Head:
Composer Peter Cobbin
Tail:
Composer Peter Cobbin
Music Recorded & Mixed by Peter Cobbin Music Arranged & Conducted by Jonathan Allen Tenor Vocal Solo John Bowley Orchestral Contractor Isobel Griffiths Music Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London Music Editor Simon Leadley
MUSIC
"Welcome to my World: Composed by John Hathcock and Ray Winkler Courtesy of Sony/ATV Tree and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia Recorded by Jim Reeves and Licensed by BMG Australia
"Hello Darling" Recorded & Composed by Conway Twitty Courtesy of Sony/ATV Tree & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia
"Okie From Muskogee" Composed by Merle Haggard & Roy Burris, Recorded by Merle Haggard Courtesy of Sony/ATV Tree and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia
"If We Make It Through December" Recorded & Composed by Merle Haggard Courtesy of Sony/ATV Tree and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia
"Am I Losing You" Composed by Jim Reeves Courtesy of Sony/ATV Tree and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia Recorded by Ronnie Milsap and Licensed by BMG Australia
“There’s A Heartache Following Me” Composed by Ray Baker Courtesy of Sony/ATV Tree and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia Recorded by Jim Reeves and Licensed by BMG Australia
"Holly Holy" Composed and Recorded by Neil Diamond Courtesy of Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia & Universal Music Australia
"Dimitri Shostokovich Chamber Symphony, Op. 110A" Arranged from his string quartet No. 8 by Rudolph Barshai Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Recorded by the Australian Chamber Orchestra Courtesy of Sony Classical by arrangement Sony Music Entertainment Australia
Music in the film:
There’s a substantial amount of sourced music in the film, with Jacob having a particular taste for mournful country music, but Ronnie also seizes a moment to put on her own style of music. As with everything in his house, Jacob is still stuck in the past, and favours a record player (though this would later mark him as a millennial hipster): CD:
A CD of the soundtrack was released:
CD (ST) Best Boy/Festival D31905 1998
(* Dialogue tracks)
Original music produced by Peter Cobbin (P) 1998 RB Films & Peter Cobbin Arranged and orchestrated by Jonathon Allen Orchestral contractor: Isobel Griffiths Vocal Solo: John Bowley Recorded and mixed at Abbey Road Studios, London by Peter Cobbin Assisted by Paul Hicks and Douglas Blair
Tracks 7, 13 under licence from BMG Australia Track 14 under licence from Sony Music Entertainment (Australia) Limited Tracks 10, 16 under licence from Sony Music Entertainment (Australia) Limited/ATV Music Publishing
1. In The Winter Dark Overture, Peter Cobbin (P. Cobbin) Control 2. Holding Down Your Own Secrets * 3. Darkness, Peter Cobbin (P. Cobbin) Control 4. The Neighbours * 5. Welcome To My World, vocals: Jim Reeves (J. Hathcock and Ray Winkler) Sony/ATV Tree and Son/ATV Music Publishing Australia (P) BMG Australia 6. Ida's Dream, Peter Cobbin (P. Cobbin) Control 7. Am I Losing You, vocals: Ronnie Milsap (J. Reeves), Sony/ATV Tree and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia (P) BMG Australia 8. Something is Out There Part I, Peter Cobbin, (P. Cobbin) Control 9. What Would Do It? * 10. Hello Darlin, vocals: Conway Twitty (C. Twitty) Sony/ATV Tree and Sony/ ATV Music Publishing Australia (P) Sony/ATV Tree and Son/ATV Music Publishing Australia 11. The Tiny Coffin, Peter Cobbin, (P. Cobbin) Control 12. Can I Stay At Your Place? * 13. There's a Heartache Following Me, vocals: Jim Reeves, (R. Baker), Sony/ ATV Tree and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia (P) BMG Australia 14. Dimitri Shostakovich Chamber Symphony, Op.110A, Australian Chamber Orchestra, arranged from his string quartet No. 8 by Rudolph Barshai, Boosey and Hawkes Music Publishers/AMCOS Societies (P) Sony Classical, by arrangement with Sony Entertainment Australia 15. Are You Scared? * 16. If We Make It Through December, vocals: Merle Haggard, (M. Haggard) Sony/ATV Tree and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia, (P) Sony/ATV Tree and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia 17. Something Is Out There Part II, Peter Cobbin, (P. Cobbin) Control 18. Calm and Smart and Kind * 19. Sins of the Fathers, Peter Cobbin, (P. Cobbin) Control 20. The Confusion Never Wears Off * 21. The Hysteria Sets In, Peter Cobbin, (P. Cobbin) Control 22. Confessions, Peter Cobbin, (P. Cobbin) Control 23. In The Winter Dark Overture Reprise, Peter Cobbin, (P. Cobbin) Control 24. Holly Holy, vocals: Charlotte Grace, (N. Diamond), Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia, recorded by Russell Kilbey at Karmic Hit Studios, Sydney, (P) 1998 Festival Records
Composer:
Peter Cobbin was an Australian composer, who subsequently mainly worked as a recording engineer at Abbey Road studios on assorted projects.
The soundtrack for the film was recorded at Abbey Road, using the London Symphony Orchestra, with director James Bogle heading across to work with Cobbin on the recording.
The stories below give a flavour of Cobbin’s career (googling will produce a number of other insights into Cobbin’s work). Music Week interview/profile:
In a story by Christopher Barrett for Music Week, 5th March 2010, Barrett gave some details about Cobbin, as well as one of the key points of the story, which was to offer guidance to anyone wanting to pursue a career as a music engineer. The full story was reprinted here.
These are Cobbin’s career details as featured in the story:
With a love of detail and passion for experimenting, Peter Cobbin is a world renowned recording engineer known for his work on an array of impressive projects ranging from The Beatles’ Anthology to The King’s Speech and Harry Potter film series. Here the Abbey Road veteran imparts his 11-point plan for recording success While recent weeks have seen The King’s Speech enjoy a wealth of BAFTA and Oscar acclaim, Tom Hooper’s film about King George VI overcoming a stutter has also been the target of criticism over its debatable historical accuracy. But with an attention to detail and love of breaking down barriers with both state-of-the-art technology and vintage equipment, Peter Cobbin added a remarkable historical element to the recording and mixing of Alexandre Desplat’s score for the film. As Abbey Road’s senior engineer for the past 16 years Cobbin has worked on numerous projects, taking in everything from mixing The Beatles Anthology series to producing scores and soundtracks to The Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter movies. By Cobbin’s standards, Desplat’s score for The King’s Speech was a small project, but nonetheless he could not resist seeking out, repairing and using the very microphones that were manufactured by EMI for the Royal Family, including George VI himself. Some 12 years ago Cobbin discovered the microphones in a dusty corner of EMI’s Heathrow archive. “It was a bit of a process getting them out and over to Abbey Road,” he admits. “Initially I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great, even if the microphones are just eye candy, to have them in the studio to inspire the director when he comes in.’ But I went one step further and our marvellous mic technician here got three working. “Tom [Hooper] couldn’t believe what he was hearing, they were in some way connecting the old world of the 1930s; we were blending in the old mics, and the sound is woven into the score.” Over the years Cobbin has worked with some of the world’s most successful bands, producers and composers while embracing new technology alongside old. His work has seen him pioneer 5.1 surround sound recording and mixing techniques on projects ranging from U2’s Live from Slane Castle and Lennon: Legend while also taking the time to handle the design and implementation of Abbey Road’s successful audio plug-in reproductions, including the vintage TG12413 limiter, the RS127 EQ box and the RS124 valve compressor. Cobbin grew up in a musical family in Australia and he still remembers the day when, aged only six, he saw a studio technician on TV and immediately realised he wanted to be involved in recording music. By the age of 15 he was using his home as a makeshift recording studio. “I had my school friends collect egg cartons so I could make a four-track recording in my bedroom – these were my first clients and my parent’s house was my first studio. The experiences helped me understand the basic principles of recording music. If I wanted ambience we went into the kitchen, the lounge for piano and the bathroom for vocals,” smiles Cobbin. Currently working on the score for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Cobbin has come a long way since those early days and while continuing to balance his love of both classical and contemporary music his passion for detail and experimenting clearly remains undiminished. “It’s important to push the boundaries and push the comfort zone. There is a danger that in doing the job and performing the task you can stop smelling the roses of opportunity, but by looking over the edge you might find something that will contribute something new and vital to a project,” says Cobbin. With decades of recording experience taking on clients from Donavan to Duffy, Danny Elfman to David Gray, Cobbin is perfectly placed to conduct the latest in our series of music industry masterclasses…
Follow the link above for the details of the master class …
Waves interview:
Cobbin was also interviewed for Waves. The full interview is here, the opening part of the interview also focussed on his career:
Waves: How did you get into engineering? Cobbin: I’ve always wanted to record for as long as I can remember. I grew up playing and learning music, but always a little shy on the performance side. However, I was fascinated with recorded sound. As a teenager, I was in bands and orchestras and I bought myself a 4-track recorder and would record friends in my bedroom at home. When I left school, I got a traineeship with EMI studios in Sydney and studied electronics, while continuing to play music. So I got my foot in the door and started working in record production and have continued to do the same over the last 30 years. Waves: What does it take to “make it” in audio engineering? Cobbin: The overriding thing is a sense of determination. It requires knocking on doors and getting any experience that you can in any recording studio. That's what I was doing even when I was studying. It's about collecting all the experiences whether it's using a tape machine or a microphone, or in my day, transferring from a record player onto a tape machine. I think it's these sorts of experiences that, when you go for a job interview or you're up for something, an opportunity to do a job—having previous experience in almost anything that you can build on is a good thing. Waves: What's your relationship with Abbey Road? Cobbin: My career is neatly divided in half, so to speak. After my traineeship, I became a freelance recording engineer and producer in Australia. For the last 16 years, I've been here at Abbey Road. There was a manager who knew of me and asked whether I would consider moving over to London with my family to take up a position here. After giving it considerable thought, that's exactly what we did, and I'm still here 16 years later. Waves: What have been some of the highlights of your career? Cobbin: Often it can be the small experiences like working with unnamed musicians that is rewarding—they're playing something that sounds great, feels great and there's time to experiment in ways without expectations, deadlines or the pressure that comes with a large project. It's that sense of enjoying the music and working with it that is a recurring highlight. In my position as senior recording engineer at Abbey Road, I've had some unique experiences. We were quick to adapt to surround technology and the first 5.1 mix that I ever did was the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's, I did the Yellow Submarine project when this film was restored, which was followed by mixing the Beatles Anthology. In addition, I re-mixed many of John Lennon's songs including Imagine, so on and off over a period of ten years, I was enjoying the spoils of an amazing legacy. For a recording engineer, Abbey Road is like Mecca, but having access to the Beatles master tapes, being able to learn so much from listening to those four track tapes has been incredible. Waves: Aside from your technical expertise, what else do you think has been key to your success? Cobbin: My job is about building up ongoing relationships. Mixing the entire Lord of the Ringstrilogy, working with Howard Shore, the composer, as well as Peter Jackson, the director, that went on and off again over a period of four years was fabulous. I mixed a series of concerts for U2 over a number of years—it's one thing to do the work, but it adds another dimension working with the artists over time. So whether it's a director of a film, a band coming in to listen to a concert, or recording a musician—it's not just the music, but the relationship of working with people, that is so important to a successful outcome. Waves: What are you working on these days? Cobbin: I’m producing the score for the latest Harry Potter film. It's the remaining film of the last book and the end of what has become the world's most successful film franchise. Alexander Desplat is the composer and the orchestra is the London Symphony Orchestra. The production team loves being at Abbey road and I couldn't do something of this scale without the collaboration and expertise of all my colleagues.
(Below: composer Peter Cobbin, and below that Cobbin with Kirsty Whalley in the the penthouse mixing suite at Abbey Road, and below that Cobbin working on American Gangster)