DRACULA - 2018 Varese Deluxe Edition Produced by Mike Matessino

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

1 hour ago, thx99 said:

 

Well that still might be true.  We don't yet know the source(s) that MM used for this release.

 

Re-recordings by The City of Prague Philharmonics, transcribed by ear.

[rough cut 1,714]

Agreed - ”preferring one over the other isn't necessarily saying anything bad about the other.”

 

And on top of that it’s ok to disagree about taste. We can all like what we like. Even if we don’t agree, I can still enjoy what I like and you what you like.

 

We agree on this however: expanded Dracula will be a fine release!

[Demondm810 399]

Pretty cool, now we have complete (mostly)? releases of every score in William's best period.  From Jaws- ET?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,508]

3 hours ago, Bespin said:

😍 Come to papa, I already made you a place!!! 😍

 

This is fantas- now, just a damn minute!

What's this? THOMAS AND THE KING inbetween RAIDERS... and E.T.? 

 

 

 

 

 

Am I missing something? Is it missing the "mine" music?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

29 minutes ago, Demondm810 said:

Pretty cool, now we have complete (mostly)? releases of every score in William's best period.  From Jaws- Temple of Doom?

 

Fixed.

[Faleel 5,342]

Just now, Disco Stu said:

 

Fixed.

We have a complete release of that?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Nope.  But it’s the end of the classic period he referenced.

[Brundlefly 2,385]

How many people have the new cover as profile picture? I count at least four.

 

45 minutes ago, Demondm810 said:

Pretty cool, now we have complete (mostly)? releases of every score in William's best period.  From Jaws- ET?

The eighties are still very needy, mostly due to SW and IJ.

 

25 minutes ago, Richard said:

This is fantas- now, just a damn minute!

What's this? THOMAS AND THE KING inbetween RAIDERS... and E.T.? 

He bought the demasters. Kill him!

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

I considered changing my avatar to Count Von Count, but I'm still fond of Sigourney Weaver for the time being.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

3 minutes ago, kaseykockroach said:

I considered changing my avatar to Count Von Count, but I'm still fond of Sigourney Weaver for the time being.

 

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

Do I want to know what that's from?

[Marian Schedenig 8,178]

One for the books indeed.

[fuhrsy31 18]

I have the vinyl and the old cd. The vinyl kicks it's ass. I instantly ordered this deluxe edition. It will be great!

[Bryant Burnette 654]

I'd just gotten some food I'd ordered and was about to start eating when I saw this.  That food had to fucking wait a few minutes for me to place a CD order.

[Nemesis 244]

Wow, that's fantastic news! Just ordered.

[crumbs 14,305]

Amazing! Cannot wait to hear the technical details behind this release. Like Alien 3, the existence of Dracula's scoring sessions has been shrouded in myth for years decades now. Hopefully they didn't need to resort to film stems for any cues but I'm confident, with the genius Matessino producing, this will surely be as good as Dracula has ever sounded (and probably ever will). If they actually found the first-generation session masters I'll be elated.

 

What a stunning year so far for Williams fans. A complete isolated score for The Last Jedi, two brand news Star Wars concert suites (Solo & Han Solo and the Princess), complete Saving Private Ryan, complete Schindler's List, complete The Cowboys, complete Dracula, complete Superman, and perhaps something else up LLL's sleeve...

[King Mark 3,626]

I'm checking this thread to make sure I didn't dream it up during my nap

 

PS  :If anyone can draw proper fangs on my Avater PM me a picture

[JohnnyD 1,221]

Wow! Phenomenal, and perfect for Halloween. Funny, as I watched the film a few days ago. Ordered, of course.

[Bespin 8,480]

3 hours ago, Richard said:

This is fantas- now, just a damn minute!

What's this? THOMAS AND THE KING inbetween RAIDERS... and E.T.? 

 

 

 

 

 

Am I missing something? Is it missing the "mine" music?

 

Mine what? Where do you place Thomas and the King?

[crumbs 14,305]

What happened to her blouse?! 😅

 

 

[SteveMc 2,674]

Hmph, remastered indeed.

[Corellian2019 384]

50 minutes ago, crumbs said:

Cannot wait to hear the technical details behind this release. Like Alien 3, the existence of Dracula's scoring sessions has been shrouded in myth for years decades now.

 

Good comparison, but it's interesting to examine how Dracula was hit harder by dire rumors. Alien³'s tapes were simply misplaced (although we didn't know it at the time), whereas it was speculated that Dracula's tapes were lost in a fire, and/or only existed in bad-sounding mono backups. Heck, even James Fitzpatrick was prevented from re-recording the score!

 

At any rate, good thing both sets were produced by MM!

 

[crumbs 14,305]

They've uploaded a new sample in place of that broken link. They now have For Mina in the film music presentation.

 

I'm not familiar with the score but whatever the sample includes it seems to have a clean opening and ending. It seems to match the opening 2:13 of the equivalent OST track, yet the overall track is 7 seconds longer in the film presentation.

 

I guess we can deduct that Matessino kept the chronology of the OST track (perhaps a Williams request) but added separation between the two cues, hence that track's longer runtime -- 7 seconds longer than the OST track. This means they can be separated and placed in chronological order, if preferred.

 

Also, unless I'm mistaken, there's a section of previously unreleased music in the sample of Dracula's Death which sounds as good as the surrounding music, so they seem to have found a pretty good source for this release.

[A. A. Ron 1,741]

2 hours ago, Bryant Burnette said:

I'd just gotten some food I'd ordered and was about to start eating when I saw this.  That food had to fucking wait a few minutes for me to place a CD order.

 

I did the exact same thing!

[Amer 2,080]

7 hours ago, Jay said:

For some reason, I forgot for a long time that Dracula is one of the Williams/LSO collaborations. Probably because the OST CD sounded so muddy! So great to have this epic collaboration finally given its justice.

 

 

You must be real glad to have this set now. It was the grail of your collection. I'll be glad to toss out my old Varese cd.

 

if you and other JWFANs are in London, it would be great if you guys did some sort of a panel discussion in hotel lobby if Mike Matessino is also attending?

1 hour ago, crumbs said:

They've uploaded a new sample in place of that broken link. They now have For Mina in the film music presentation.

 

I'm not familiar with the score but whatever the sample includes it seems to have a clean opening and ending. It seems to match the opening 2:13 of the equivalent OST track, yet the overall track is 7 seconds longer in the film presentation.

 

I guess we can deduct that Matessino kept the chronology of the OST track (perhaps a Williams request) but added separation between the two cues, hence that track's longer runtime -- 7 seconds longer than the OST track. This means they can be separated and placed in chronological order, if preferred.

 

Also, unless I'm mistaken, there's a section of previously unreleased music in the sample of Dracula's Death which sounds as good as the surrounding music, so they seem to have found a pretty good source for this release.

 

I was actually watching the movie in its anticipation over the weekend and noticed how clear the music sounded on the DVD release (as compared to the awful muddy Varese cd). Although some cues are lost in the beginning of the movie behind the sound effects. I also noticed some cues were dialled in late which means there was indeed more music not used in the film. So I'am glad this set will address these as well, 

 

Most eager to learn how this 'lost Ark' was resurrected and restored by our dear friend Mike Matessino.  

 

[crumbs 14,305]

I'm guessing they found a second-generation 1/4 inch stereo downmix of the multi-tracks, or something.

 

Very curious to find out if the OST assembly on disc 2 was recreated from scratch using the same elements as the film score presentation, or whether they found the original OST master and remastered that?

 

The quality difference is striking... albeit I'm comparing to YouTube clips of the previous OST release. Matessino has struck gold here. Congrats to Mike and the team at Varese on this holy grail!

[Nick Parker 3,040]

6 minutes ago, crumbs said:

or whether they found the original OST master and remastered that?

 

The press release states it was done with a new source. 

[Amer 2,080]

4 minutes ago, crumbs said:

I'm guessing they found a second generation stereo 1/4 inch stereo downmix or something.

 

Very curious to find out if the OST assembly on disc 2 was recreated from scratch using the same elements as the film score presentation, or whether they found the original OST master and remastered that?

 

The quality difference is striking... albeit I'm comparing to YouTube clips of the previous OST release. Matessino has struck gold here. Congrats to Mike and the team at Varese on this holy grail!

 

From the samples it looks like a 3 channel stereo mix tape (Left, right and center).What ever magic Matessino has applied kudos to him for making it sound so good. 

 

 

[Faleel 5,342]

8 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

 

The press release states it was done with a new source. 

Doesn't mean that it can't be a new source for the OST master

[Nick Parker 3,040]

8 minutes ago, Falafel said:

Doesn't mean that it can't be a new source for the OST master

 

It says new master, new source! 

[Holko 9,499]

OK, I stood in line, Silly McCoy pushed Uncle Béla out.

[crumbs 14,305]

2 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

The press release states it was done with a new source. 

 

That's true but it doesn't state if this "new master from a new source" was a new scan of an OST master or whether Matessino recreated the OST assembly using whatever source was used to create the film score assembly.

 

Alternatively, we don't know if the film score assembly was created using an OST master, with another source used to "fill in the blanks" for anything not on the OST.

 

Can't wait to read the liner notes which will surely explain everything. It's doubly interesting with older scores like this, especially when urban legend states the score was burnt to ash in the Universal backlot fire!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

2 minutes ago, crumbs said:

especially when urban legend states the score was burnt to ash in the Universal backlot fire!

 

The rumour that Dracula's tapes were destroyed are far older then the Universal backlot fire actually.

[crumbs 14,305]

12 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

The rumour that Dracula's tapes were destroyed are far older then the Universal backlot fire actually. 

 

Interesting, care to elaborate?

 

I'm sure I read a recent, more disturbing rumour (maybe a year ago) that was specific to Dracula. That apparently there was no hope of recovering the master tapes because they had been destroyed/lost soon after the recording itself. Something to do with the recording studio undergoing new management around the time of recording the score, with a disregard for preservation or archiving of tapes, instead opting to dispose or reuse tapes where possible.

 

It was on FSM I think. I'll try and find it.

[publicist 4,643]

Though often copies were made und turn up later in the unlikeliest places (see 'Legend'). So just because the front office reports that tapes are missing is never reason to give up hope *finger crossed for these Peter Proud tapes!

[Jay 37,323]

Yes, I never heard any connection between the Universal fire and Dracula before.

 

People forget that the fire was in a building for Universal Music, not Universal Studios. Huge difference.

 

For example, with Jaws, the master for the OST LP re-recordings would have been there, which is why they couldn't rebuild that for the Intrada CD. But the film recordings were fine.

 

Same basic deal for ET. All the film recordings were fine, but because they wrote MCA Records instead of Universal Pictures on the paperwork for the final day of sessions (when they recorded the five album concert arrangements and the Stay With Me insert), those master tapes went to Universal Music instead of Universal Studios and got burned up instead of preserved like all the other cues.

 

I honestly have no clue if the fire affected anything with Dracula at all. Being made in England, the tapes could have always all been over there. I don't know.

[aescalle 122]

OMG !!!!!!!

I can't believe

 

Please pinch me !!!!!

[Holko 9,499]

Yeah, the tapes being overwritten out of carelessness was the most prevalent rumour I've heard of.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

5 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

Interesting, care to elaborate?

 

I'm sure I read a recent, more disturbing rumour (maybe a year ago) that was specific to Dracula. That apparently there was no hope of recording the master tapes because they had been destroyed/lost soon after the recording itself. Something to do with the recording studio undergoing new management around the time of recording, with a disregard for preservation or archiving of tapes, instead opting to dispose or reuse tapes where possible.

 

It was on FSM I think. I'll try and find it.

 

This was the case with Jane Eyre.

[crumbs 14,305]

Interesting exchange on FSM back in 2015:

 

Quote

I was going to record DRACULA last year...but was told by a "good" source that the tapes were all found and that Varese would be doing it ???

JamesFitz

 

Quote

Yes, bad sounding mono tapes that the rights holders rightfully don't want to master and release.
MV

 

Quote

And don't forget Universal had that major fire several years back and lot of stock went up in smoke.

Not saying Dracula was one of them, but it could have been. I know the company that does have the rights wants to continue their search and find the best elements possible. Hopefully they will some day (perhaps they have already. My intel dates back about 6 months ago).

Until then a brand new re-recording would be most welcome.

MV

 

Quote

This "good source" now says they might have been mistaken ... and that still only Mono elements have been found..... apologies for getting people excited ... but that i s why I decided against re-ercording Dracula...now "who knows"

JamesFitz

 

http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=107799&forumID=1&archive=0

[publicist 4,643]

Like in 'Legend's case it wouldn't surprise me when copies were found in someone's garage.

[aescalle 122]

ORDERED!

[crumbs 14,305]

3 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

This was the case with Jane Eyre.

 

Ah, I knew it was either Dracula or Jane Eyre.

 

So it's Jane Eyre that appears to be truly lost. Just terrible. But at least we've gotten Dracula, which is just fantastic news!

[Arpy 4,145]

I haven't seen Dracula and haven't heard the score outside of the concert piece. Is the film worth watching?

 

One day years from now after finally watching the film I'll be like: 'fuck, I should've bought Dracula!'

[crumbs 14,305]

I'd love to know that too. Would happily watch it but it seems the Bluray is a bit of a visual mess. Supposedly the director pulled a 'Yates' and drained all colour from the film when it was remastered, preferring a more 'sepia' visual approach when it was originally filled with deep, rich colours.

 

 

[12-Mile Reef 123]

12 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

Ah, I knew it was either Dracula or Jane Eyre.

 

So it's Jane Eyre that appears to be truly lost. Just terrible. But at least we've gotten Dracula, which is just fantastic news!

 

How much music is missing from the original Jane Eyre album?

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

5 minutes ago, crumbs said:

I'd love to know that too. Would happily watch it but it seems the Bluray is a bit of a visual mess. Supposedly the director pulled a 'Yates' and drained all colour from the film when it was remastered, preferring a more 'sepia' visual approach when it was originally filled with deep, rich colours.

 

 

 

What an idiot!

[publicist 4,643]

6 minutes ago, John Chambers said:

 

How much music is missing from the original Jane Eyre album?

 

Probably not more than 10 minutes, going by the movie.

[crumbs 14,305]

9 minutes ago, John Chambers said:

How much music is missing from the original Jane Eyre album?

 

I don't think we have any way of knowing exactly how much is lost because the studio threw out JW's sheet music!

 

I remember reading an interview where Williams discussed having to transcribe the main theme by ear (!) when tasked with creating a concert suite for that score, because the studio lost all his sheet music. Hence the score can't even be re-recorded, because there's no sheet music to use as a guide (nor any way of knowing what alternates Williams wrote or how many cues were recorded but ultimately unused).

 

Needless to say, that was one of the big contributing factors to Williams keeping all his sheet music in his personal collection (leather bound, no less).

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

2 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

Probably not more than 10 minutes, going by the movie.

 

...plus what's surely hours of unused music, judging by the interest for a complete release.