Although I’ve seen all of the openers for all three seasons of His Dark Materials, I’ve never seen the show. I actually didn’t want to see it, and just design the sound and the music from the way the trailers were designed.

The original music is a faster tempo and much more frantic. There seemed to be a lot of fantasy in this series, and it centered a young woman. I love using human voice where I can, so I wrote a composition in tri-meter with one of my favorite singers Sené. I love how the music turned out; It was a departure from a lot of other stuff I’ve worked on.

Since the camera is moving back through the sequence, I had a lot of opportunity to utilize an immersive 5.1 experience using radius and panning. It really is the perfect example to try a 5.1 mix. There is a lot of action in the opener that can utilize all points in the room.

If you have capabilities to hear a 5.1 mix, consider downloading the surround sound demonstration I’ve created by clicking the button below. As always, let me know what you think! I love getting feedback.