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Full version of "This is Berk"! (monthly How to Train Your Dragon mockups)

Laurin Lenschow

Laurin Lenschow

Senior Member






August: It's impossible to make a post that links more than 6 videos, so for August's mockup (Forbidden Friendship) I'll have to redirect you to this post :)

September's mockup ("Coming Back Around") is linked in this post.

October's mockup (More of "This is Berk") is linked in this post.

November's mockup ("The Dragon Book") is linked in this post.

December's mockup (Full version of "This is Berk") is linked in this post.


As part of my new year's resolution for 2023 (which you can check out here if you're interested) I'm doing one How to Train Your Dragon mockup per month. By doing this I hope to learn from John Powell's briliant writing and to improve my mixing skills along the way.
I hope you enjoy and I'm keen to hear your thoughts!
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Very pleasant work.

Which Gadulka are you using? I think you nailed it, considering it’s a sample. Good job.
 
ip20 said:
Very pleasant work.

Which Gadulka are you using? I think you nailed it, considering it’s a sample. Good job.
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Thank you!
It's the Gadulka from Balkan Ethnic Orchestra (which I think is a great library, I just wished for more articulations and control over vibrato for this piece).
 
Great mockup, I wish we could hear the rest ! Which libraries are you using, if you wish to share ?

Not sure how to tell this in English, but maybe the original version sounds slightly more "open" (less "muffled"). I had this issue (but much more emphasized) in a Hedwig's theme mockup with SSO, and didn't really know how to fix.
 
Elois said:
Great mockup, I wish we could hear the rest ! Which libraries are you using, if you wish to share ?
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Thank you! Keep an eye on this thread, February's mockup will likely be the next 40 seconds of this piece :)
Sure - for the strings I used CSS (but I'll probably replace them with Pacific for future versions) + Time Macro for the Sul Tastos and Balkan Ethnic Orchestra for the Gadulka. The brass is Tom Holkenborg's Brass and the percussion is from CinePerc and Damage 2. The woodwinds are Berlin Woodwinds and Infinite Woodwinds + CineWinds Pro for the ethnic winds. The harp is from CineHarps and the choir is Audio Imperia's Chorus.

Elois said:
Not sure how to tell this in English, but maybe the original version sounds slightly more "open" (less "muffled"). I had this issue (but much more emphasized) in a Hedwig's theme mockup with SSO, and didn't really know how to fix.
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Thank you for your feedback! I also noticed this and didn't find myself able to fix it - maybe I'll be able to do better when I'm extending and reworking this.
 
I think you'll get more comments if the very first thing in the opening post is like this:

"Here is the current version:

<audiofile>"

Then add a Spoiler-paragraph underneath the above introduction which contains previous versions, perhaps also the info you give at the top (New Years resolution etc.)
 
BlueSky said:
Good job :)
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Thank you! :)

Henrik B. Jensen said:
I think you'll get more comments if the very first thing in the opening post is like this:

"Here is the current version:

<audiofile>"

Then add a Spoiler-paragraph underneath the above introduction which contains previous versions, perhaps also the info you give at the top (New Years resolution etc.)
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Thank you for the suggestion, you're probably right - if I just edit the opening post I'd have to write a meaningless "bump" post in order to push the thread back up though. Anyway, I'll think about this again when the next video is up - I'll be making these mockups for another 9-10 months, so I'm not in a hurry for the thread to gain some traction :)
 
Laurin Lenschow said:
Thank you! :)


Thank you for the suggestion, you're probably right - if I just edit the opening post I'd have to write a meaningless "bump" post in order to push the thread back up though. Anyway, I'll think about this again when the next video is up - I'll be making these mockups for another 9-10 months, so I'm not in a hurry for the thread to gain some traction :)
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No no, just write the post as you’d normally do, for example as post #7 here. That gives a meaningful bump to the thread. But then also update the opening post - so that it always contains the latest version.

Anyway, it is just how I personally handle keeping it simple with multiple versions of an ongoing project :) Looking forward to hearing how it develops over time 🙂
 
Henrik B. Jensen said:
No no, just write the post as you’d normally do, for example as post #7 here. That gives a meaningful bump to the thread. But then also update the opening post - so that it always contains the latest version.

Anyway, it is just how I personally handle keeping it simple with multiple versions of an ongoing project :) Looking forward to hearing how it develops over time 🙂
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That makes sense - I'll probably reorganize the opening post when the next video is up and put it in there as well - thanks again for the suggestion :thumbsup:
 
February's mockup is up, continuing my work on "This is Berk":



For this one I jumped ship and replaced CSS with Pacific, which worked quite well I think. Overall I'm very happy with how it turned out - the only part I'm not quite satisfied with are the Trombones from 0:36 to 0:43, but this is as good as I could make them.
Keen to hear your thoughts! :)
 
The mockup is really convincing, great work !

A few remarks about things that you probably already noticed :

- At 0'11 : When VI&VII enter, maybe we could hear winds a bit more ?
- At 0'14 : In the VI&VII (m.3 after `Furioso` beats 2&3), sounds like 2nd and 3rd Gs are natural and not flat ?
- At 0'20 : The crescendo sounds great, but its climax could perheaps be more powerful ? I don't know if instruments are missing or if dynamics should be boosted a bit. The horns of the original version sound fuller and more staccato (maybe because of a dryer sound ?). Do you have 2 x 6 horns ?
- At 0'35 : Maybe a bit more trombones and tuba ? Here again, I don't know if it's due to reverb, but could it be more staccato ?
 
Elois said:
The mockup is really convincing, great work !

A few remarks about things that you probably already noticed :

- At 0'11 : When VI&VII enter, maybe we could hear winds a bit more ?
- At 0'14 : In the VI&VII (m.3 after `Furioso` beats 2&3), sounds like 2nd and 3rd Gs are natural and not flat ?
- At 0'20 : The crescendo sounds great, but its climax could perheaps be more powerful ? I don't know if instruments are missing or if dynamics should be boosted a bit. The horns of the original version sound fuller and more staccato (maybe because of a dryer sound ?). Do you have 2 x 6 horns ?
- At 0'35 : Maybe a bit more trombones and tuba ? Here again, I don't know if it's due to reverb, but could it be more staccato ?
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Thank you so much for your kind words and your very detailed feedback, I highly appreciate it! :)

I don't have anything to say about the first two remarks other than that you are completely right, thank you for pointing these things out!
About the third one: I'll make some adjustments to the Crescendo, I think Ozone compressed the dynamic range of the piece a bit too much.
What exactly do you mean by "Do you have 2 x 6 horns?"? The line is played by the Horns a12 patch from THB.
About the last one: Thanks for the suggestion, I will experiment with the different volume levels a bit. The articulations for the Trombones in this part are what I struggled with the most in this mockup - initially I wanted to limit myself to THB for all brass parts which meant that I had to choose between Staccato and Marcato Short for this part. The Staccato would be notably too short and the short marcatos are too long (they have adaptive releases shorter notes still take away from the realism imo), so what I went with were slightly shortened short marcatos with a staccato overlay and some additional support from Infinite Brass. This is as good as I could make it (at least within the given time frame), but I completely agree that there is much room for improvement.
 
The line is played by the Horns a12 patch from THB.
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Oh ok, so as in the score. Mmm not sure where does the anticlimactic effect come from then.

what I went with were slightly shortened short marcatos with a staccato overlay
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Ok ! Sometimes it's difficult to find the proper articulation. The original indeed sound more "detache".
 
Elois said:
Oh ok, so as in the score. Mmm not sure where does the anticlimactic effect come from then.
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Well, as they play right after the Crescendo (which also includes Trumpets & Trombones etc.) I think they just naturally have a hard time continuing the energy of the previously full brass section if that makes sense. That said, I used Fire Charger on the Horns for this part to add some bite, but they may have lost a bit of body in the process - I'll try to change that.

Henu said:
Holy shit that JXL brass sounds good for this purpose!
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I agree! I had some minor issues as described upthread, but other than that it kind of feels like this library was specifically made for this piece imo :)
 
After one month of involuntary absence (got sick :unsure:) I'm back with a new mockup, this time covering a short excerpt from "Romantic Flight". I know the end is a bit unsatisfying, but this is all I could get done this month - I'll likely continue to work on this piece in May. Until then, let me know your thoughts on this mockup!



I'm not super happy with the brass in this one (went with 100% CineBrass), so I'll likely make some changes to that in the future. However, the YouTube algorithm "recognized" this mockup as the original, so it can't be that bad :laugh:
 
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