This is my first post here at the forums. I've been reading for a couple of weeks and have enjoyed them greatly. My first attempt will be Ep. III with an eye to working on I and II. I also have a notion that all 6 movies could be edited into 3 Godfather II style movies. My wife thinks I'm a nut.

I have some questions regarding the handling of sound, especially when editing extensively.

My only exposure to fan edits is via the Phantom Editor, who edits extensively. And, I am currently dl'ing Digital Man's Ep's III & IV - looking forward to watching them! - which should give me an idea of the extent his revisions.

I have read ADigitalMan's excellent guide to editing and have "completed" a chop cut of Ep III with a stereo track attached. The visuals are pretty good, but the sound, as you can imagine, is rough. In editing the film, I've revised many of the scenes extensively, changing the order of shot occurence, etc. This, of course, has played havoc with the music.

I've ripped the soundtrack to 6 wavs and am currently editing the center/dialogue track in Sony Vegas and will then use that as a guide for the other tracks. I'm not sure if I'll go all the way and create a 5.1, though.

My question is how do you handle the break up of the music. Do you rip the cds and reconstruct the sound from scratch or is there something I'm not thinking of. I'm compiling a library of sfx wavs in case I do have to do it all from scratch but I'd rather not if I don't have to.

Again, this is great place you guys have here! Thanks!