Belbucus are you restoring the missing segments of the mono soundtrack, like the 20th century fox theme and the first few bars of star wars main theme as well as the damaged parts?
Already done.
Originally posted by skijedi2005:is there a way to get those from a stereo source say the star wars soundtrack anthology box set and convert them to mono? Or would it be better to get it from the 35mm mix?
Everything except portions of the opening and closing music are from the actual mono mix soundtrack – about 85-90% from the Moth3r transfer and the remainder from the Allan Mikkelsen transfer – equalized to match the former. After comparing the possible options, I pulled the open/close music from the original 1980 CD release on RSO, as it seemed to be the closest match. The later CD issues have all been remixed and/or remastered, and the various stereo film elements all have some degree of delay added (presumable to enhance the surround presentation) which sounded quite processed when folded down to mono. Again the music from the CD was equalized to match the Moth3r material. Even then it still sounded a bit too “pristine,” so it was transferred once to audiocassette and back to get the additional analogue tape compression needed to better match the Moth3r material.
Originally posted by skijedi2005:
could you tell me how you are cleaning up and restoring the mono mix?
I began with two nearly complete sources to draw from. As both of them came from PAL broadcasts, they had to be varispeeded down to match the GOUT audio. The next step was to establish which to use as the master, which ended up being the Moth3r transfer. Overall, it was much more dynamic with more solid bass response throughout. The material from Allan Mikkelsen was superior in high frequency response and signal to noise, but there was clearly some additional processing applied at the time of the original broadcast that made it less desirable. It also had a relentless background of minute clicks and pops that would need removal. It did have the advantage of being commercial free, so it was able to cover most of what was missing in the Moth3r track. I used it primarily to replace the gaps and damaged bits in the Moth3r, and for some of the quieter sections where the superior signal to noise proved to be an advantage. As far as cleanup, it was basically a process of going through the Moth3r master - manually removing occasional clicks and pops, as well as cataloging any dropouts or damaged sections that could not be remedied by basic editing, then patching those as well as the larger missing sections with the Mikkelsen track. The last step in the basic reconstruction was the inclusion of the open and close music as described above. As with the much less intensive restoring of the Dolby Stereo track, great care was taken to match the equalization, dynamics, background noise etc of the various source elements to integrate seamlessly in the final presentation. A final mastering stage will probably entail a noise reduction application to take the background hiss down a bit, and some overall EQ. And then of coarse it needs to be synched to the GOUT. One should keep in mind, that the source material for this came from the linear audio tracks of a VHS tape - likely several generations away from the original - of a television broadcast whose original audio was a transfer of a 35mm optical track. It will never sound like a one off transfer from a mag printmaster, but I think I can predict with some confidence that it will surpass anything currently available.
Originally posted by skijedi2005:You said in a previous post on this forum you had two sources, what is the equipment being used and is the cleanup a digital process?
I am working primarily in ProTools which is a digital audio workstation.
Does anyone know why Lucasfilm never released the mono soundtrack. It must be in the Lucasfilm archives. to me when listening to it it sound more finished and polished that either the 35mm or 70mm mixes, and has several subtle nuances that are severely lacking is those other mixes….would it be possible to create a new sound mix using the best of all three mixes and why has lucas not done so. He has the master tapes for the mono mix sessions apparently so why not just re-record those elements not in the others into stereo?
