msycamore said:
The Improvements is really easy to notice now with your new samples, so much detail and life revealed in the sound it's amazing, even when compared to the original RSO ones! Fantastic EQ! this is how its gonna be done, not loud and bright to fool the ears in to think it's sounding better, just gentle and subtle EQ. Thank you and well done ABC!
I agree entirely with this. Interesting point about being bright and loud to fool the ear into thinking it sounded better: at first listen to the samples I actually preferred the SE versions because of that, but on further comparison realised (as I had already known) that they have a very harsh sound. The scorching high frequencies become fatiguing after a while. The warmer, more vinyl-like sound of the remaster calls less attention to itself and may seem a bit subdued on first comparison, but is so much more pleasing in the end. The differences are particularly apparent having all the different versions to compare.
I haven't played them on my stereo yet, but I'm going to do that soon. So far I listened on headphones--even though they're not that good the improvements are easily heard. What I found particularly striking is just how many cuts between takes the film-sourced versions actually have. Some of them are so obviously hacked together, I can't believe they actually thought that was an acceptable presentation of the music! Even some more subtle cuts are still apparent because the reverb and decay of a previous note suddenly stops. The RSO versions have much less of that, and there clearly wasn't anything wrong with the continuous takes on them, so why the hackjob was deemed necessary, I guess we'll never know . . .
Also interesting to note is the potential for greater dynamic range found in the RSO release. Being mastered at a lower overall level, there are occasionally transient peaks that exceed the average by several decibels, and since the whole volume isn't jacked up towards maximum they have ample headroom without compression; by comparison the newer releases do not allow these peaks to exceed any other. There is something to be said for going somewhat high in order to use as much digital bit-depth as possible, but not to the point that you are negatively affecting the sound. It's a subtle thing, since obviously these are not overdriven to the point of clipping the way a lot of pop music can be, but it's definitely a factor in the sound of the newer releases.
ABC, I have to say I'm envious of your talent in using EQ to get such a good sound from less than ideal sources. If I had your ability, my 70mm project would undoubtedly be more seamless than it currently is, but I don't have your level of skill, alas. :)