Now that we have LLL's "The John Williams Jurassic Park Collection," are the OS albums of both scores obsolete?

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

8 hours ago, Josh500 said:

Sound quality. 

 

The bad ones: A.I., Minority Report, Attack of the Clones, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter 1 and 2...

 

The good ones: Harry Potter 3, The Terminal, JFK, Tintin, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Revenge of the Sith...

Too much reverb.  

[Datameister 2,042]

1 hour ago, Rose Dawson said:

I want everything to sound like Star Trek V or Masters of the Universe.

 

The Trek V expanded release sounds fantastic...except for the reverb tails. They've got this artificial-sounding quaver to them. TMP got the same treatment, by the sound of it. I notice it especially after snare drum hits.

[Josh500 1,615]

3 hours ago, artguy360 said:

I see what you're saying, I'm just not hearing a difference. Can you listen to Dobby the House Elf from HP2 and really tell me you can't hear all the different voicings? The clarity of the recording equals anything in HP3 imo.

 

Well, sure, the difference is subtle, but it's my opinion that overall HP3 is best. It's like they learned from each movie, and got progressively better. HP2 is better than HP1, and HP3 sounds best of all to me ears.

2 hours ago, Datameister said:

That's interesting that you want to hear every instrument distinctly, with no distance between "you" (AKA the mic) and them, and no blending of the timbres. That's definitely not what I look for in most music. I like to feel as though I'm sitting near the front of the audience in a voluminous concert hall, with the different instruments achieving a vibrant, blended sound that trails off a bit as it reverberates. (I fully realize and appreciate that in most score recordings, any such reverb is going to be artificial.)

 

This could explain some of our differences. KOTCS and Tintin are certainly drier than the Potter albums, and ROTS's percussion is much "closer" than in the other prequel scores. (I should think your gold standard would be the ANH SE, though - that's about as dry and close-miced as you'll find in a Williams recording.)

 

(As for hiss, it doesn't really move the needle for me at AOTC-like levels. Heavier hiss like you might hear on some old, poorly-preserved scores is more distracting to me.)

 

Well said! 

 

I agree with you to a large degree. But you say "dry" like it's a bad thing. It's really not. It's just a preference in a certain type of sound... And I've come to believe that the folks involved make a conscious effort and decision to achieve this type of sound, based on the type of score. And I think there are many great and wonderful examples of this kind of recording from the JW repertoire.

37 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Too much reverb.  

No, I don't think that at all.

 

This and CMIYC have some of the best sound qualities, imo.

[artguy360 1,843]

It sounds like you enjoy hearing all the parts of the orchestra from the same distance, as you say as if you have a front row seat. To my ears that kind of very dry, over-mic'd mix can sound artificial. I prefer a slight reverb and a mix where the instruments are at different distances and have room to breathe. Possibly HP 1 and 2 are more of the latter and HP 3 more of the former but I still think that is more down to the writing and orchestration.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

7 hours ago, crumbs said:

A.I. and AOTC were two of the first digital recordings that Murphy did for Williams -- if not the first two entirely? Could explain why they sound so muddy and hissy at times. 

 

Interesting that the pre-release leaked MP3s for AOTC didn't have the hiss though, indicating this was an OST mastering problem more than a recording one.

 

I do wonder if the hiss is also present on the digital release of the album. Someone should download the Hi-Res files from a website like Qobuz to see if there's hiss on those too!

 

Come on, crumbs! Do it for us!

[crumbs 14,315]

I'm a bit skeptical of whatever "remastering" they did on the prequels. They likely just took the existing album masters before they were compressed for compact disc. I don't think there's much room for improvement unless they actually go back to the mix tapes and re-do them.

 

Now, if the remastered TPM OST sounds closer to the glorious sounding UE, it might be worth the purchase.

 

EDIT: Looks like TPM was the only "remastered" prequel in that set; AOTC & ROTS were just the previous 44.1kHz album masters untouched. Disappointing, considering at least ROTS was recorded digitally at 24bit/192kHz. Seems to be conflicting reports on whether AOTC was an analogue or digital recording.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

11 hours ago, Josh500 said:

Well,I'm not saying they sound horrible. But Azkaban sounds a lot better than HP 1 and 2. So 1 and 2 could have been better, imo, especially since they were recorded by the LSO (or its members).

 

HP1 and 2 were recorded by Simon Rhodes, who has plenty of experience as a recording engineer of (also) classical music for labels like EMI. The first Potter score is probably the most natural sounding orchestral soundtrack recording I've heard this millennium.

 

While HP3 also sounds great, it was the first great sounding Murphy recording for Williams in years, including a streak of really bad ones.

[Datameister 2,042]

9 hours ago, Josh500 said:

I agree with you to a large degree. But you say "dry" like it's a bad thing. It's really not. It's just a preference in a certain type of sound... And I've come to believe that the folks involved make a conscious effort and decision to achieve this type of sound, based on the type of score. And I think there are many great and wonderful examples of this kind of recording from the JW repertoire.

 

My use of the word "dry" wasn't intended as a value judgment - that's just a word that's used to describe a sound with very little reverb (or other effects). And you're right that it's a perfectly valid preference. This may partially explain our differences with JP, too - while the equalization, jarring edits, and compression are my biggest concerns with the LLL set, I also prefer the slightly wetter reverb on the OST. Makes sense that you wouldn't. 

 

I'll also add that while the reverb here doesn't sound "muddy" to me, I've definitely heard some albums where that's the case - especially some of Silva's City of Prague Philharmonic recordings. So I suppose it's mainly a difference of where you draw the line. 

 

Fascinating stuff!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Jarring edits?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Forget it, Stiff. It's deiremaister!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I prefer moist recordings.   The brass must by juicy, the strings must be soggy, and oh man the woodwinds must be steamy.  I want fluid literally dripping out of my speakers.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Like Shore's LOTR?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

The humidity actually rises outside when I play the LOTR soundtracks.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I do love that thick sound of LOTR. It like soup!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Wetter than you think... *shudder*

[Datameister 2,042]

5 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Jarring edits?

 

I don't remember which tracks they were in and can't be arsed to listen through for them again, but there were two (?) unusually hard, noticeable cuts between different takes. Maybe in Dennis Steals the Embryos? One of the quiet celeste-based cues? Anyway, I was surprised - I can't remember the last time I heard anything like that in a release from one of the boutique labels, and the OST certainly doesn't have that issue. Fortunately, none of the unreleased music was affected.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Henry Sítrónu 494]

To answer this thread's question: With Track 16, End Credits, the OS album of Jurassic Park offers a clean intro to the adventurous theme!