Jonny Boy

OneBuck, that is definitely a must-have for me. I wish we had that alternate statement of the main theme from the moment when the Enterprise warps in firing. I don't understand why the OST version of Nero Death Experience was reused on this set, since the film-version of "Hella Bar Talk" was is present. Kinda strange.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I haven't been able to get around to ToD, but I will be working on them in the next few days. As far as I can tell (and I'm having to use dvd rips and leaks) the 3 unreleased Raiders tracks are okay, which is strange. The leaked Raiders has some longer tails and pauses in places, but from a pitch standpoint, I haven't noticed any problems, though like I said, I haven't really been able to focus intently on it. ToD has far less in the way of pitch problems, though there are some obvious places, such as the finale from disc 5, which I've already posted. I'll get working asap.

Well, I was going to post my info, but I've been beat to the punch. Blast! Anyway, I used Sony Acid with the SFX pitch correction plugin, with anti-alias filter on and accuracy set to 3. I still have to correct "Washington Men/Indy's Home", "Bad Dates", and "Indy Rides The Statue", so those are forthcoming. I will be working on ToD soon. Hopefully I'll be able to finish in the next week or so. Credit should go to Jason LeBlanc for helping me with reference for unreleased material. still don't think there are any pitch problems in Last Crusade. I have a great ear, but it is possible I'm wrong. However, in comparison to the film, previous CD, and my own familiarity with the material, I believe its okay. If anyone else has noticed anything, please let us know. More to come...

The bootlegs I've heard recently seem to all be sharp/fast. I assume they are sourced from PAL-format dvd's. I haven't noticed any pitch problems in Last Crusade. I'm pretty sure no one has.

I use Sony Acid, with a VST pitch change plugin from the sonic sfx packs.

Temple of Doom needs pitch-correcting much more than Raiders... I know it has problems, but I haven't had much time to get to it. I had actually started with ToD on Return to the Village/Raiders March, and then I decided to go back and start with Raiders and finish that first. ToD will be tougher because of all of the unreleased cues. I'll have to compare between film/dvd rip, and bootlegs (eek) to make sure I'm getting it right, so it'll be a little tough, but my ears are pretty good, so hopefully I can zip through at a decent speed. I honestly can't believe that ToD is as bad as Raiders. I've not noticed too many glaring pitch problems. Most will probably not be too bad. If anyone has an idea of which tracks need help, let me know. I also want to clarify something. I'm not doing this to stick it to Concord, or to join in the bashing and criticism. On the contrary, I'm over the Moon with this set. I am happy that Concord went to the trouble to give us these wonderful scores in amazing clarity and with full, well-balanced mixes. I am only doing this because my own ears are constantly aware of the pitch problems, and it gets difficult to listen and enjoy the music when that is in the back of my mind. (One of the risks of being a musician and instructor, it can be difficult to turn off your criticism). I enjoy the properly adjusted cues. The only reason I have posted this stuff is because I've been reading the board for a while, and I wanted to contribute for those with sensitive ears like me.

Okay, I've just about finished pitch-correcting Raiders. Its definitely easier using the DCC as reference. The only tracks I haven't touched yet are the new ones: Washington Men/Indy's Home, Bad Dates, and Indy Rides the Statue. Since I have nothing but the movie to compare it to (I don't have the leaked Raiders) it might take a little longer to get them right, so give me a few days for the last 3 cues. Raiders of the Lost Ark 1. Main Title: South America, 1936 --- - 8.7 cents 2. The Idol Temple --- - 8.1 cents 3. Escape From The Temple --- - 4.1 cents 4. Flight From Peru --- - 6.2 cents 5. Washington Men / Indy's Home --- 6. Journey To Nepal --- - 10.9 cents 7. The Medallion --- - 3.7 cents 8. Flight To Cairo --- - 2.1 9. The Basket Game --- - 5 cents 10. Bad Dates --- 11. The Map Room: Dawn --- - 27 cents 12. Reunion in the Tent/Searching for the Well --- - 2.2 13. The Well Of The Souls --- - 12.7 cents (actually closer to 12.74, but impossible to acheive) 14. Indy Rides The Statue --- 15. The Flying Wing --- - 7.4 16. Desert Chase --- 0:00 - 2:08 --- - 1.8 cents 16. Desert Chase --- 2:08 - 5:33 --- - 4.9 cents 16. Desert Chase --- 5:33 - end --- - 14 cents 17. Marion's Theme --- - 8.1 18. The German Sub --- + 2.9 Cents (Yeah, its true.) 19. Ride To The Nazi Hideout --- - 4.5 Cents 20. Ark Trek --- - 2.2 Cents 21. The Miracle Of The Ark --- 0:00 - 1:20 --- - 8 cents (still in flux) 21. The Miracle Of The Ark --- 1:20 - end --- - 1.5 cents 22. Washington Ending/Raiders March --- - 4.5

It's definitely there, but it's such a high frequency that it's more of a subtle annoyance rather than an obvious gaffe. It gives me a headache, but its not blatantly conspicuous. It reminds me of those pet repeller things that use high frequencies to keep dogs away. I went to a friend's house one time and he had one. I was the only person that could hear the sound, and I had a really bad headache for hours. I wouldn't go back until they got rid of it.

Oops! Thanks for catching that Jason. I had cut and pasted that from an old list. You are correct about Short Round Helps. I listed it back in the thread somewhere. Short Round Helps --- 0:00 - 1:15 + 7.5 cents As for Journey To Nepal, I set that against the DCC cue to get the pitch to match, but I'll recheck to see if I made any mistakes. Thanks again. EDIT: A Thought For Marion is indeed out of tune as well. The original number is correct. Can you let me know which other tracks are constructed this way, so I can check each section?

For those that are interested, updated pitch corrections. Raiders of the Lost Ark 1. In The Jungle --- - 8.7 cents 2. The Idol Temple --- - 8.1 cents 3. Escape From The Temple --- - 4.1 cents 4. Flight From Peru --- - 6.2 cents 5. Journey To Nepal --- - 10.9 cents 6. The Medallion --- - 3.7 cents 7. Flight To Cairo --- - 2.1 The Map Room: Dawn --- - 27 cents Desert Chase --- 0:00 - 2:08 --- - 1.8 cents Desert Chase --- 2:08 - 5:33 --- - 4.9 cents Desert Chase --- 5:33 - end --- - 14 cents Temple of Doom Short Round Helps --- + 7.5 cents Return To The Village --- + 11.1 cents End Credits --- - 7.7 cents

"The Boat Scene", and the last statement in "Desert Chase". Oh, and I really like the woodwind performance of it in "Journey to Akator".

Jonny, this is great stuff, keep it coming! Thanks Jason. I do plan on continuing, but I might have to give my ears a rest for a day or two at least. Its starting to all run together. I definitely finished the entire Return to the Village/End Credits sequence. The pitch corrections seem right on, at least to my ear. Right in the pocket. Return to the Village --- + 11.5 cents / + 0.115 End Credits --- - 7.7 cents / - 0.077 Next, I want to go through Raiders and find all of the tracks that need correcting. I don't think every track needs it, but some sound a little sharp/fast to me. If anyone has a list of the tracks that are off pitch, please post it. The first thing I'm doing before that is to finish Temple of Doom. Only the first portion of Short Round Helps from the beginning to about 1:15 or so needs pitch correcting. The rest sounds okay to me as compared to the movie. I'm really happy with the results I've gotten. The tracks still sound crisp and clear, and I can't detect any noticeable loss of clarity from the pitch correction. The mix on these discs really is superb.

This has been an amazing year for film score fans. And what were the odds of book-ending the year with two wonderful John Williams boxsets?

That's one of the reasons, but there are plenty more. The main advantages are greater control over the performance and resulting recording, the ability to make corrections to a smaller section of music rather than re-recording an entire cue, and simply to allow the musicians to provide a better performance. Its easier to sustain a good performance within smaller chunks of a cue than to try and maintain the intensity and quality of a performance over a longer period of time. Playing even a few minutes of music can be daunting at times, depending on the piece. One of my favorite band pieces is Esprit De Corps by Robert Jager. Its fun as hell to play, and incredibly complicated. By the end of that piece, which is only about 5 minutes long, you're out of breath. Its awesome, but not practical when recording a film score. That's not to say it can't be done, or that the musicians can't handle it. Far from it. It just makes things easier. There's also the added advantage of having separate pieces of music to reassemble into a different sequence. As terrible as the re-cutting of the SW prequel scores sounds, its very likely that many of those individual sections were indeed recorded separately. It all comes down to the needs of the Composer, Conductor, Orchestra, and Director, and what gives them the most options when editing the score. It's a misconception that the structure of cues has anything to do with performance considerations. The cues are done depending on when locked picture is given to a composer to work on and the reason they are usually kept to a manageable length is so that the composer can let the orchestrator, copyists, and music editor get going while he continues to work. Quite often the copyists are preparing the individual parts for cues just a day before they're recorded, and scheduling would become a problem if sessions had to wait for long cues to be composed, orchestrated, and copied. Performance is not really much of a concern in film scoring because multiple takes are done and mistakes can be fixed by editing and recording pickups, but it's true that avoiding exceedingly long single cues does keep mistakes to a minimum. I meant to say that! But I was referring to the practice of recording, say, a 32 bar phrase within a single cue, as opposed to a single section of music composed during the previous day to keep on schedule. Even recording a rewritten 1 minute cue, its is possible that the composer/conductor might decide to cut at bar 8 or 24 or 32, or at the end of some other phrase, where perhaps a note is sustained, and begin at that point for the next section. Hence the fact that some cues that are edited together in the film (and were intended to be combined) have clean endings. Obviously this isn't done EVERY time, as it would be impractical to keep stopping and starting every phrase, but it is another method, and there are of course a number of reasons why they might choose to record a single phrase separately, when it isn't necessarily going to be heard (or even intended to be heard) that way. It all comes down to giving everyone the most control over the music when recording to picture, and editing to picture.

That's one of the reasons, but there are plenty more. The main advantages are greater control over the performance and resulting recording, the ability to make corrections to a smaller section of music rather than re-recording an entire cue, and simply to allow the musicians to provide a better performance. Its easier to sustain a good performance within smaller chunks of a cue than to try and maintain the intensity and quality of a performance over a longer period of time. Playing even a few minutes of music can be daunting at times, depending on the piece. One of my favorite band pieces is Esprit De Corps by Robert Jager. Its fun as hell to play, and incredibly complicated. By the end of that piece, which is only about 5 minutes long, you're out of breath. Its awesome, but not practical when recording a film score. That's not to say it can't be done, or that the musicians can't handle it. Far from it. It just makes things easier. There's also the added advantage of having separate pieces of music to reassemble into a different sequence. As terrible as the re-cutting of the SW prequel scores sounds, its very likely that many of those individual sections were indeed recorded separately. It all comes down to the needs of the Composer, Conductor, Orchestra, and Director, and what gives them the most options when editing the score.