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Home Alone 2 - Why does it sound so bad?


InTheCity

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The whole thing seems disjointed recording wise - lots of mistakes.

Not a very tight performance.

Poor mix.

Any reasons why JW fans?

I've always wondered.

PS not the writing which is sublime

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I think Home Alone 2's score sounds fine, at least Varèse Deluxe Edition does. The sound quality matches to that of the LLL disc for the first Home Alone score, at least it does in my opinion.

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If we are talking about the original score release, there were some problems with speed, and I believe it was sourced from a copy, or second master? I don't recall any glaring sound quality issues, though. The Varese Deluxe is absolutely fantastic.

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Maybe the OP has it in 128 kbps MP3 or something? :)

I can't hear anything wrong with the Varèse Deluxe either. But then I'm no audiophile so what I'm doing in this thread is beyond me.

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I also have to admit I have always thought the Home Alone 2 Deluxe Edition sounds extremely good. The original album if I remember correctly had pitch or speed issues that were corrected for the Deluxe Edition.

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Oh, of the 70s scores... yes.

I also think (and I am probably the only one who thinks so) Jaws 2 sounds extremely good.

Certainly better than Raiders, ToD, and every non-prequel SW scores. (Again, I am talking about the sound quality.)

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The Ultimate Edition of TPM is probably the best sound quality for an official JW reelase. Too bad it was the edited film version of the score and not the unedited cues!

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The Ultimate Edition of TPM is probably the best sound quality for an official JW reelase. Too bad it was the edited film version of the score and not the unedited cues!

You are so right. Sometimes, I put in Disc 2 and turn the speakers way up and let it play through. It brings back to a time I didn't care as much about edits and complete releases... and was happy to have the battle music and Qui-Gon/Maul's duel with the ending French Horn notes. Ah, to be young and naive again. :lsvader:

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Guys, I think InTheCity was mostly talking about the performance of the orchestra, not the sound quality.

I have never had a bad thing to say about that either. Makes me wonder how good my hearing or demand for quality playing is. :huh:

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I am listening beyond the quality of the source. I guess I am power listening.

Does any one have information on the mixer/recording location/programmer/engineer/master/editor etc... for HA 2 vs HA 1? As a child my friend sang on HA 2 @ Sony so I am pretty sure it is the same place.

Something is different and I am positive on it. It's not well balanced like a normal John Williams score.

Examples:

* Of course the blatant wrong note in Star of Bethlehem.

* Also I hear chorus singing mistakingly at 2:43 on this track - also a pop. This whole section sounds bad compared to the original

*Listen to the drum kit on "Setting the Trap" HA1 - compare this to "Christmas Star" HA 2 - way worse

*Listen to the section @ 2.50 on this track. Whats up with the timpani? It has no bass at all - its in no man's land

* Trumpets stick out (too loud) on every cue. A good example of this is "Christmas Star" listen @ 3:30 - way too loud trumpets

etc...

I could pick out more.

Someone confirm these?

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It's not just a williams thing guys - trumpets are out of place on this part of the album - and not in others.

I am going to bet this was a very rushed production.

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It's not just a williams thing guys - trumpets are out of place on this part of the album - and not in others.

I am going to bet this was a very rushed production.

Both versions?

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*Listen to the drum kit on "Setting the Trap" HA1 - compare this to "Christmas Star" HA 2 - way worse

I'm not sure that comparing a cue from Home Alone 1 and another one from Home Alone 2 and then claiming one of them is wrong is a very bright thing to do.

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I can assure you 1 > 2.

Sticking to my guns.

Waiting for other people to double check my points - if the chorus is confirmed I think we can consider this a "strange" album.

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Waiting for other people to double check my points - if the chorus is confirmed I think we can consider this a "strange" album.

"We" can consider that you're trolling around with issues reaching far beyond JW soundtrack albums.

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What?

No trolling involved. Only thing is I have professional grade audio chain here - it might make things more apparent to me (not to brag but just to state a fact).

Someone just listen to that star of bethlehem track and tell me if you hear the chorus.

Hopefully the other edition is better mix and I will just get that.

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The score is mostly a re-arrangement of the one for the first film. Made for a film that was made with the least amount of effort to squeeze some easy money out of the folks that made Home Alone the most successfully film ever.

It's not a quality product.

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What?

No trolling involved. Only thing is I have professional grade audio chain here - it might make things more apparent to me (not to brag but just to state a fact).

Someone just listen to that star of bethlehem track and tell me if you hear the chorus.

Hopefully the other edition is better mix and I will just get that.

Again, which album are you referring to? Original FOX issue? and which Home Alone 1 album are you referring to?

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I was talking about the sound quality. ;)

CE?? Really?

Seriously. CE3K sounds great. As does Rosewood.

if the chorus is confirmed I think we can consider this a "strange" album.

What about the wrong choir solo note in Carol of the Bells from HA1? ;)

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The score is mostly a re-arrangement of the one for the first film.

No it's not! There's too much original music to simply brush it off as a rehash of the first score. I've never agreed with this.

It sounds good, although as I mentioned in the loudness wars thread a while back, it's too loud. I also dig the performance.

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Have you listened to the Star Of Bethlehem as used in the church scene in Home Alone 1 recently? LOL...the poor Glock player is sooo bad they don't even include it in the album mix.

1 point for Griffendor--I mean Home Alone II

Listen to the choir direction in "Christmas Star" from home alone II. Clean consonants. Very together. I don't hear the people singing at 2:43 though... I do hear williams "umphing" the horns though.

2 points to home Alone II

But I think that all albums suffer from wrong notes. If you ever listen and compare to the actual score, I've found a myriad of instances where instruments come in late or don't play at all...things like that which vary from performance to performance. That's the BEAUTY of a live performance though. Its never the same.

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The choir (men) starts singing the next verse - you can hear them panned left.

I have the fox for all.

I am surprised you guys don't ear these.

Does anyone hear the click pop at 2:42 to 2:43? That is the beginning of the chorus entrance which lasts for 2 seconds. Men singing at mp while the band is at FF.

Guarantee it is there.

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Perhaps we need to be more specific. I'm listening to "Star of Bethlehem," disc 2, track 14 from the Varese release at [2:43]... right after the cut off and the horns start up... Because the whole rest of that track no one sings...

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My album has 19 tracks - I lost all my CD's in 2005 during a move - I only have mp3s.

You might need to listen "harder" on a commercial system. Or it simply might not be there on the re-release.

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aha! So you're listening to the Album release... which I do not own. I only have the Expanded Edition which is a two disc set that has pretty much everything on it. It's been remixed and remastered and sounds BRILLIANT!

They may also use different takes of tracks than whats on the album too so that could alleviate what you're hearing too. As for pops it could also be a cd rip error.

I have a damn good ear and it drives people on this board crazy lol :-p...I think I drove Mike Matession crazy too when I asked why the expanded Home Alone set wasn't made from the original masters and instead is a hybrid of the Album masters and some secondary/tertiary copy of the masters. lol

If I get my hands on the album, I'll give it a listen and let you know my thoughts :-)

EDIT:

Hang on... 19 tracks is the Home Alone album...I'm talking Home Alone II... or did I completely misinterpret this thread,...

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Two things though: you're listening to the outdated album and not to the Varèse album; and, well, you're listening to MP3s on a professional grade audio chain?

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I don't have that album to compare but I will say original album releases by Williams are never amazing. It's only when they do something special for them like they did for Home Alone II do they sound much better... hence why I spend so much time redoing all my album recordings.

There are only a few Williams albums that sound amazing. Home Alone II, and despite its grevious flaws, I think that the UE of Episode I has an AMAZING mixing job...hell...amazing editing job (even though I hate that they edited anything at all lol). Those are the best ones... of ALL the works he's done...THOSE... the SE of STAR WARS is my next favourite... followed closely by the Anthology Box Set of the Original Star Wars scores.... but what do you notice in all these cases? They are NOT album releases...they are special edition releases... which, as you should be well aware of, is the nature of the "Album" beast... trying to maximize sound and balance to be able to be heard on most systems without clipping or crackling... most people utilize some sort of bass/trbl boost on their radio/iPod/etc so the albums automatically are lacking in these ranges... its kinda sad. makes me miss LP's.

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I disagree the only album that I really ever heard from JW that sounds bad is this one. The rest of them sound amazing - neigh perfect.

This one has always stood out to me, even in the movie. I was just trying to research why.

I doubt their is much difference between an album mix and a special release mix.

If someone sends me the track in question I will check to see if the SE of this track is fixed.

PS the clip I am referring to is a pro tools click or the tape equivalent in this case since I think the last score JW did to tape was CMIYC. It happens when a new sound source is introduced and the first bit of the sound isn't at unity 0.

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Sounds like you have the original 19 track release, not the 2 disc set from Varese that has 33 tracks.

The original release has some defects.

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Man I don't even know where my original Home Alone 2 cd is. I'm interested to listen now, but I have a better chance of finding the corpse of Jimmy Hoffa.

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