This is a follow-up to a previous post -

http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=9&threadid=5739

- for fun mostly, and perhaps of minor historical significance. Associated audiofiles posting now at alt.binaries.starwars. Many thanks to Moth3r for assistance in making this available.

What we have here is a comparison of the DC ’93 mix to the original 70mm 6-track.

In the left channel is an “in theater” recording of a 70mm engagement from 1977 at the Loews Astor Plaza in New York City, with occasional patching from another 70mm recording at the Loews Orpheum. The quality is not great and there is peak distortion due to the shortcomings of the cassette recorder used. The very beginning of the Fox fanfare and the end credits music are missing, but it is otherwise complete and 100% authentic.

In the right channel is a mono fold-down of the ’93 mix from the Definitive Collection/Faces laserdiscs.

The idea of this little exercise (for anyone who might care) is to demonstrate the documented similarity of the two, and to identify the additional material that was layed in at the ’93 mix session. I was quite surprised at how many more small details were added than I had previously noticed. I have noted “timecode” addresses for each. The sync is not perfect, but close enough for the intended purpose.

Minor note: There are two brief sections where the tracks do not line up. Both are due to modifications/repairs to the ’93.

The first is at 6:36 for about 2 seconds and includes 3PO’s line: “You’ll be deactivated for sure” where the audio in the ’93 goes mono and slightly “lo-fi”. I never noticed this before I “put this under the microscope”. I guess there was a problem with the main source and they opted to do a quick fix.

The second occurs at 1:09:53 involving a 3 second shot of the droids on the Death Star (featuring 3PO’s line: “That isn’t very reassuring.”). This was a problem with all previous video issues - both the picture and sound quality dropped noticeably, as if the shot had to be replaced from an inferior source. This was fixed for the ’93 version, and I’m guessing the sound was remixed but the placement of elements was positioned slightly differently.


Additions to the ’93 mix:

2:15.............................EXPLOSIONS

2:29.............................EXPLOSIONS

3:31.............................LOW RUMBLE *

6:49.............................LASER IMPACT

13:38...........................ELECTRICAL SPARKING

38:42...........................ARTOO VOCALIZATION *

45:16...........................CREATURE VOCALIZATION *

48:46...........................CHEWBACCA VOCALIZATION *

1:00:43 – 1:01:04..........PLANET DEBRIS WHIZZING BY FALCON

1:01:14........................TIE LASERFIRE

1:12:07........................LASERFIRE

1:12:08 – 1:12:31..........GLASS SHATTERS (8X)

1:16:18........................LASERFIRE

1:16:22........................LASERFIRE

1:17:31........................POUNDING ON DOOR *

1:17:45........................WATER NOISE *

1:18:19........................POUNDING ON DOOR *

1:18:39........................UNDERWATER MECHANICAL NOISE *

1:32:45........................TIE LASERFIRE

1:32:53........................TIE LASERFIRE

1:33:03........................TIE LASERFIRE

1:47:15........................TURRET LASERFIRE

1:51:12........................TURRET LASERFIRE

1:53:15........................EXPLOSION


* (Also common to the mono mix)


One last note: I found that the real-time counters on some media players (such as Windows Media Player) do not always track accurately when playing back mp3 files. If you do not seem to be successfully locating things at the addresses indicated, try opening the file with a different program.