Why does Imperial march sound diffrent in movie and official album?

I am asking this question cause I was watching Empire Strikes Back and I noticed during scene where Star Destroyer fleet is appearing (18 mins into a movie) Imperial march sounds somewhat diffrent than one of the official album. Here is the scene. Imperial march in this scene sounds superior than album version for me. Was this version ever released or does anyone know if it exists somewhere? Any help would be appriciated. Thanks!

 

Here is the better quality video

 

I think Imperial March also sounds different between the ESB Soundtrack and the John Williams Conducts Star Wars trilogy CD.

 

Yeah, I've always thought a lot of CD's sound very different to their movie counterparts, and not just star wars.
Maybe it's just how they equalize it to adjust for the other levels of sound going on in the scene, voices, effects etc.
Or maybe Williams ad libs when conducting it for the CD's recording? Like a live version of a song is rarely the same as the single. I'm just guessing though...

 

The music playing in that scene is the exact same version of the track named "Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) from the CD. In fact, it replaces the original music written by Williams for that scene.

However, it must be noticed that the current CD version is a remix made in the 1990s and does sound slightly different (although I can't actually hear the difference, to be honest).

But of course, there are many recordings of the same music piece conducted by Williams over the years. But the version from the original soundtrack IS the version used in the scene.

 

I dont know why, but I must be deaf or something? Cause for me it sounds different to album version released on CDs, I listened to each one literrally over 1000 times, and music in this scene is somewhat faster, more powerful (it has more bass or something) , I dont know how exactly...

 

It must be the way it's mixed in the film, but the recording is the same, I promise you.

 

For an episode of SW Rebels they did a marching band version of the Imperial March last season. It was for the people celebrating "Empire Day" (reluctantly). Quite good and amusing to hear.

 

While the music in that video is the one used in this track:



I believe that the original version can be heard in this track, about 2:44:



The soundtracks for both ESB and ROTJ contain a large number of cut pieces, in the places where they would have originally played. Eg. The Battle of Hoth medley feaures a piece starting around 4 minutes in, originally intended for when the walkers first appeared, or the opening track on ROTJ which has a large middle section that was originally intended for a scene which was deleted (Luke building his saber).

 

I enjoy soundtracks and film scores a great deal, and notice fairly often that the track that appears on cd is not quite the same as the one in the movie. Probably just has to do with sound mixing where one version, either a softer or stronger version depending on the scene, appears in film, while the other is meant to be the actual score piece.

 

@Toni112007

I listened to both. They are different. The movie scene you posted second had a much richer sound. The second one seems has more string instruments in and seems "duller". See what Audacity yields. Audacity Knows. I thin Darkspine^ might have been right. It's a different track used. The second one he posted sounds more like it.

 

Right, this is noted in the linear notes for the SE. "Aboard The Executor" was the version Williams intended for the first view of the Executor and the Imperial fleet, but Kershner had decided it didn't work. So instead the first forty seven seconds of the concert version of "The Imperial March" was edited in, instead of having Williams re-record the track so that a better transition could be made. This can be found on pages 11 and 12.

 

In fact, this happened twice more in the movie: two other transitions to the Imperial Fleet had a few seconds of the concert version of the Imperial March tracked in, instead of the original music composed by Williams. In both cases, this was reversed for the Special Edition (one of the changes that hardly anyone seems to notice but it is a great improvement)

 

Yes-as some have mentioned, certain versions might be the exact same arrangement, but they may be from a remixed/remastered re-release which would naturally make them sound different (different instruments mixed at different volumes, etc.)

The same happens with the actual film score vs. soundtracks. The soundtrack recording is often done in a different session specifically for that release-whereas the film may be recorded separately. Also the film goes thru a different mixing process, meant to cater more to movie theater sound systems and to blend properly with the rest of the sound in the film, as well as certain peices being edited to fit the film, while the soundtrack recording is mixed for CD/audio only release...

 

Pretty much this. Two soundtracks I have, Jerry Goldsmith's Chinatown and John Williams' The Missouri Breaks are definitely different recordings altogether - in fact, The Missouri Breaks includes the 'film versions' of two themes as bonus tracks and they're noticeably different. Chinatown was composed and recorded for the film in a rush (the original score by Phillip Lambro was rejected at the last minute), so the soundtrack album was recorded completely separately at a later date.

I don't think this necessarily happens on all films, but I would imagine that in most cases the recordings would at least be remixed for an album, if not recorded all over again. There's also the fact that a lot of the soundtracks for older films are in mono, whereas the albums are in stereo, so that'll be different for a start.

 

Recording different versions of film cues for a soundtrack was somewhat common practice back in the 70s (the original soundtrack of JW's "Jaws" is also a re-recoding, containing different versions of the film cues), but not anymore, and certainly, that never happened in a SW movie. All the original soundtracks contain the tracks as recorded for the movie. However, as it's been said, the mix of the soundtrack and the film are done separately, therefore the differences.

 

I think they're different tracks.

 

One is clearly a different mix from the other, the cymbal crashes at the beginning and end of the track during the fleet scene are a dead giveaway.

However, this is probably the best version I've heard.

 

Well, the concert versions are written specifically for that type of venue. Williams is free to have it arranged in a way that can differ from the film, which has to meet film standards.

"Highlander" is one example, though that's not so much the score as it was the Queen songs written and recorded for the film, which were all re-recorded for a separate album, "A New Kind Of Magic". When the film didn't do well and the soundtrack was cancelled, the band reworked everything for a more commercial sound. New recordings for the scores to the first three films were done for a 1994 album containing a collection of certain cues from each film. It's especially telling for the second film, where the difference is night and day between the two.