MATRIXSYNTH: Beaver and Krause - Spaced - Original THX Theme


Monday, September 03, 2007

Beaver and Krause - Spaced - Original THX Theme

Another interesting tidbit from Analog Days. At the end of Beaver and Krause's track "Spaced," is the classic THX theme of rising notes. It was originally played on a MOOG in 1970 and was later copied by a famous Marin County film company. Guess the company and when it was copied. BTW if you have Napster, Rhapsody or any other subscription music service you can listen to the track. Just search for Beaver and Krause. It's on "In a Wild Sanctuary/Gardharva." The theme comes in at the very end.

Previous post. Update: Also check out THX on Music Thing, for the story behind the THX theme. Andy Moorer, the composer of the THX theme, makes no mention of Krause. Stuff like this always fascinates me. People do come up with the same ideas independently of each other, so who knows... It's fascinating either way - by chance or a copy without credit.

10 comments:

  1. That isn't deep note. Deep note was done using a digital synthesizer. There are several examples of the technique of spreading notes though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. yes, the original thx sound was done on a prehistoric digital audio processor controlled by a C script..
    musicthing has a very cool piece on this.

    http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/05/tiny-music-makers-pt-3-thx-sound.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. hurrah for the tiny music articles!

    ReplyDelete
  4. "It was made by Dr James 'Andy' Moorer in 1982"

    Spaced was done in 1970. So... it was first, no? : )

    Copy as it doing the same thing, not as in a sample of the audio. In the book, Analog Days, it goes on to say that Tom Oberheim stated that the original analog form of the sound was richer in harmonics than the digital version.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Spaced != Deep Note. Similar concept, completely different piece. Its not like Crazy Frog covering Axel F. Its an entirely new piece of music. Comparing the two as if they weren't apples to oranges I'd take the digital one any day. Its much richer and fuller. But again, they are not the same piece of music.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Not the piece of music, the rising of notes, the concept. It's actually the same. Listen to them. I'm not picking sides, just making the observation. I'm not saying one is better than the other, etc. It is what it is and it is fascinating. Either Moorer was influenced by the piece consciously or subconsciously, or he never heard it and it was no influence.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Btw, the song "Krakatoa" off Styx'
    third album "The Serpent Is Rising"
    (rec. in 1973) uses the same concept as well.

    Quote from Dennis De Young:
    "We did a thing on The Serpent Is Rising that was really a steal from Beaver And Krause in many ways, with all the oscillators sweeping in different directions and finally ending up on a chord. That took many many hours, because we had to get the timing right for when the notes sweep up to that chord. That took hours and hours to do..."
    (source: Contemporary Keyboard, Jan 1981)

    Micke

    ReplyDelete
  8. The openening to Kraftwerk's Metropolis (1978) uses the same concept as well. Whoopdedoo...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Numerology can make short work of this task, which really has its roots in the sliding choral/string work of György Ligeti.

    i applied it to the chord structure of "What A Wonderful World" which you posted here:

    http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2006/10/korg-z1-demos-by-suit-tie-guy.html

    ReplyDelete
  10. o ok, didn't notice at first spaced was done 12 years earlier..

    yeah concepts like this are simple and effective, could well be they came up with it independently.

    ReplyDelete

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