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Only recently i became aware of the anthology box set and that it features a lot of material from all 3 scores in better sound quality than all subsequent complete releases.
Now I have some questions about this:
1. How can it be that there are such big differences in the sound quality? One would expect that for later (re-)releases, especially when they contain the same music, the quality should be at least as good as the previous release instead of being inferior. What's the reason for why my rca 2-CD set of return of the jedi sounds worse than the material from that much older 4-CD box set? Was the master deteriorated? What's the story?
2. Does everything of the 4-CD box set sound better or is there actually some material that's inferior to later releases?
3. Has anybody ever attempted to create his own cut of unreleased material from the 2-CD sets plus better sounding material from the 4-CD box set and if so, what are your experiences?
Thanks for your help and sorry if this has been discussed before, but the search engine is a pain when you are trying to find a certain topic.
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Posted: |
Oct 7, 2009 - 4:26 AM
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By: |
juhana
(Member)
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1. How can it be that there are such big differences in the sound quality? One would expect that for later (re-)releases, especially when they contain the same music, the quality should be at least as good as the previous release instead of being inferior. What's the reason for why my rca 2-CD set of return of the jedi sounds worse than the material from that much older 4-CD box set? Was the master deteriorated? What's the story?
I'm not sure about 'Jedi', but I know that in 'Empire' there was this person named Risner (or something like that) who was responsible for mixing the RCA edition. As far as I recall, he didn't have experience in mixing orchestral music, so he really messed up in the job; If you listen, the RCA/Sony edition has a much more "narrow" mix than the anthology (and bad mixing can make it seem like the sound quality is worse).
As for reasons to the bad sound in Jedi, what I've heard is just rumours, but I'm told that the device used to transfer the tapes wasn't calibrated correctly. Not being an expert in these matters, I have no idea what all this means (If it's even true).
These scores really deserve to be re-released. If the reasons stated above are true, it should be possible to make them sound much better.
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Posted: |
Oct 7, 2009 - 10:15 AM
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By: |
John-73
(Member)
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"One would expect that for later (re-)releases, especially when they contain the same music, the quality should be at least as good as the previous release instead of being inferior."
That's actually VERY rarely the case. Quite often remastered means 'fiddled with'... and changed. Basically you don't want to tamper with the original master tapes if it can be avoided. And yet - for example - people insist on getting rid of all tape hiss, which unfortunately usually results in the 'life' being sucked from the recording too. Jedi 2-CD is a prime example of this. It just sounds lifeless and without any sparkle to the sound, compared to the superb Anthology version. The heads may well have also been mis-aligned on the playback machine too, or the wrong Dolby setting was used etc.
Remastering really is an art form and too few people know how to do it properly (exceptions being FSM of course!). Remixing the multi-tracks also brings mixed results (again, the guy who did the 2-CD versions obviously didn't have a CLUE how to mix an orchestra. All sounds narrow and 'in your face' instead of panoramic as it should) unless the engineer knows what they're doing, and has a good ear.
Many recordings are also 'brick walled' these days, which means the loudest and softest passages of music are 'squished' so the music all sounds like it's at a similar volume level, and plays back better in car stereos, or iPods in noisey environments. Thankfully this doesn't seem to happen to film soundtrack releases as much as more mainstream Pop/Rock etc.
If you're into the technical side of things the Steve Hoffman forums are a great place to hang out, but it's really just for Rock/folk/pop rather than soundtracks. However:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=149426&highlight=star+wars
What I wouldn't give for a Superman blue-box type release, using exactly the same team, for the Star Wars soundtracks. As this is 2009 a high-res release would really be the way forward too. Ahhh dream on....... :/
Cheers!
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Didn't Mike Matessino work on the RCA 2-disc editions, or did he just do the notes? I can never remember.
Mike! I'm sure you don't mind having to answer these questions time and time again....
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Didn't Mike Matessino work on the RCA 2-disc editions, or did he just do the notes? I can never remember.
Mike! I'm sure you don't mind having to answer these questions time and time again....
Yes he was, but as I recall there was a time crunch to get these in stores to accompany the release of the Special Edition versions of the films. I do remember that Return of the Jedi was delayed longer than the others for some reason.
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An SACD version would be incredible - but too much to hope for!
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I still cannot believe that people fail to hear the differences between the Arista Jedi and the RCA Jedi. Clean out yo' ears, foo'!
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Seriously. It's night and day.
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