd Season Aerial - 'SWEET BRITCHES' / 'FIRESTORM' aerials, originally done by Ian Freebairn-Smith. This track turned out to be particularly difficult to produce. While the arrangement itself is not very demanding (n.b. it is the only (excl. Pilot) synth version that does not include Levay's famous arpeggiator pattern - it was brought back in Firestorm though), the recreation of the main lead sound alone has proven to be a real challenge. In both episodes quite a different than usual synth gear was used for the soundtrack production. The core of the setup seems to be the iconic Yamaha DX7 (released in 1984) which pioneered the FM sound synthesis - which was unlike most synthesizers (so called "analog synthesizers") at the time. The sound of FM is very distinctive and has a metallic resonant character (which can be clearly heard during Firestorm music cues) and programming FM synthesizers has always been considered to be "rocket science". Which is precisely why I rejected the notion of recreating this sound using FM, and decided to resort to DX7 samples instead. It took me a couple of months (years?) to notice that the main lead sound of Sweet Britches aerial is actually not the FM alone; it's actually played using two synths at a time - an FM synth is responsible for the attack transient (the beginning "phwah") and an analog synth provides that nice spacious warm sustain. Eventually I was forced to recreate the FM sound using "rocket science" (the samples were simply not good enough), and the analog part was done using the trusty Yamaha AN1x.

The Sweet Britches aerial is known for being "big" and "powerful" - it has to "blow the doors off" (pictured above), as Mark and I put it. Making it sound big boils down to three things - finding a proper reverb for the main lead sound, tweaking the hell out of the Linn drum samples, and finally putting the entire audio mix through a properly set up compressor and limiter. Speaking of the drums, it is absolutely AMAZING what audio engineers in the 80's managed to pull off using Linn drum machines over and over again. Even within the confines of Airwolf Main Theme universe - EVERY (with the exception of Season 1 opening theme and Pilot) version of the Main Theme employs this drum machine, but it sounds completely different in Sweet Britches aerial and e.g. Season 2 opening theme. Yes, those are exactly the same drums, albeit processed differently. Did I say it was amazing?

The final ingredient of this track is imperfection. In the original, the main lead sound was recorded pretty much live without any quantization afterwards. This especially shows in the brass staccatos during Ascending Bridge - it seems that the performer couldn't match the pace. Recreating these imperfections was paramount to the feeling of this track.I haven't managed to recreate those imperfections perfectly (sic!) - I guess I'm worse than the Borg in this regard.

"2nd Season Aerial - 'SWEET BRITCHES' / 'FIRESTORM' aerials" was completed within three weeks (this obviously does not include the FM brass sound research, which started back in 2006). Final length is 4:55.

The track includes

• The entire 'SWEET BRITCHES' aerial
• 'FIRESTORM' aerial (first verse and Ascending Bridge)
• Extended ending (as heard in Firestorm closing titles)
• A surprise

Samples:

2nd Season Aerial - 'SWEET BRITCHES' / 'FIRESTORM' aerials - "Mornin', Sheriff"

2nd Season Aerial - 'SWEET BRITCHES' / 'FIRESTORM' aerials - "String, two people going out the back"

2nd Season Aerial - 'SWEET BRITCHES' / 'FIRESTORM' aerials - extended ending as heard in 'FIRESTORM' closing titles

Enjoy!

(Special thanks to Lance LeGault, Martin Grant and Eric Shepherd for the new AWT Intro).

MARTY'S AIRWOLF DOCUMENTARY - Don't forget to check out Marty Grant's progress on the other big Airwolf project... the Airwolf DOCUMENTARY on his Blog.

A teaser

For those wondering as to why there were no updates lately - put simply I've been swamped over at my daytime job, but the work on Airwolf Themes continues (albeit at a slower pace). There are two tracks left for me to complete (Sweet Britches/Firestorm and Season 3 Main Theme) plus transcription of the Orchestral Main Theme which will be then recorded at Einstein. Our plan is to put a final seal on CD1 material within two months.

Anyway, here's a little teaser (literally) to keep you busy:

Airwolf Extended Themes CD1 Teaser

Have your Airwolf DVDs handy, as it goes better with video (which we couldn't use due to copyright) - you'll get the idea once you hear it.

Enjoy.

Never underestimate any of your tools

UPDATE (8.04.2012): Check out Mark's post about 'MIND OF THE MACHINE' teaser for a detailed information on the track.

A couple of days ago Mark asked me if I could help him recreate a sound effect for his "Mind of the Machine" rendition. The sound effect appears just before Winchester realizes that Airwolf carries its own design specs - aka "Dr. Winchester realization moment".

The sound effect comprises of a short digital "whoosh" followed by a couple of repeated "whoop" sounds.

Dr. Winchester realization moment

The whoop sounds were pretty straightforward - they required a synthesizer with a rather precise LFO and I recreated them using my trustworthy Yamaha AN1x. The "whoosh" sound, however, was a different story. At first glimpse it sounds like a pretty simple white noise with opening LPF filter. That was, however, not the case. I knew I heard this sound somewhere. I decided to pull out a piece of hardware from another era...

Airwolf Synth + Orchestral done: sneak peek!

Today's post is long overdue, because I actually finalized track 05 last month (and the pre-production track list reflects that fact). This track is a very special one. It's a perfect blend of orchestral and synthesizer bits and it's basically what Mark originally envisioned for Levay's reinterpretation of the main theme for the original "Airwolf Themes" CD2... way back in the previous century.

This particular version of the theme has appeared in Airwolf only once - during the "Journey to Red Star" in the "Movie version" of the pilot episode. The synthesizer bits were based on Season 1 theme - not the opening/closing credits though, but rather the in-episode aerials and lair startup sequences. The orchestral arrangement was based on the latter S1 version, which was used exclusively from "Echos from the Past" onwards (with the sole exception of "And They Are Us" closing credits for which the first version was used).

Since the original version in the "Movie Pilot" was rather short (90 seconds or so) I had to do some "creative extrapolation" to produce a full-length main theme, which was actually not that hard given that the building blocks (S1 synth theme and EFTP orchestral theme) were at my disposal. I think I managed to pull it off - the parts missing from the original version, the Ascending Bridge and final verse + final crescendo sound absolutely outstandingly "organic". They actually remind me of "Eagles" finale aerial a lot (which was the show's second attempt at a synth + orchestral version... and which the fans requested for AWT2), but they sound much more powerful. The resemblance to "Eagles" is of special value for me: "Eagles" first aired in Poland on my birthday and hearing this special main theme version was really the best birthday present I could imagine!

Having the orchestral elements inside this track required a great deal of patience from me. It once again proved that you can have the best orchestral samples in the world at your disposal, but unless you put soul into it, or, strictly speaking, a great deal of articulating subtleties like subtle pitch and volume changes they will still sound artificial and "plastic".

Oddly enough, I began my work from Ascending Bridge. Most parts don't sound that complex - you have the cello seemingly steadily playing the ascending notes, a tremolo violin ensemble that slowly plays its chords and the rapid brass ensemble staccatos. I knew brass ensemble will give me headaches - first, figuring out the exact notes that are there, then recreating the "accent" notes which employ bending the notes' pitch (in plain English - it's the distinctive "woof" sound). It took me several days to crunch those (the aerial from "Mind of the Machine" while not of the most pristine quality had the trombone section pretty prominent) - the ability of my Motif XS to stack up to 8 elements each with its own Pitch Envelope made the job a lot easier! However, in order to have some context to work with I began with the cellos and violins. It wasn't as easy as anticipated: I had to spent extra time recreating portamentos between cello notes and tweaking the subtleties of pitch and volume of the tremolo violins. The pitch instabilities occur naturally: a violinist cannot stay perfectly in pitch while playing tremolo, especially when he has to increase volume - which happens near the end of the Ascending Bridge. Below is a screenshot (dated February 3rd - as you can see only "Celli" and "Violins" tracks are present) from my DAW software showing the envelopes of pitch and volume of tremolo violins:

I could go on. Needless to say - you probably won't be aware of that while listetning to the final product, but the track is incredibly detailed. Some of the parts have 4 or 5 envelopes like that - controlling volume, brightness, attack time and other nuances, like for instance the violins during Descending Bridge, which you will hear in just about a minute...

PREVIEW (1984 vs 2012): Airwolf 1st Season Synth + Orchestral incl. 'PILOT' - Journey to Red Star (Movie version) / 'EAGLES' Aerial

Enjoy! (Might contain coarse language courtesy of senator Dietz)

Track 12 - sneak peek

As promised earlier this week - two teasers of track 12. For more information about this track see this post: Track 12 finished.

Opening theme segment based on the off-air version with additional slap bass:

Season 1 Opening Theme (extended) (Opening segment)

And one of the very few Main Theme versions that was originally arranged with a saxophone:

Season 1 Opening Theme (extended) ("Daddy's Gone A Hunt'n" closing segment)

Enjoy! And check back soon for another progress report.

Track 12 finished

Woah, it's been a while since my last post. I updated the CD1 pre-production tracklist a week ago though and I actually wanted to blog about this, but instead - I didn't. The update to the track-list was due because Track 12 has been completed. As you can see it no longer bears the "remix" label, which was a kind of a failsafe - I had doubts if I'd be able to recreate the orchestral brass, live "tea towel" drum kit (pioneered by the Beatles), the funky slap bass and the growling tenor saxamaphone from "Daddy's Gone A Hunt'n" ending credits. In case I wouldn't I'd just put a "remix" stamp on it and pretend it was by design... ;), however the final result exceeded my expectations.

Track 12 is very unique compared to other variations found on CD1. It's the only one that contains neither of the bridges ("descending" and "ascending", that is). So, what's in it, then?

• Season 1 opening theme (with slap bass riffs found in the off-air version)
• Bite of the Jackal minimalist ending credits
• Daddy's Gone A Hunt'n ending credits
• Generic Season 1 closing theme (e.g. Proof Through The Night)
• And a real gem: ULTRA-RARE finale aerial from alternate version of Daddy's Gone A Hunt'n episode.

Are you excited yet? I'll try to get a preview up before the end of this week. Keep checking back.

Track 16 - "Red Star Test Run" sneak peek

As promised earlier this week here comes another preview of CD1's track 16: 'PILOT' - Kafir + Red Star Test Run (TV Version). This time we're previewing a part that is not as widely recognized as the "Kafir" part: the Red Star Test Run ("We're being radar scanned") from CBS TV version, which is an early and quite unique version of the Ascending Bridge of the main theme. This is the only version (well, the only one known to us!) of the Ascending Bridge that features Levay's trademark running arpeggiator sequence.

'PILOT' - Kafir + Red Star Test Run (TV Version) (Red Star Test Run segment) - 1984 vs 2011

FYI: this segment was originally planned to be a part of track 08; it fitted very well "semantically" (as they are both Red Star) but it didn't fit "musically": the tempo was different (approx. 5 BPM faster), the arpeggiator sound was different, track 08 had drums; luckily both tempo, arp sound and "drumless" character matched "Kafir" segment perfectly and track 16 came to fruition.

Enjoy!