Yet another Fantasia related topic, however after assisting on the Fantasia LD restoration project and reading about what TonyWDA has been up to, I started thinking about Fantasound, and how currently the Dolby Surround matrixed version on the VHS/LD is the closest modern rendition that we have. From what I could piece together from various topics and writing histories regarding Fantasound is that it was essentially 3 channels with a control track, something like LEFT-CENTER-RIGHT (and likely SUR-LEFT and SUR-RIGHT (duplicate sounds of the front)).
Has anyone attempted taking the existing 2ch magnetic audio track and creating a new control track for it, similar to what Tony Porter did in 1990? The center channel (if a true center not just a mix of L+R) seems to have been lost, but could be “recreated” by an OOPS effect or something similar. And if you wanted an LFE track just do a 120hz cut on the L/R channels to create one
In Vegas Studio I can create a keyframed panning track, similar to the TOGAD which will send the sound to any speaker at any time. I have a link here to an .ac3 encoded file from Vegas Studio that is a rough example of how this could be done.
Therefore if this is possible the next step would to be, aside from listening to the 1990 audio over and over, is to find any other reviews,notes,or commentary about the original release and what people heard. For example, apparently the church bells at the end of the Bald Mountain came from the back of the theater, for example. Effects like these could easily be recreated. If there was an easier way to do it, I think it would open an fun world of different people creating their own Fantasound mixes for how they feel a certain piece should sound in surround.
https://mega.nz/file/CmoCwaYI#_bX3D23GU9nT7G9Vnt-Ac_OCNA_eAg3xecr5UEaXUAU
A simple panning example of the finale choir voices with the men on the left and women on the right then coming together again
https://mega.nz/file/viRAGB5Q#orQcNtFys3U3MkiwGzMs3lMnrsp-5RWj37zDoOBMrIo
The three french horns bit from Toccata, one of my favorite parts, the sound pans from L to C to R with each horn note