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Remasters of the First 6 Star Wars Soundtracks now available (Shawn Murphy / Disney Records 2018)


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Isn't a large part of the appeal of lps the ARTWORK?

On 11/1/2020 at 8:08 AM, Jurassic Shark said:

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C'mon, Holko, now you're not being any better than how you claim Thor to be, only the opposite.

We need to get Hulko enrolled in an anger management program.

Or, at least buy him the movie. ๐Ÿ˜Ž

On 3/21/2018 at 7:42 PM, Jay said:

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It's been 21 years since the 1997 2CD sets of the OT, 18 years years the TPM Ultimate Edition, 16 years since the AOTC OST, and 13ย years since the ROTS OST.

That's ancient.

" New" editions will be the sonic upgrade equivalent of 78rpm to CD.๐Ÿ˜Š

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  • 3 weeks later...

Every time I'm listening to โ€žAngels With Filthy Souls IIโ€œ from Home Alone 2 I imagine how awesome it would sound ifย John Williams hadย rerecorded the OT in the early 90s in LA. Hook, Home Alone 2 and Jurassic Park are my favorite soundtracks, not least because of the sound/mixing.

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  • 1 year later...
On 29/10/2020 at 9:59 AM, Jay said:

No.ย  Sony's contract to sell Star Wars music expired at the end of 2016.ย  On Jan 1 2017 Disney Records issued Sony's albums remasters across all digital media platforms.ย  However, when they released Shawn Murphy's demasters in the summer of 2018, they took the 2016 remasters down.

Sorry to bump this thread, but I've noticed HDTracks has listings for what I believe are the remastered LP mixes from Sony Classical that were in the Ultimate Digital Collection (as opposed to the more recently remixed/remastered versions from Walt Disney Records). Is there a way to verify if these are the original LP mixes?

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There's no reason to be sorry about bumping a thread to ask an important question!

ย 

Can you provide a link to the HDTracks listing you're referencing?

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17 minutes ago, johnny_g_65 said:

Sorry to bump this thread, but I've noticed HDTracks has listings for what I believe are the remastered LP mixes from Sony Classical that were in the Ultimate Digital Collection (as opposed to the more recently remixed/remastered versions from Walt Disney Records). Is there a way to verify if these are the original LP mixes?

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If you mean these;ย 

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https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/5dd65d30848038447729ba11ย (Star Wars)


https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/5dd65ced848038447729b9bfย (Empire)ย 

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They are the Sony 2016 releases and not the Disney 2018 releases.ย 

ย 

Listened to the Main Title on SW and Imperial March on Empire and I can confirm they aren't the Disney versions.ย 

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Well, it's the same version released in 2016 by Sony (on vinyl and digitally, but not on CD), right?

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It is absolutely the version to have concerning the OST Masters of ANH, ESB and ROTJ.


John Williams โ€“ Star Wars: The Ultimate Digital Collection (2016, All  Media) - Discogs

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37 minutes ago, Bespin said:

Well, it's the same version released in 2016 by Sony (on vinyl and digitally, but not on CD), right?

ย 

Yea

ย 

37 minutes ago, Bespin said:

It is absolutely the version to have concerning the OST Masters of ANH, ESB and ROTJ.

ย 

Yea

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FWIW, I saw these listings on HDTracks about a month ago, I don't know how long they've been up there. It was the $3.49 (!!!) for Star Wars that got me to do a double take. Since they used the original album covers and said "Sony Classical," I figured they were the LP masters, but I thought I would dig around and ask questions to be sure (I don't have anything to compare them with). ย I doubt they will put up Jedi since it is such as short album

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That is weird. I assume Sony can't still profit off these if they no longer have the license though?

ย 

But if it's Disney's work, why muddy the waters by having alternate versions of the same product?

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12 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

So. I have the original CDs. I have LOTS of versions of these scores. Should I shell out the ~$10 for these? Are these DRM free?

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All HDTracks downloads are DRM free AFAIK

ย 

Only you can decide if you want to legally own remastered versions of the original 1977 and 1980 LP presentations or not.ย 

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13 hours ago, Tallguy said:

So. I have the original CDs. I have LOTS of versions of these scores. Should I shell out the ~$10 for these? Are these DRM free?

ย 

No DRM. And the only Star Wars release I'm aware of with a spectral watermark is TLJ, but that's Disney Record's doing and is therefore present on all HiFi resellers.

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ย 

1 hour ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

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No DRM. And the only Star Wars release I'm aware of with a spectral watermark is TLJ, but that's Disney Record's doing and is therefore present on all HiFi resellers.

ย 

That's curious why did they add a spectral watermark?

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52 minutes ago, DrTenma said:

That's curious why did they add a spectral watermark?

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It's somewhat common now in the record industry. I just find it strange that it only applies to TLJ and not the other films (and only the HiFi version), although obviously it shouldn't be present on any of them.

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On 11/01/2022 at 6:00 PM, Manakin Skywalker said:

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No DRM. And the only Star Wars release I'm aware of with a spectral watermark is TLJ, but that's Disney Record's doing and is therefore present on all HiFi resellers.

TFA was affected too. UMG supposedly stopped doing that in 2018 so the demasters, Solo and TROS aren't affected.

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54 minutes ago, Chewy said:

TFA was affected too. UMG supposedly stopped doing that in 2018 so the demasters, Solo and TROS aren't affected.

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I tried it back with the 96kHz TFA files and at the time didn't detect anything. I haven't tried with the 192kHz files since I've gotten them so yeah you're probably right. Unfortunate, but at least they're not doing it anymore.

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  • 5 months later...

Having read through this entire thread I'm a little confused as to what mix was used for this. I've heard repeatedly it being said that they used the "film mix" - that would imply to me they used Tomlinson's mixes for the OT and Murphy's original mixes for the PT. But then nearly all of the complaints I've read about the remasters (at least the ones that don't involve reverb/wrong takes) are complaints about what sounds like changes to the mix (such as improper instrument balance and stuff).

ย 

Does this imply that these use a new mix by Murphy for all 6?

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It's the film mixes, but not necessarily the same takes as was used in the actual films, hence the difference.ย  Plus all the mastering issues.

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On 10/1/2022 at 4:20 PM, aj_vader said:

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If you mean these;ย 

ย 

https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/5dd65d30848038447729ba11ย (Star Wars)


https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/5dd65ced848038447729b9bfย (Empire)ย 

ย 

They are the Sony 2016 releases and not the Disney 2018 releases.ย 

ย 

Listened to the Main Title on SW and Imperial March on Empire and I can confirm they aren't the Disney versions.ย 

Is there a big difference of these vs whatโ€™s on apple music? I have never used this site,How does the downloads/purchases work? Can I only listen on the site? Thank you

On 21/3/2018 at 3:59 PM, Trent B said:

I am hoping in a year or two Disney will either give us proper remastered and complete versions of all sixย scores or let La-La Land or Intrada release complete remastered versions of all six.

Still hoping, crazy nothing has happened yet

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46 minutes ago, Gibster said:

Is there a big difference of these vs whatโ€™s on apple music? I have never used this site,How does the downloads/purchases work? Can I only listen on the site?ย 

ย 

The 2016 remasters use the original vinyl masters from the 70's/80's, so they sound basically identical to how they did back then. In short, they sound significantly better than the 2018 remasters.

ย 

HDTracks is no different than any other music purchasing site. You make a purchase, download/install their download client, and download the lossless files from there. You can't listen to the music on their site.

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1 hour ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

In short, they sound significantly better than the 2018 remasters.

Not sure to agree with this. ANH and ROTJ definitely sound better on the 2018 demasters to me.

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The stereo wideness of ESB as been widened much more than the poor baked tapes could handle. That's the worse of the 6.ย 

ย 

They "tried" something with these demasters... and it didn't went as planned.

ย 

Anyway, never listen to this with headpones.

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For the original trilogy, you can stick to the 2015 remastered versions of the Masters. The stereo is not very wide, but it's true to the original sound of the LPs.

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About the prequels... They reproduce some manual edits to (try) match those of the original CDs... but they were redone...ehhh... not as professionnaly Mike Matessino would have done them, you see?

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Shawn Murphy lost a bit of its reputation with these demasters... maybe he just fell into a trap.

ย 

What can you do when the source material is in so bad condition?

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The real problem with the ESB demaster stereo is that these "professionals" downmixed LCR to stereo by just putting the center channel in the right channel.

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Ugh, on the RCA Victor Special Edition releases for both EMPIRE and JEDI they decided to raise the overall center channel destroying the original recording balance.ย 

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4 hours ago, crumbs said:

It's quite astonishing that so many attempts have been made to release the same 3 scores, yet almost all of them have gaping technical flaws that sour the listening experience.

ย 

Even more astonishing we're nearly 3 years past Williams' third trilogy with no sign Disney are attempting to rectify the mess.

and the longer they wait the worse the masters getย 

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Not true.ย  The masters are digitally preserved perfectly.


They just haven't been worked on by a competent producer since the 90s

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8 minutes ago, Jay said:

Not true.ย  The masters are digitally preserved perfectly.


They just haven't been worked on by a competent producer since the 90s

Do you think anything will happen soon? it's crazy at this point

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15 minutes ago, Jay said:

There's this from 2017

ย 

https://www.jwfan.com/?p=9994

Which was the audio interview where he was asked the obligatory question about Disney doing SW expansions and he replied "well, what do you think?"

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

Not true.ย  The masters are digitally preserved perfectly.


They just haven't been worked on by a competent producer since the 90s

Good news, although if it was done some years ago, hasnโ€™t the technology to read and preserve old analogue master tapes digitally significantly improved in the last couple of decades? Or is it just the technology/software to remove hiss, pops and tape wow and all that kind of thing that has improved?

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Shawn Murphy's team transferred them all to digital in high res in 2017 for the albums this thread is about

ย 

A transfer done now wouldn't be any different from what he captured in 2017, no

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12 minutes ago, Jay said:

Shawn Murphy's team transferred them all to digital in high res in 2017 for the albums this thread is about

ย 

A transfer done now wouldn't be any different from what he captured in 2017, no

Cool cool. Good to know! Just a shame what they did with those high res files really!

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