Im a technical first grader so forgive my lack of knowledge. I was just thinking about all those lost tracks and unreleased scores.( SHAMUS and stuff...) Why isn't it possible to isolate them from the movies like they did with all those DVDs which includes isolated scores.Why do the labels need the tapes?
You can't do isolated scores unless you have intact original stems (or source elements = the sessions tapes to prepare the isolated scores from), which may include edits, volume changes and bleed-in SFX from other elements - especially when it comes to analogue sources and older materials.
Basically if there are no tapes,there will be NO releases and no isolated scores either - unless there are surviving M+E tracks, which again would include edits, possible volume changes AND ALL SFX in their full volume.
There is no way to "isolate" the score once it was mixed in with dialogues, SFX unless you have those original and separate elements that were used back in the day the film was dubbed.
Im a technical first grader so forgive my lack of knowledge. I was just thinking about all those lost tracks and unreleased scores.( SHAMUS and stuff...) Why isn't it possible to isolate them from the movies like they did with all those DVDs which includes isolated scores.Why do the labels need the tapes?
The "isolated" audio tracks on dvds or blu-ray ARE from music tapes. They are added as a separate audio channel, just like added commentary tracks.
Some older films of movies/shows have separate audio elements referred to as "stems" - a music-only or music+effects track. That's always an option to use as a last resort, but the labels seem reluctant to use them. I'd be perfectly happy with it, compared with nothing at all.
There's an old truism that you can't unscramble a scrambled egg. However, someone took it literally and invented a way to do that. I'm hoping that software advances will come up with a method to do this with soundtracks, if the tapes or stems are not available.
edit: I see Lokutus beat me to this while I was typing.
There's an old truism that you can't unscramble a scrambled egg. However, someone took it literally and invented a way to do that. I'm hoping that software advances will come up with a method to do this with soundtracks, if the tapes or stems are not available.
LLL unscrambled eggs with their release of "Star Trek: The Animated Series". Though, I admit the quality is pretty substandard. Love the music, so happy they made it available all the same.
There's an old truism that you can't unscramble a scrambled egg. However, someone took it literally and invented a way to do that. I'm hoping that software advances will come up with a method to do this with soundtracks, if the tapes or stems are not available.
LLL unscrambled eggs with their release of "Star Trek: The Animated Series". Though, I admit the quality is pretty substandard. Love the music, so happy they made it available all the same.
Well, no, they used stems.
Lukas Kendall wrote: "The only surviving masters were the mono music stems from the dialogue/FX/music tracks. We transferred all available episode DMEs and Neil Bulk meticulously collated all of the cues to get each one complete and in best-possible sound. Then Mike Matessino did the audio restoration. I think fans will be very happy with the sound and presentation. Incidentally I tried to do what Neil did and got around 2% of the job done before I threw up my hands, screaming mad. I don't know how he did it." https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=117628&forumID=1&archive=0
Thanks for all the responses. I was just wondering how LALALand did it with John Douglas´CRACK IN THE WORLD. If you listen carefully you still can hear distant dialogue. So I was hoping maybe they just "reduced" the dialogue somehow...
There's an old truism that you can't unscramble a scrambled egg. However, someone took it literally and invented a way to do that. I'm hoping that software advances will come up with a method to do this with soundtracks, if the tapes or stems are not available.
LLL unscrambled eggs with their release of "Star Trek: The Animated Series". Though, I admit the quality is pretty substandard. Love the music, so happy they made it available all the same.
Well, no, they used stems.
Lukas Kendall wrote: "The only surviving masters were the mono music stems from the dialogue/FX/music tracks. We transferred all available episode DMEs and Neil Bulk meticulously collated all of the cues to get each one complete and in best-possible sound. Then Mike Matessino did the audio restoration. I think fans will be very happy with the sound and presentation. Incidentally I tried to do what Neil did and got around 2% of the job done before I threw up my hands, screaming mad. I don't know how he did it." https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=117628&forumID=1&archive=0
I read that to mean they only had the music combined with the dialogue/FX tapes. Meaning they had to dial out the dialogue and FX leaving just the music. Theres no perfect way of doing this and even the best results on top of the line software leaves a lot to be desired. Soundtrack fans have been doing this for decades to varying degrees of success pulling scores off of home video. Like I said its like unscrambling eggs. I could be wrong and glad to be corrected.
Thanks for all the responses. I was just wondering how LALALand did it with John Douglas´CRACK IN THE WORLD. If you listen carefully you still can hear distant dialogue. So I was hoping maybe they just "reduced" the dialogue somehow...
They explained this in the board announcement for CRACK, as well as in the booklet. Some films had separate audio tracks for Dialog, Music, Effects (DME stems) rather than a single mixed audio track:
"NOTE: CRACK IN THE WORLD was sourced from 35mm, 3-track mono DME stems, and as a result, some dialogue bleed-through can be detected."
Audacity has a "remove vocals" tool which I have tinkered with a bit, it's far from perfect but can help to reduce the degree to which dialogue is audible, even if it does introduce other artifacts. Also the level of removal is user adjustable so one can play around with it.
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