Lately, I've been totally enjoying and appreciating the vintage TF cartoon score. (A big thank you to Codigo for connecting me with this material!)

I love its urgency, its unashamed camp (segueing into almost a Batman feel, from time to time - the trombone/bass guitar riffs; the string bass beats), and its moments of sudden gravity ("Facing Disaster" is a great piece of modern 20th-century science-fiction scoring that would have been equally at home on the original Star Trek: "No More Worries" is a rare moment of melody for the woodwinds that gives the listener a real break.

All in all, it strikingly evokes the cartoon, its characters, and its stories very well, all these years later. It's good work.

Do we know - was this music ever recorded live, with real musicians? If so, where?

Is anyone else as in love with this music as me? Would love to chat more!

Hope everyone is doing well,

Joseph

Subject line fail: I obviously meant to write "cartoon score"!

JB

On Wednesday, August 24, 2022 at 10:22:08 PM UTC-7, Joseph Bardsley wrote:
> Lately, I've been totally enjoying and appreciating the vintage TF cartoon score. (A big thank you to Codigo for connecting me with this material!)
>
> I love its urgency, its unashamed camp (segueing into almost a Batman feel, from time to time - the trombone/bass guitar riffs; the string bass beats), and its moments of sudden gravity ("Facing Disaster" is a great piece of modern 20th-century science-fiction scoring that would have been equally at home on the original Star Trek: "No More Worries" is a rare moment of melody for the woodwinds that gives the listener a real break.
>
> All in all, it strikingly evokes the cartoon, its characters, and its stories very well, all these years later. It's good work.
>
> Do we know - was this music ever recorded live, with real musicians? If so, where?
>
> Is anyone else as in love with this music as me? Would love to chat more!
>
> Hope everyone is doing well,
>
> Joseph

On Thursday, August 25, 2022 at 1:22:08 AM UTC-4, Joseph Bardsley wrote:
> Lately, I've been totally enjoying and appreciating the vintage TF cartoon score. (A big thank you to Codigo for connecting me with this material!)
>
> I love its urgency, its unashamed camp (segueing into almost a Batman feel, from time to time - the trombone/bass guitar riffs; the string bass beats), and its moments of sudden gravity ("Facing Disaster" is a great piece of modern 20th-century science-fiction scoring that would have been equally at home on the original Star Trek: "No More Worries" is a rare moment of melody for the woodwinds that gives the listener a real break.
>
> All in all, it strikingly evokes the cartoon, its characters, and its stories very well, all these years later. It's good work.
>
> Do we know - was this music ever recorded live, with real musicians? If so, where?
>
> Is anyone else as in love with this music as me? Would love to chat more!
>
> Hope everyone is doing well,
>
> Joseph

My pleasure Joseph!

I listen to the score regularly. I appreciate it on its own musical merits, but I love the memories it evokes. I can't listen to Track 20, Battle Fearlessly, without hearing Victor Caroli's narration from "The Secret Files of Teletraan 2." And I love Track 29, the Transformers Medley - it's like a condensed episode in and of itself, taking the listener from victory to danger to battle, ending on a hopeful but ominous cliffhanger. That it essentially represents many of the high points of The Rebirth doesn't hurt either.

It's only a sample platter, where Zob's release is the entire meal. But it's great to have a Greatest Hits album for a condensed, just the highlights, aural experience.

On Wednesday, August 24, 2022 at 11:22:08 PM UTC-6, Joseph Bardsley wrote:
> Do we know - was this music ever recorded live, with real musicians? If so, where?

Not to my knowledge. Fans are very good about tracking down and locating scripts from the cartoon show, or animation cels, but something I've never heard of is anybody locating the sheet music. Leads me to wonder if any of it has survived. (I think the fact that you need to know how to read sheet music is something of a detriment. You come across an animation cel of Optimus Prime, and it's obvious at first sight what you've got. Not everybody can look at a page of music and recognize the tune.)
> Is anyone else as in love with this music as me? Would love to chat more!

After the music restoration project I helped with, I burned a bunch of tracks to CD and keep them in my car. I still listen to them on occasion. You'd think I'd have gotten sick to death of the music after spending like three years of my life helping to build a fan soundtrack, but in fact the opposite seems true—I've developed an even greater appreciation for the nuances of the various themes.

Something I've observed is that the Johnny Douglas tracks have more of an epic, orchestral quality, with an overreaching musical story. The Robert J. Walsh tracks can be easily broken down into shorter measures and seem more ideal for chopping up in order to fit a 45-second or 30-second scene. The Walsh tracks may contain less flourish or style, but they're far better suited for the rigors of cartoon sound editing.

I've noticed the music is making its way into hundreds of YouTube videos now. People are using it as background music for their toy reviews, and the fan edit scene has absolutely exploded with new versions of scenes from episodes and movies with the new music tracks laid down. I think the music restoration project has done for sound what IDW's The Ark did for animation models. Suddenly, everybody has access to these resources. I'm honestly thrilled that there's still such an interest in the music after all this time.. It means the time I spent helping to put together the restored tracks was definitely worth my time. (I wouldn't have considered it a waste of time, regardless, because I've wanted to be able to listen to clean versions of these tracks forever.)

Zob (would love to do this for at least some of the tracks from the Ninja Turtles cartoon, too, but...)

On 8/24/2022 10:22 PM, Joseph Bardsley wrote:
> Do we know - was this music ever recorded live, with real musicians? If so, where?

I would assume that was the case with the first two seasons.
I remember hearing that with some Sunbow shows, the music was recorded
in New York. That's why Jem had a different voice for when she sings.
The regular voice actress was in LA and the singer in NY.

In GI Joe, the vocals for Cold Slither were recorded in the LA studio
and the music in New York. It turned out kind of crappy, but they
thought it fit the Dreadnok characters somehow.

Starting with The Movie and beyond, it went synth.

I think all the G1 anime, minus Scramble City, were also synth.