The Great Train Robbery, scored
Published October 2026
A gallop in D for 14 players, banjo and fiddle under a lone trumpet, then a shootout in D minor that turns the theme minor and stings the bandit's last shot. Scored on October 31, 2026 through the scoring studio, the same loop anyone gets: the film went in, the scored film came back 9 minutes later, and nothing was touched by hand.
What was asked
- The sound: Western.
- How much music: Balanced.
- If the film already has music: Replace it.
- Direction: “The posse rides in and a gunfight breaks out in the woods; end on the bandit firing at the camera.”
Those are the studio's own controls, set as anyone would set them. The composer is free to depart from them when the picture asks for it, and says so when it does.
The composer's notes
What the studio's composer wrote back with the scored film, in its own words; only its closing offer of changes is left out.
The film is scored from start to finish, with music under all 90 seconds. It's delivered at −16 LUFS with peaks at −1.6 dB, and the picture itself is untouched.
What I heard: the clip is silent, with no dialogue, effects or music of its own, so there was nothing to lift out. The score is the whole soundtrack. That's also why I went past the 55% coverage you asked for: in a silent film, any stretch without music just plays as dead air.
1M1 "The Ride" (0:00–0:29), D major, 130 bpm. The posse gallops through the trees:
- Snare, banjo rolls, a boom-chick acoustic guitar and short double-bass strokes lay down the gallop.
- The fiddle plays a sawing pickup, then the lone trumpet states the main theme at bar 5.
- The fiddle comes back underneath, and the theme climbs to a held high A.
- A timpani and snare roll carries it into the cut. Sixteen bars land exactly on the cut to the woods.
1M2 "Shootout in the Woods" (0:29–1:30), D minor.
- Loot split: the bandits divide the loot over a fingerpicked minor guitar, a low fiddle line and a soft timpani heartbeat. A roll builds under it.
- First shots (0:39): a crash, and the band breaks into a driving fight figure with sawing fiddle and pounding timpani. The trumpet plays the ride theme turned minor.
- The 1:13 cut: the whole band hits the downbeat.
- Barnes's close-up (1:24): everything drops to a lone trumpet over a low pedal, with a timpani and snare roll creeping up under his stare.
- His last shot (1:29): the full band hits a D-minor stinger with a crash.
Every hit point is locked to a downbeat.
What to know:
- All 14 parts played their notes; both snare parts landed every hit.
- The sound checker heard the short double-bass strokes in both cues as a guitar. It's a slightly plucky colour rather than wrong notes; I can re-voice them as pizzicato if you'd like a rounder low end.
- The ride's last A chord rings for about two seconds into the soft opening of the fight cue, which works as a crossfade.
- The fight cue's last two seconds of ring were cut at the end of the film, so the stinger stops sharply on the final frame.
Who played
- 1M1: Trumpet, Fiddle, Banjo, Acoustic Guitar, Double Bass, Timpani, Snare.
- 1M2: Trumpet, Fiddle, Guitar (picked), Guitar (strum), Double Bass, Timpani, Snare.
Every part is its own stem in the delivery, with the notes it played.
The delivery, measured
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Length | 1:30 |
| Integrated loudness | −16 LUFS (the web target) |
| True peak | −1.6 dBTP |
| Loudness range | 8.4 LU |
| Picture | copied untouched |
| Film in to scored film out | 9 minutes |
Score this film yourself
Open The Great Train Robbery in the studio as a sample, pick another sound or write your own direction, and get your own version back.
Open it in the studio →FAQ
Is The Great Train Robbery free to use?
Yes. The Great Train Robbery (1903) is in the public domain, so the picture can be used, scored and shared freely.
Was anything fixed by hand?
No. The film went through the scoring studio's own loop on the live service; the score, the mix and the delivery are what came back.
Can I score my own film this way?
Yes. Drop your cut into the scoring studio, pick a sound and how much music you want, add a line of direction, and you get the scored film, a printmaster, an M&E and every stem back.
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