NewRisingSun

Shawn Murphy doesn't record digitally. He's still using analog tape, according to "Chris Malone: Recording the Star Wars Saga. A Musical Journey from Scoring Stage to DVD".I used to describe Murphy recordings as having very muddy lows and mids, but acceptable highs. It wasn't until I discussed this with a sound engineer, who then pointed out to me that this description matches that of the Neumann M50 microphone: omni pattern at low and mid, but increasingly directional at higher frequencies --- giving a deliberately non-linear sound characteristic that some people (like me) loathe, while others are totally in love with it. He then suggested to me to find out what microphones Murphy uses. And indeed: According to "Music for the Menace", three Neumann M50s on his Decca Tree! Another reason why I still wish Eric Tomlinson had recorded the prequel trilogy, even though some on this board may hate him as well. Was there already an "Eric Tomlinson - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" thread?

Heh, that's the way I feel about Sean Murphy.

Like I said, I couldn't find them in the Internet, so I assumed they no longer exist. Apparently they don't consider it necessary to have a web presence, something I find very strange in itself.

I notice that there's a lot more unused music whenever Lucas doesn't direct himself. Unless I'm mistaken, TESB and ROTJ each have more unused music than ANH, TPM, AOTC or ROTS. Could it be that Williams only spotted the film with Lucas present, and when Kershner/Marquand heard the final product, they rejected some cues because they had something else in mind than Lucas, and they, being the directors, got the last word?

I have no problem with polishing up the effects, but some of the other stuff... the ridiculous Jawa-falls-from-Dewback scene... the unnecessary "Vader returns to the Executor, which just happens to look like the second death star from within, including Moff Jerrjerod (sp?) standing around" that completely destroys the mood of the "Hyperspace" music. At least they removed Luke's screaming for the DVD.

That's the Bill Gates response --- people disagree with me not because there's something to be disagreed with, but because they want to be "trendy".Do visible Matte lines on bad 80s' transfers reveal an unceasing desire for quality? Does a DVD with the music in the surround channels reversed reveal an unceasing desire for quality? Do badly-transferred and badly-mastered ROTJ SE CDs (see above) reveal an unceasing desire for quality? Does having to painstakingly restore the negative of your movie because you didn't archive it properly reveal an unceasing desire for quality? Does a DVD with a dialogue track that has its sound constantly switching between optical sound quality and magnetic sound quality reveal an unceasing desire for quality? This is not a case of disagreeing with his decisions, it's just a list of facts. I can understand Lucas' decisions from an economic point of view, and I'm the last person to speak badly of anyone legitimately trying to make some money, but the idea that Lucas is primarily motivated by a desire for quality is preposterous, sorry. It also doesn't answer my original question where Lucas' reputation of perfectionism comes from.

The ROTJ Special Edition CD is known to have been badly transferred and mastered. I notice "DigiPrep" is no longer in business (at least I can't find them on the internet). I wonder where that reputation of his comes from? It's never been deserved, in all those 30 years or so he's in the business.

Actually I always thought Tomlinson's recordings were "brilliant-sounding" --- while there were some flaws, as in tape hiss and overmodulation, he always managed to make it sound exciting and punchy, and that's what counts. No single rerecording, be it Charles Gerhardt's or Erich Kunzel's, or Williams' himself with Murphy engineering, manages to do that --- they all sound muddy, lightweight and just too... "ballet-like". In fact, the "Skywalker Symphony" recording, with Murphy as "Balance Engineer" ranks among the worst versions I have heard. Had Murphy rerecorded ROTJ completely during the "Victory Celebration" session, I'm sure I would have hated it. Also with regards to point 1 in my list, keep in mind that none of the soundtrack releases present the music as it was originally mixed. Who exactly told you this about the lost tapes? Chris Malone's article suggests bad Azimuth alignment as well as bad Dolby A calibration as reasons why ROTJ SE sounds so bad, and that explanation makes a lot more sense. To me, ROTJ SE basically sounds like the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade bootleg (minus the denoise artifacts), and since those tapes aren't lost, I would assume the same kind of incompetence in the ROTJ SE case as was in the LC bootleg case.Also, while using a copy of a copy does degrade the quality, it's nowhere as bad as losing almost all frequencies above 8 Khz.

A rerelease of the original trilogy soundtracks would be welcome if it had major enhancements over previous releases. What I would like to see: to two channels, thus a loss of depth and separation. A CD can never carry an original "film mix" because a film mix usually has at least three channels (left-center-right).Previous soundtrack releases performed this reduction in different ways: the original 1977 release mixed the center channel at approx. minus 3 dB (^=at 70%) --- Tomlinson: "diminishing the centre track a little bit - and you've got your two-track" --- into the left and right channels, whereas the Anthology and SE mix the center at approx. minus 6 dB (^=at 50%). Since the center carries direct timpani and woodwinds plus string and brass reflections, this is one reason why the later releases have quieter timpani and drier sound than the original album release. No dynamics compression, multiband or otherwise. Please! You're not mastering a Britney Spears CD. Original Tomlinson live mixes for all tracks. This should not be too hard, as they all seem to be available, as seen in the Special Edition (although it's unclear why Risner remixed some of the ESB cues). Proper Kenneth Wannberg edits of the best takes. The Special Edition got this *mostly* right, except for the start of "Imperial Attack" and "End Title". (Supposedly they used Wannberg's original paperwork --- either they didn't follow it properly, or the paperwork was incomplete in those cases.) Ideally, his edits would be re-done in digital to prevent the kind of clicks and dropouts heard in ESB's End Title and ROTJ's "Brother and Sister". No editing otherwise. Every recorded cue on a seperate track. If that means the album has 40+ tracks, so be it --- I have Japanese CDs that seem to have no problem with this. Yes, I also want to hear the "Throne Room" seperate from the "End Title" --- the End Title's beginning sounds really cool without the last note from "Throne Room". Anyone who wants to hear them together can always edit them together by himself, or listen to the film or previous releases. Original cue names found on the conductor's score, not renamed ones. And of course all cues, including the Max Reebo and Lapti Nek cues. Alternate versions/take only if they are fundamentally different, like "Binary Sunset". No need to include all eight takes (98-105) of "The Trash Compactor" (1) will of course only be possible with SACD or DVD-Audio. I personally prefer SACD, as creating a hybrid CD-DA/SACD will reach a wider audience. I think they already did an SACD version of E.T., so this should be not out of the question.