My picks, FWIW:

Ditto Danny Elfman and John Wiliams: for orchestration/sound/mix of (respectively) late and early 20th century orchestral styles.

Peter Gabriel: Passion: Music For The Last Temptation of Christ. Classic PG awesome ...superlatives fail me... production and engineering values. You won't believe they dropped it for the soundtrack they have on the release.

???: Soundtrack for "The Game". Good impressionist-inspired piano, for an example of minimalist stuff. Nicely recorded - I call this style of recording the  "NY - Quebec" sound.

The Harry Potter tracks are pretty up there, too. A cut above the usual Fantasy soundtrack.


A bit more retro:

Stewart Copeland: Soundtrack for the Babylon V pilot. Not so well recorded (even in it's day), but there's some great stuff going on in there.

Vangelis: Bladerunner. Try and source the DVD or physical album with the track "One More Kiss" - it's a 1910's sounding recording that seems to be missing from the online choices...just listening to how that track is fitted into this huge wall of synthesizers is a profound lesson in soundtrack composition/production.

Pink Floyd: The Wall. Still holds up, it competes with more modern recordings. And watching that film in the state that the writers intended provides an excuse to be naughty.

Look through Bob Katz's list of "favourite productions" - not so movie oriented, but it will help you understand what you're listening for/to on a technical level. I can't remember the URL offhand, I believe you'll find it on his site.

As always, beware the more modern "remastered" versions and online stuff where possible. They forget it's for a film and master loud, forgetting about reference levels.


- Shane