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I love the Psycho score. Who doesn't?
And while I adore both the Herrmann recording on Unicorn and the McNeely recording on Varese I feel there still isn't a commercially available recording of the complete score that matches the fast tempo, the aggressive drive and the tight, close sound of the original. I fantasised about doing a recording to match the tempo, fierceness and tightness and then had my crazy thought:
I'd want to release it in mono.
I'd probably actually put 2 cds in my release: a stereo mix and a mono mix.
Am I crazy to think that some scores, this being one of them, are moodier in mono?
Some fans prefer the Beatles in mono.
Let me know what you think. If Psycho is moodier in mono, what else might be?
Cheers
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If it's a re-recording in modern digital sound, I'd want it in stereo.
Can't you just hit a setting on your player to play monophonic? I'm not home, and I've never even looked. I know my 1990-vintage boom box can't do that, but I'll bet media player apps can, and possibly iPods if you know where to look. Someone with only one good ear would need a mono setting for headphones and ear buds.
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I’ve thought about this too, Steve. There is a raw, brittle, and strident edge to the music as heard in the film. It’s all heavily compressed partly, I suspect, to maximise its visceral impact but also due to limitations of the monaural optical exhibition format.
It would be amazing to hear Herrmann’s inaugural performance from first generation sources. It may be the case, though, that these no longer exist as the music was repurposed to 5.1 from the mono dubbing elements for the more recent home video release.
Either way, I think it would be possible to make an OK album from the mono elements. It wouldn’t be perfect but it could be made to sound passable.
Cheers
Chris
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What about the CD from the Gus Van Sant remake, which Danny Elfman supervised? I saw the film back in the 90s, but tried to banish that experience from my mind (and don't recall much about the soundtrack performance / recording quality).
How does the Elfman recording compare the original soundtrack?
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Posted: |
May 22, 2016 - 3:37 PM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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The Elfman recording is excellent, though I believe he doubled the size of the orchestra to fill out the sound given modern playback techniques. I think that sounds great, but if you're a purist, it's a change.
Stephen Woolston's suggestion for a new mono recording brings up an interesting dilemma. We all (properly) loathe colorizing of black and white films, but scores recorded in mono we (generally) happily listen to in stereo. You could make the same arguments we all make against colorizing (the creative choices were made knowing what the final product would be) to say that stereo CD presentations of scores for films released in mono (even if they're the original recordings) are a creative change. Furthermore, composers in (say) the 1930s were well aware of the limitations of the recording technology at the time, and composed music to work within those limitations. Yet today, we can hear those scores in glorious stereo, with a far wider dynamic range than they could hear at the time. Are these presentations therefore not what the artist intended?
For me, I like clear stereo with a wide dynamic range, when I can have it. But I could see some feeling otherwise.
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