Soundtrack sources, samples and pieces (Astroboy 1980)

[Genshi-san]

Hey guys, id like to announce a project ive been working on and off of for the past few years, a compilation "album" of sorts of material from shin tetsuwan atom, various soundtrack snippets, i am not an audio engineer so remastering is out of the question, id just like a way for this music to be presented nicely and for future enjoyment, its sad t osay but i doubt any material will ever by officialy released, ive loved the ost since i heard it as a child, and its music deserves top treatment as things like the beatles dose, id love to see a CD set put out someday, maby in 5.1 with isolate-able segments ect, so much mateiral was recorded, so much barly beign heard its obvious they planned more than just the album release, its sad hearing the poor condition mono audio on the madman bonus disc, but back on topic, id like some help looking for samples from both the american dub and the japanese original, ive allready got the album itself, the promo LP (with an instrumental featured in crystal in the desert), the madman set, and various clipped pieces of the ost i can rip from other mateiral from the same composer (atleast i think its his work, it could be all library music, it apears in ORBOTS, ORGUSS and even LUPIN 3RD) but i would like some help tracking down the sources of some of the music if that's possible, if anyone of it has further been released, i found some music from crystal in the desert thanks to a post here, but yeah id love to have this music in a place and condition where everyone can enjoy it

[DrFrag]

I've thought about doing this before so I've already put some thought into it. There are some songs that have no clean version in the anime due to talking or sound effects, but can probably be reassembled into clean versions by sourcing parts from multiple episodes. Technically it's not too difficult, but gathering a list of track sources is time consuming.

I think the best place to start would be with an episode list. Some episodes have unique music (The Robot Vikings, The Monster of Clarken, etc). Each episode would need to be watched and a list made of the time codes each music piece starts at, and if possible give them a name. Some of them we know, like Uran's Theme on the OST that is played during her schism in Uran's Twin, but variations would have to be noted like instrumentals. Atlas's Theme that starts with the cello diverges into a couple of different length variants. The trickiest part might be putting names to some of the incidental music. We can definitely find the titles of the classical pieces if we combine our efforts, so even if that's all that comes of this then it would be nice.

It might also be worth separating foreign language versions of the music since there aren't too many. They all got their own version of the main theme (I particularly like the German one) and the English version is all instrumentals, like the Robot Circus travel music.

Also, the source audio should be decided up front or at least specified in any notes. Different releases have noticably different audio quality, some releases included deleted scenes, and iirc NTSC and PAL may not necessarily have the same speed/pitch.

[DrFrag]

I thought I'd do one to show what I meant by listing the time codes. I know The Robot Vikings has some Grieg and Bizet so I chose that one. Where it says STING it's a short instrumental piece of a few notes. They might not be of value, but I thought I might as well write them down.

26. The Robot Vikings

Source: Japanese Blurays, 23.976fps, duration 24:13

0:00 English opening theme (Japanese version has Japanese opening theme)
1:15 Grieg - In the Hall of the Mountain King (Japanese version has an orchestal piece I can't identify)
1:25 (Japanese version has STING - flange synth)
2:30 STING - Title card, danger version
2:38 STING - Piano glissando up and bass twang
2:39 Uran's Theme instrumental
3:30 STRING - Synth glissando up
3:39 Playground polka on oboe and flute
4:34 STING - Vibraphone shock and disappointment with oboe and descending trumpet mute
5:09 Astroboy theme instrumental, slow on solo piano
5:36 STING - piano stab (Japanese version has STING - flange synth)
5:37 Grieg - In the Hall of the Mountain King
5:42 (Japanese version has an orchestal piece I can't identify)
6:40 Light domestic piano theme. The end of this is the Robot Circus travel song instrumental.
7:57 STING - Deep piano shock
8:00 Astroboy theme instrumental, slow on strings, with another theme on oboe overlayed
9:04 STING - Harp glissando up
9:05 We are the messenger of love (OST track 2) instrumental
10:12 Grieg - In the Hall of the Mountain King
10:17 (Japanese version has an orchestal piece I can't identify)
11:32 STING - Guiro echo
11:35 Sad theme on oboe and strings
12:17 Astroboy theme instrumental, slow on strings
13:02 STING - Confrontation on synth, piano, bass, drums and church organ
13:07 Imminent danger theme on slow drums and trumpets, then strings
13:27 Danger theme on ascending trumpets and drums
13:57 Astroboy theme (Japanese version has Astroboy theme with lyrics)
15:25 Bizet - Carmen Overture
16:06 Space theme on drums, synth and hihat
16:39 Sad theme on oboe and strings
18:08 Mysterious theme on slow deep piano
18:27 STING - Synth glissando up with hihat
18:30 Astroboy theme instrumental, slow on strings
18:49 STING - Guiro echo
18:51 Danger theme on ascending trumpets and drums
19:33 Atlas's theme on cello, oboe and string, long version
21:45 STING - Harp and bar chimes glissando up
21:46 Astroboy theme instrumental, on solo synth wind instrument then strings
22:17 STING - Astroboy theme closure
22:27 Astroboy theme instrumental (Japanese version has slightly less synth)
22:56 English closing theme (Japanese version has Japanese closing theme)

Missing the name of the orchestral music in the Japanese version that was replaced by In the Hall of the Mountain King.

[Genshi-san]

the dub theme seems to have additional instrumentation to it, that or they remixed it, as the original was in mono, probably sourced the multitrack and remixed it, i tried my best with describing the varrious alterations t othe instrumental theme

so their's like, the main theme for the japanese release, an additional theme (with an added 1 note trail), then the US theme (stripped drums from the opening and an additional layer removed, leaving just a synth build up) then you've got the ending theme, also remixed, tho no modifications, then 3 instrumentals, your main theme version 1, with a "calm" synth, and the second version with a more "urgent" sounding synth, id count this as a variation but its most likely its on both, the synth build-up had an additional synth on-top for the instrumental themes commissioned
then onto the ending, witch never had its instrumental used in the original dub, and only made an appearance in the french-Canadian productions, tho i can confirm it was produced in 81 for the dub as the new synth is the same type and similar instrumentation
but that unused ending theme includes an element not shown till the remixed ending produced for the soundtrack release, with was entirely remixed and re-recorded, meaning its most likely present on the original recording session masters, then you have the soundtrack releases, witch their are 3 versions of the intro theme, one sung by the chior "the atoms" same who did the mono TV version, and the band ANKH, then a promo 45 was released with a variation of the ANKH version, witch is missing the additional instrumentation added, so its more closer to the first mix, tho this one was given a synthisizer only intro most likley based off of the us's theme

[DrFrag]

Wow, I didn't realise there were so many. I think it's worth compiling them. It reminds me of the Neon Genesis Evangelion OST with like 20 versions of Fly Me To The Moon.

[Genshi-san]

Wow, I didn't realise there were so many. I think it's worth compiling them. It reminds me of the Neon Genesis Evangelion OST with like 20 versions of Fly Me To The Moon.

iirc its sung by each cast member each episode, but yeah their's so many