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'Wing Commander' Music Composer Runs Kickstarter Campaign (kickstarter.com)
DMJC writes: George Oldziey, the music composer from Wing Commander 3 and 4, is running a Kickstarter campaign to re-orchestrate the music from the venerable series. The Kickstarter is in its final week and has approximately $2000 left to go before it reaches it's goal.
Oldziey shares some history on his web site: In 2014 I launched a Kickstarter campaign to document the music I created for the Wing Commander games in the way I had originally imagined it: for full orchestra and chorus. 588 generous supporters helped me reach my goal! In late 2014 I traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia, where the 95-piece Slovak National Symphony Orchestra and the 40-voice Lucina Chorus recorded this music under my supervision.
But last November -- and again in June -- Oldziey unsuccessfully tried raising funds on Kickstarter to record more of his Wing Commander music with a full orchestra. So this month's campaign sets a more modest goal of raising $15,000 "as a foundation and springboard from which to build with a more open ended crowdfunding campaign." It'll fund the creation of digital MIDI tracks for the new orchestral music plus a recording of the "jazzy bar music" from Wing Commander 3 (which will both be released as digital downloads and on CD). "Future campaign(s) will tackle the goal of getting a live orchestra to record everything..." Oldziey writes, adding this campaign "builds an exciting foundation to build on -- with some cool music to enjoy in the mean time!"
Two people have already pledged $600 to claim one of five high-end premiums in which George composes one minute of unique music just for them, and two more pledged $300 to attend the "jazzy bar music" recording session in Austin, Texas.
Oldziey shares some history on his web site: In 2014 I launched a Kickstarter campaign to document the music I created for the Wing Commander games in the way I had originally imagined it: for full orchestra and chorus. 588 generous supporters helped me reach my goal! In late 2014 I traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia, where the 95-piece Slovak National Symphony Orchestra and the 40-voice Lucina Chorus recorded this music under my supervision.
But last November -- and again in June -- Oldziey unsuccessfully tried raising funds on Kickstarter to record more of his Wing Commander music with a full orchestra. So this month's campaign sets a more modest goal of raising $15,000 "as a foundation and springboard from which to build with a more open ended crowdfunding campaign." It'll fund the creation of digital MIDI tracks for the new orchestral music plus a recording of the "jazzy bar music" from Wing Commander 3 (which will both be released as digital downloads and on CD). "Future campaign(s) will tackle the goal of getting a live orchestra to record everything..." Oldziey writes, adding this campaign "builds an exciting foundation to build on -- with some cool music to enjoy in the mean time!"
Two people have already pledged $600 to claim one of five high-end premiums in which George composes one minute of unique music just for them, and two more pledged $300 to attend the "jazzy bar music" recording session in Austin, Texas.
I'm sure his music was good and all, but it was only the WC1/2 and Privateer soundtracks that made any impression on me. The later stuff I hadn't remembered or thought about in years, and in fact I am unsure how much of it I listened to (although I do have some rememberance of autopiloting a hellcat while some music played.) Rapiers were always much cooler than hellcats though.
All this money and effort to gather real instruments and make a high quality recording, most likely to be listened to from a compressed MP3, further compressed by bluetooth, to wireless headphones with sound drivers powered by a tiny little battery.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
At least get your science fiction series' right you philistine!
Not really fair. He was racist, but ended up supporting Scout's anti-racist life view.
Just create a new version of Wing Commander and tuck the cost of your symphony into that. It was a great game. Loved it as a child. Still want a good story driven space fighter that I can actually play on a modern computer.
OK, but, the original 'Wing Commander' Music Composer is another George, George Sanger.
You seem to forget that all racists are Neo Nazis in today's society. Also, if you attend any sort of conservative rally, you are a Neo Nazi.
Just publish the scores for orchestral and band arrangements, and recordings will happen. There are hundreds of community orchestras and bands looking for this sort of music, because their audience is no longer part of the swing-era or Broadway musicals. If the arrangement is worth its paper, qualified groups will perform it.
It's "its goal" not "it's goal".
"It's" only means "it is". It's not difficult.
Privateer was composed by a different team to George Sanger, Sanger was mostly involved in Wing Commander 1/2. Laura Barratt, Marc Schaefgen, and Nenad Vugrinec worked on Privateer. Each game in the series had a good soundtrack. I'd like to get the Privateer artists together to re-record the music now that technology has moved on from 1992. I have an SC-55 at home and Privateer sounds amazing on it, but I'd like to see what an orchestra/modern studio can do with it.
You sarcastic fool. The Nazis installed Nazi sleeper cells all across America. As we speak, they are making signs with cartoon frogs and being mean to people on the internet. It is the coming of the Fourth Reich!
But it is great. I really enjoyed the early Wing Commander series from Origin.
It really trailed off with the final couple installments but here is hoping Star Citizen ships in a less than Duke Nukem forever situation..
If you care more about quality than having the very latest, you can get somewhat older models much cheaper unless things have changed in the last 20 years. Back in the day, I bought a pair of JBL L90 for 2000 DM (about 1000 euro) when the recommended retail price a few years before was 5000 DM or 2500 Euro. And that was not unusual, other speakers with similar prices were similarly marked down after a few years.
Now speaker technology does not move that fast anymore, being fairly mature. So getting a somewhat older model for 40% of the original price is usually a quite attractive proposal.
C - the footgun of programming languages
I'm sure there's no shortage of band geeks who'd love nothing more than to be a part of this project.
Thanks Slashdot! The project is now funded. We hit $15,000.00!
This kickstarter does not include the full recording.
Here’s what this new campaign will achieve:
* Preparation and creation of all tracks for recording
* Physical reproduction of the new scores and parts (PDFs available as rewards)
* Digital MIDI tracks for all of the music (will be available on CD and digital downloads!)
* Recording of WC3’s jazzy bar music with live musicians! (will be available on CD and digital download!)
lucm, indeed.
How about remaking all wing commanders with the new engines. that would be awesom..
Actually it's a poor man's version of Star Trek. Star Wars is also a poor man's version of Star Trek.