J. Williams & LSO, The EMPIRE STRIKES BACK AUDIOPHILE EDITION - Restored & Remastered Score (Released) — Page 14

skyjedi2005 said:

...

 I was going to ask what exactly AE is,lol.

 

DOH audiophile edition, lol.

Your newest go on fixing Empire Strikes Back, right?

I was already satisfied with star wars and empire.  Still i appreciate this anyway.

It's nice to reply but such a post really highlights the great consideration from other people who gave real feedbacks until now, who I'd like to thank here.

You already did your best with return of the jedi, sadly their is not much that can be recovered from available recordings.  The best sounding soundwise is a truncated 1 LP or 1 CD from RSO.  I have both, the CD is almost sonically identical is not as warm as the vinyl.

The CD sounds quite awesome when remastered correctly, and is a nice guide for the other recordings.

For what is "the best I can do", I don't know how you can tell such a thing as you don't really know me, nor what I can really do when I decided I haven't finished with a work... Whatever! ;)

Dear ABC - as always I am amazed with the clarity of sound - even the tiny and lowest sections of the instruments can be beatufily heard in your editions that even brings me the love for John Williams soundtracks even closer. Your editon is now latest big hit in my collection :)

The Empire Strikes Back is truly a magnificent classic - it even brings closer the nostalgic sound of gold Hollywood era of big and romantic spectacles long before era of Star Wars. As again thank you again for your fantastic contribution to this film classic and restoration of film music in general.

Any thoughts about the liner notes in general btw ?

I thought they were of great importance to understand what may be wrong... or good... in those recordings (ok, mostly for me, working on these I'd concur)... Just a thought, as nobody mentioned these, I wondered if it brought as much light to you guys than they did for me. I thought a compilation of these great and rare sources was more than due (thanks to msycamore), mostly seeing how much half of you guys are sharp on technical, as to avoid the... "fuckwith factor"! Beside, as a non-english I was wondering about how the effort - or even the necessity - would be perceived... I still really don't know.

I'm not asking you to send me flowers for that of course. Just thought that was worth the mention, unless most people maybe would prefer a soundtrack analysis, thing that I hate.

oglasifwd said:

The Empire Strikes Back is truly a magnificent classic - it even brings closer the nostalgic sound of gold Hollywood era of big and romantic spectacles long before era of Star Wars...

 I must say, I'm really glad if you can ignore my hands and appreciate this masterpiece that way. It was really the goal here, what was perhaps not the case in my previous efforts (ego traps, you know... heh!).

I listened to it again recently. Just as great as last time around.

Thanks ABC. Just a quick listening imnpression on my set-up and some early comments. Perhaps it is proper to list out what was used in the audition of this fascinating new edition of a master score.

From the computer, output via coaxial to a multi-bit R2R DAC (not the newer sigma-delta DACs which sound like a synthetic reproduction of the actual recording. Those who are hi-fi inclined will know how true to life the R2R type DAC will sound.), then to a discrete circuit headphone amp, then to a Sennheiser HD800.

As I said, I managed to have quick listen before waiting for this weekend to do a proper audition of the remix.

First impression is that the overall sound has a more "analogue" sound, with separation of instruments more clearer than the official release. What strikes me is how much of the textures seem to have been restored, compared to the horribly dried out sound of the RCA SE release. Again, there seems to have more depth to the soundstage, but a little bit of graininess in the upper treble part, and less apparent warmth and heft to the bass. But then again, details are much clearer.

One of my favourite track - Aboard the Executor, the bass intoning the Vader motif is much more clearer, and hearing how it builds up is a real pleasure as it burst into the hailing horn calls as Vader's theme emerges in full glory.

Considering the source material from which A B C has to work with, the newer mix is almost pure gain.

Hope to settle down this week for a proper listen and appreciate a fine labour of love in the 30th year  since ESB's release.

Oh, there's a booklet for the set? Did I miss it somehow? Can't seem to locate where and how to get them. Any help?

damieneo said:

Oh, there's a booklet for the set? Did I miss it somehow? Can't seem to locate where and how to get them. Any help?

It is in "part2" with the 3rd CD.

Btw, if anyone lacks of time to experience the complete score, I suggest you begin with CD3... That was a bit the idea. There's no huge differences, just slight variations in the EQ's (in order to intend an overall more rounded sound).

Ripplin said:

Oh, I hear sort of a 'skip' or like there's a split second of audio missing at 1:51 in "Darth Vader's Trap" (...) I went back and checked a couple of times and it did it each time.

 Are you sure your feeling on this matter is right... ?

Well, curious I was I just checked myself and I wondered - as I don't have an obvious manifestation of that nor on my original, neither on my uploaded copy - if your ears may have been somehow fooled by the over-modulation on that part.

Note that it is one the Most corrupted segment of all the score... Surely one of the famous sessions tape's unrestorable dying bit. It would be bad that my Flac files present this passage corrupted even further.

... And there was no edit from me at 1'51".

The only thing I notice, wich remain subtle, is how much the horns bump the level on the left quite fast, indeed. But I've heard worst in that track (tape corruption at 1'07" for instance).

I did not hear any problem at all on that track at that time, all sounds great to me, I think I am going to take clips from this set for the audio on my DVD menu's, would that be OK with you ABC?

Ripplin said:

... The sound field is nice and wide and you hear instruments in many different spots. :)

 I like reading how people perceive / or translate their perception of the sound.

If I had to compare these recordings, I'd say the digital ones from the sessions show an horizontal space (stereo quality), when the analog ones rather have a vertical orientated space (depth quality). And if we tried to invert this affirmation we would be more confronted to a quantity question, rather than a quality one  I think... :)

Only the layered tracks borrow both these two qualities... In a way.

dark_jedi said:

... I think I am going to take clips from this set for the audio on my DVD menu's, would that be OK with you ABC?

If you want to reedit all the score in the film from that set I would still be glad  (despite the DVD audio compression) !

I' m just a little jealous as I surely won't be able to witness your great reconstructions.

A B C said:

I' m just a little jealous as I surely won't be able to witness your great reconstructions.

Don't you have access to download? are you interested in this set I am putting together of the OT?

Thanks guys. The last dvd I downloaded (Adywan's version) took my computer 3 days... But I'll remember. It'll let me time to understand exactly what are your versions, D_J. ;)

I'm late to the party again.  :)  The samples are fantastic!  I am a musician and consider myself an audiophile, so this is right up my alley.  Thanks for your passionate efforts, and I look forward to obtaining the entire 3-disc set.  Is there a release date yet?  Please pardon my ignorance if this was already discussed.

Wow to the WOW.

I have finished listening and testing this wonderful recording.  Not only did A B C do it right, he really gets it.  It was fun to play my vinyl apples to apples with some of these tracks.  I have been remastering, remixing, and otherwise fiddling with recordings for years, and I can truly say that this goes beyond any run of the mill patch job.  There is no discernable wow and/or flutter issues from the vinyl rips by SeventiesFilmNut, which tells me that the rips were achieved on top-notch equipment, such as a direct drive turntable with pitch control and a DJ-quality stylus.  No ghost noise was detected on my equipment either, meaning the records were played in a quiet location with no noise from speakers or loud events.  One time I worked on a recording that picked up the person on the phone while ripping, so silence is golden.  All 3 parts of this collection held their own in every way on my THX-Certified speakers.  First, I played each track one at a time with Media Player Classic's FLAC encoding.  Second, I burned the FLAC files to CD and played them on my Blu-ray player via HDMI.  Then I came back to the computer and imported some of the files to ACID Pro so I could visually inspect the dB levels.  Lastly, for gits and shiggles, I used dBPoweramp to convert selections to 320 kb/s mp3's and played them on Windows Media Player.

The results?  Absolutely fantabulous on ALL fronts.  The brass is finally tempered to where it belongs and no longer blasts out the rest of the instruments.  The low-key and silent moments shine and find themselves appropriately in the mix.  The percussion is also noteworthy, as it confidently finds its place and no longer sounds like it was somehow imported from elsewhere or was an afterthought (as the original recordings sometimes did this).  The only so-called "complaint" I could come up with is that the tracks are not "properly tagged" to make things all nice and pretty on playlists.  This is frowned upon in BitTorrent circles, but I say big deal.  I don't have a problem putting tags and cover art in the tracks manually with dBPoweramp.

Many, many thanks to A B C for this.  What better way to spend my birthday than with one of my favorite scores of all time?  It was like revisiting an old friend, and while I will always love my vinyl and CD collection, this is absolutely the most definitive collection of the music from The Empire Strikes Back I have ever heard.

-JT

Has this been released?

I just listened to the complete score over the course of two days.  It remains as excellent and amazing as ever.  Short of a real, properly done release from original master tapes, with none of that crap processing applied, this could well be the best the score will ever sound, and I enjoy listening to it much more than I ever did before due to the sheer excellence of the sound quality, which allows the music itself to come through unimpeded.

Question for ABC: I've been asked for links to the score, but I had to decline to give them since you had indicated you didn't want it to be released generally.  But now it seems like more people are obtaining it, so I was wondering if that still applied or if you had adopted a new view on releasing them.

Skeletron said:

Has this been released?

 No comment on you effort of investigation, man.

hairy_hen said:

Question for ABC...

I won't login that much anymore so I let you judge what to do with this set. I have nothing against the fact it spreads, just was I a little worried about the way it may spread, (as the way it may be requested)... If I'd say: "now pm Hairy Hen for the AE" I bet you'd understand what I mean through a few pm's. ;)

... Yeah I know, I'm not the coolest man of the galaxy when the sense of contact dies... But only "when".

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