Hello All,

Long time fan, first time post.

I've always loved the musical scores of Dennis McCarthy and Ken Harrison in Macgyver. Sometimes it was difficult to decipher which was which.

I emailed Ken a few years ago and he was gracious enough to give me some enlightenment of his involvement with Macgyver. ( Sorry the email is lost). He has a website called hollywood north music.

He was also kind enough to give me a CD of a collection of his work over the years, kind of like a compliation of some of his TV work, there are a few macgyver songs on there. Colton's Music etc.

Which leads me to my question.

I know we have a "Soundtrack" put together on the website here, which is lovely....

However , does anyone have any "scores"? The subtle piano pieces at the ends of episodes, (Target Macgyver), the climactic score in episodes like (The Survivors) when they're trying to develop the film).

Any insight is appreciated.

Hi macgybl! Welcome aboard

Nice to see a new face.

Such a pity the email has been lost. It would have been interesting to hear what he had to say.

As far as scores go, I can only speak for myself and say no, I don't have any. In fact I'm not sure how you would even go about getting them, other than recording off the show and getting all the other sounds such as talking etc over the top of the music.

Anyway it's fair to say paramount could have done a lot more in the way of merchandising for the show, sound tracks, toys, etc.

Isn't there a MacGyver score somewhere on Kens web site?

Anyway, nice to have you joining us, and look forward to hearing more from you.

Appreciate the insight and the welcome. Glad to be on board

Hey, MacGybl. I once send an e-mail to Ken Harrison as well in which he said he could burn a cd for me, of course a fee was involved which I couldn't pay at that time. Didn't receive a reply after that. That's understandable though.

But I'm afraid we'll have to do it with our own soundtrack page and the samples on Ken's page. It's not much but it's better than nothing.

Wow, I thought I was the only person in the world who loved the scores by Dennis McCarthy and Ken Harrison.

I too wrote Ken Harrison several years ago, telling him one of my favorite episodes of his was "The Stringer" specifically the farewell "theme" he wrote. He later sent me a cassette tape of the recording session for that cue. It's great. I'd love to upload but I don't have any tape-to-digital converter. Maybe one day.

I really wish I could get my hands on some of Dennis McCarthy's music especially from the first two seasons. I thought his MacGyverism theme of the ascending four-note scale perfectly conveyed the quick thinking and brilliant improvisation of MacGyver. Best examples that come to mind:

E11 (S1 - "Nightmares") - When MacGyver begins working on the bed to spring his way out of the locked room.

E16 (S1 - "Every Time She Smiles") - When MacGyver, handcuffed to Penny in the backroom of the airport, picks up the coat hanger and begins smashing the wall.

E26 (S2 - "The Wish Child") - When MacGyver "unlocks" Paul from the room on the boat by hammering a bullet with a gun.

There are several examples, esp with much of the score being repeated across episodes. But those are the first that come to mind.

Hi Stuttersteps,

Nice to have you aboard

Yeah it is a pity there's no official MacGyver soundtrack... but at least we have the unofficial one here

Most large cities have services that will do that -- media conversion is a big field, especially with legacy issues and the format generations having become so short. Have you looked for one?

And welcome aboard!

'Beth

Audio or video tape?

That usually means an audiotape.

oh well all that requires is a tape player plugged into the mic plug on your computer.

plug a cable from the tape players head phones plug into the computers mic plug and use windows sound recorder... easy peasy.

Use a cable like this



and if your really pressed, you can MacGyver a cable by getting a couple of old head-phone sets, cutting the cables in half, stripping the wires back a bit and twisting the pairs together... individually wrap each join with a bit of electrical tape to stop any crackling etc from wires touching together.

That would be a re-recording rather than data conversion; there would be a loss of quality. Given that the original recording is presumably on analog audiotape, the quality isn't that great to begin with; Stuttersteps might not want to sustain further degrading! It would be rather like taking a slightly blurred photograph and xeroxing it as opposed to scanning it -- it will become even more blurred.

I once asked my übergeek sister about making CDs from old vinyl records. The details of her reply were way over my head! -- but roughly translated from esoteric into English, it turned out to be a major job because a good-quality conversion from one medium to the other required both specialised equipment and special skills to bridge the gap between the limitations of one medium to the other in a manner that would avoid inadvertant distortion of the sound. She was unwilling to spend her time doing a mediocre conversion . . . she would either do it right or not do it at all.

In spite of what most "sound-geeks" would have you believe, the degeneration would be so slight that you wouldn't be able to hear the difference.

However, it wouldn't be any better either, so if you actually wanted to improve the quality and get it closer to CD quality, it would require digital manipulation which requires specific programs and knowledge.

It wouldn't be too hard for me to play the music or write it out if I have time; I teach English now, but I taught choir for 6 years and paid my way through my first degree in music with piano accompanying.
I've played it before; by ear; whenever I heard a particularly nice melody.
but of course, I don't have an orchestra for the rest of the parts!!!