knight rider online

Your welcome.

Being pressed and mastered doesn't make something official. The rights have to be liscanced from the rights holders, and that must have not been done. Anyway, same contents. And the mastering on the bootleg was better than Hitchcock's for their first CD.

Besides, some people don't buy bootlegs, and also this provides a chance for people who missed out on the Hi-Tech CD (even if we didn't know at the time what it was), and purchasing it until it sells out only encourages more releases from HMR and the rights holders, Universal, who are natoriously uncaring when it comes to liscancing out film & TV scores.

Well, I got my 3 volumes yesterday. Awesome! I haven't had a chance to listen all the way through all of them yet, but what I have heard is just awesome. The only negative I have about them is that they have no album information for Media Player. I had to put in the album name and artist, and scan the album art and paste that in as well, and none of the tracks have names, so they are labeled as track 1, etc., for all three CDs.

If it's anything like Volume 1 which was original cues (not the edits as in the episodes) and featured some score not used, and also missing score used in the episodes, Peake just might not have access to the orignal versions scored. OR maybe he's just lazy in track naming. Either way, it's kind of hard to coem up with a new name 50 times for "KITT -- I need you" and "Turboboost threw _____".

Well, I went ahead and purchased Vol. 2 since it's a new CD with new scores that haven't been released before. I understand that the Hi-Tech CD wasn't "officially" licensed so therefore that makes it a bootleg but if it contains the same exact contents without any new mastering or the tracks coming from a new source for better sound, I unfortunately won't be purchasing Vol. 3. I would love to spend another $24 for a Knight Rider soundtrack from Hitchcock but I just can't afford to do that for the sake of having an official copy of what I already thought was an official copy and am happy with, even if that money might entice Universal and Don Peake to release another CD.

I do hope we see a Vol. 4 and even 5 soon, I love accumulating these scores and am hoping for music from Season 2 and 4 since they were my favorite seasons. I know Don was working on a CD with the score from "Goliath" and am dying to add that to the collection. I'd love to see scores from "Knightmares," "Soul Survivor," "Race for Life," "Knight of the Drones" and "Knight of the Juggernaut" in particular.

I'm a huge fan of Don Peake's work on Knight Rider and decided to register on the board just so I could post in this thread.

KFCreator: According to Ron Hitchcock, additional mastering has been applied to Volume 3 (the Hi-Tech album reissue). From what I understand, they didn't go back to the source material but they did applied equalization, echo and a wider stereo envelope to help improve the flat sound of the original disc. I'm going to go ahead and get Volume 3 even though I already have a couple copies of the Hi-Tech disc, because undoubtedly it will sound better. The old disc had too much high end and not enough "meat."

Additionally, you and I seem to be of like minds on the soundtrack -- seasons 2 and 4 were my favorites, as well. There was a lot of unique synth used in season 2 that I like the sound of, and Don brought in a lot of cool percussion in season 4 that added a lot. I realize that season 4 was a little formulaic in that most of the episodes sounded a lot alike, but the new themes introduced (like the "Juggernaut" chase) and the heavy use of the slapping/popping bass theme are awesome.

(Of course, my first exposure to Knight Rider as a 6-year-old was during the show's final season to air, so I guess you'd say season 4 holds a special place in my heart.)

"Race for Life," "Knight of the Drones" and "Knight of the Juggernaut" are on my "want to hear" list of cues as well. Two more really big ones for me are "Killer KITT" (the whole episode's score is just great) and "Knights of the Fast Lane." For some reason I have also always wanted to hear the chase music that starts about 4 minutes into "KITTnap," when KITT takes off. I'm just a sucker for how Don took Glen and Stu's theme music and really used it all over the board.

There are some really good cues from "Goliath" and "Goliath Returns" of course, though I have to admit I've been wanting to hear more of Don's later stuff -- season 4-ish -- lately.

I don't remember much of anything about the score from "Knightmares." Will have to pull that episode out and refresh my memory.

BTW: Can anyone who has listened to the new Volume 2 shed some light on what those bonus tracks are?

Great to learn that more Knight Rider music will be available by Don Peake
I too like the 2nd season music the best, Knightmares, Soul Survivor, Good Knight's Work, Custom KITT, Goliath, Goliath Returns, etc. I especially like the synth "phase" or "sliding" effect which you can hear very well for instance in Good Knight's Work just after KITT ejected Michael on top of the toyfactory and Michael started to sneek around in the building

KITTfan wrote:Great to learn that more Knight Rider music will be available by Don Peake
I too like the 2nd season music the best, Knightmares, Soul Survivor, Good Knight's Work, Custom KITT, Goliath, Goliath Returns, etc. I especially like the synth "phase" or "sliding" effect which you can hear very well for instance in Good Knight's Work just after KITT ejected Michael on top of the toyfactory and Michael started to sneek around in the building

yes yes yes!!!you got that right!absolutely 80's synthe sound!!

So what do you guys think of Volume 2? Anyone listened to it? It's killing me that I can't order mine for another month.

Chief Oddball wrote:So what do you guys think of Volume 2? Anyone listened to it? It's killing me that I can't order mine for another month.

I've been enjoying all three of them. Volume 2 has some interesting bonus materials on it.
They have a version of the main title where K.I.T.T. says who he is.

I just mailed my payment two days ago, so it'll probably be two weeks or so before I get mine, when I do I will make some good comments.

Rainack wrote:

Chief Oddball wrote:So what do you guys think of Volume 2? Anyone listened to it? It's killing me that I can't order mine for another month.

I've been enjoying all three of them. Volume 2 has some interesting bonus materials on it.
They have a version of the main title where K.I.T.T. says who he is.

Thanks for the impressions. I am looking forward to getting all three of the new discs myself -- even though I already have Vol. 1 (the Knight Con edition) and the old Hi-Tech album. I want a complete collection.

One thing I was wondering is whether all the bonus materials on Vol. 2 are Knight Rider related, or do they showcase some of Don's other work?

Chief Oddball wrote:

Rainack wrote:

Chief Oddball wrote:So what do you guys think of Volume 2? Anyone listened to it? It's killing me that I can't order mine for another month.

I've been enjoying all three of them. Volume 2 has some interesting bonus materials on it.
They have a version of the main title where K.I.T.T. says who he is.

Thanks for the impressions. I am looking forward to getting all three of the new discs myself -- even though I already have Vol. 1 (the Knight Con edition) and the old Hi-Tech album. I want a complete collection.

One thing I was wondering is whether all the bonus materials on Vol. 2 are Knight Rider related, or do they showcase some of Don's other work?

All of the bonus material is Knight Rider related.

Cool man, thank you

WOW!! Topaz and Hearts of Stone!! What an awesome surprise! First season is my favorite Don's work. I'd love to hear some cues from Chariot of Gold as well (especially the varation of the theme right after opening titles; in the first scene). I'm ordering my copy today!! I'm so excited!

Also, can anyone say what are the bonus tracks specifically?

Black Cat, I'm with you on Chariot of Gold. The introductory theme after the main title is great, and so is the creepy score beneath the scene in the museum parking lot when KITT is ordered to kill Michael.

Yeah this episode has a lot of good music that I love to hear on soundtrack. We might hope

I received my CD today!!!

First off I got to comment on the mastering: the mastering on this CD is superior to Volume 1, no question, in fact, it's almost completely on par with FilmScoreMonthly.com's mastering Stu Phillips's music for their (sold out) "Knight Rider" music. I wish V1 had sounded this good. The crystal clarity, the dynamics, the fullness of it, and so far not too much reverb as V1 occassioanlly suffered from.
There is one slightly annoying thing: when a score is recorded, before each take the man in the mixing booth calls out which cue it is ("Cue 2M3, take three") and on the CD those call outs are left in and not edited out.


The CD starts off with a long remix of the main title music; it's basically the same, with an extra backbeat added, then some samples of K.I.T.T. talking. It's a little annoying, like the long remix of the "Futurama" theme from the agency promotional score CD (Christopher Tyng).

I'm still in "Topaz Connection", but what a great Kr/80's score! At times it's almost theatrical in it's sound -- Peake could have easily gotten films Dave Grusin or Lalo Schifrin got and did the funk with, but why he didn't, I don't know.
This score features an instrument not on any of hte other CDs: saxaphone


The bonus tracks are:
Politics of Dance
This is a sound, with I think Hasselhoff singing.

Remember the Knights of Love
Another song.

White Bird
The song I think all KR fans love. I was actually going to ask Hitchcock Media if it's possible to include that on a future CD. I'm a score lover and 99.9% of the time I am AGAINST songs being on a score CD, but this is a rare exception because the song is beautiful and has a wonderful instrumental melody underneath it. Speaking of instrumental...

White Bird (instrumental)
Ha! Just the music, no singing. Cool as hell. I LOVED loved loved Peake's two brief arrangements of the song in V1, (though they just may be edits). The important thing left out of the booklet is who composed this orchestra backing. I want to know.


That concludes the CD. My only complaint is there are only two episode scores on the CD -- could have easily dumped "Politics of Love" and "Remember the Knights of Love" and fit another episode score on the CD.


On a ten-star rating system of overall CD qaulity, I would have to give it 8 stars -- that many because of the two useless songs, only two episode scores, and the take calls.


I say bring on Volume 4!

Awesome information, tharpdevenport. Thanks a ton for writing that up. I'm glad to hear that Volume 2 is a little lighter on the reverb compared to V.1 -- at times there was a bit much, particularly during the "Rebuilding KITT" themes from Junkyard Dog (to the point where the ticking percussion almost slaps back at you).

White Bird is on there? AND and instrumental version? SWEET!

As for those other two songs...I can't recall, but were those possibly songs from "Let It Be Me?"

By any chance does the score from Topaz Connection include the scene where Michael and KITT race up the parking structure to try and catch the sniper? You make a good point about the saxophone, incidentally -- I don't remember that being used in any other KR ep.

Interesting that the cue callouts are actually on the disc! I think that's kinda cool.

Heck yes, bring on Volume 4. I'm a score lover too, and I eat this stuff up.

Luckily Hulu.com has the full episode of "The Topaz Connection" up (leglaly) ,so I made a tracklist since the CD didn't have one. After each cue you will see a (track 1) thing -- this indicates correct episode order:

2. Philip Royce Missing / Dead Body / Michael Pulls In (1:23) (track 1)
3. Secret Meeting / Michael Follows / Chasing the Roof-top Gunman (2:09) (track 3)
4. "I got to talk to Anne Tylor" (0:30) (track 6)
5. Arriving at Anne Tylor's House (0:25) (track 7)
6. "Tell me about Topaz..." / Racing To Her Rescue / Turboboost (2:55) (track 9)
7. Getting the Bad Guys / "It's okay, I got ya" (1:08) (track 10)
8. K.I.T.T. the Centerfold (0:47) (track 11)
9. UNIDENTIFIED (0:32)
10. Chasing the Plane (0:38) (track 4)
11. Michael Travels to Royce Mannor / Skimpy Attire (1:30) (track 2)
12. Paul's In On It (0:53) (track
13. Finding Her Father's Gift (0:53) (track 5)

Missing cues:
-- About 10 second+ piece where Michael drives Royce's daughter to an airplane.
-- Piece after they both ask each other whether they can handle one another.
-- Piece at hthe slot machine where the hotel security guy is talking to his partner in crime.
-- Music where Michael surprises Royce's daughter with the dinner.
-- The chase music as Michael goes after the plane she is on 'cause K.I.T.T. said ther was struggling on their. Michael climbs out and gets on the speeding plane.
-- The short outro after Anne gives Michael the info.


I don't feel like doing "Hearts of Stone" right now. But later probably.

Wow, that's going above and beyond. THANKS! Now I can bust out the DVD and listen to this stuff in advance of getting my copy of the CD.

And all of my favorite cues from "Topaz" are on there...YES!

"Hearts of Stone"


14. Drive-by Assault (1:03) (track 3)
15. K.I.T.T. Smashes Into the Warehouse (0:26) (track 5)
16. Peddle WAY Too the Metal (1:41) (track 12) (contains score not used, or maybe an alternate ending)
17. Rickey Tries To Get Away / It's Over (1:54) (track 10)
18. UNIDENTIFIED (0:32)
19. New Voice Modulator (0:26) (track 1)
20. "Drop the briefcase!" (0:32) (track 4) (missing a few second of ending)
21. Making a Real Difference (1:03) (track 9)
22. "You know Emil?..." (1:02) (track 7)
23. Happy Ending / Devin and Michaelk Ride Off (0:31) (track 11)
24. Angie and Michael Make Up (0:19) (track
25. All About Angie(1:29) (track 6)
26. Near Mexico (2:07) (track 2) (source music by Peake; re-used in the episode "Diamonds Aren't A Girl's Best Friend")
27. UNIDENTIFIED (2:21) (sounds like source music by Peake, maybe for a bar scene that was likely later replaced by a song)


Missing score cues:
-- Outro Scene where Michael goes for the first meeting and they put him against a wall and tell him they can put his brains all over it.
-- Piece after the the preist asks his brother, in the hospital bed, not to turn his back on him

If you guys are interested, I could make -- at my own pace -- a tracklist for each episode of the Volume 3 CD (of the old Hi-Tech bootleg).

tharpdevenport wrote:If you guys are interested, I could make -- at my own pace -- a tracklist for each episode of the Volume 3 CD (of the old Hi-Tech bootleg).

That would be awesome! Could you do Volume 1 at some point, too?

Was relying on legal episodes on Hulu.com, but they don't have any of the ones from the Hi-Tech/Volume 3 CD, so I did as much s I could with YouTube clips:


"Knight of the Chameleon"

1.
2. Escaping the Handcuffs (1:10) (track 1)
3. Traveling (0:25) (track 2)
4. Disguising as the Judge / K.I.T.T. & Michael Give Chase (3:00) (track 3)


"K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R."

47. K.I.T.T. and K.A.R.R. Showdown / K.A.R.R. Destroyed (1:45)

That's as far s I could go.