hairy_hen said:
I wonder exactly where the 1993 mix came from. SW came from the 70mm mix and had extra sounds put in on top of it, RotJ was reassembled from thirteen-track stems, while ESB is said to have come from an early generation four-track master. But what master would this have been? It is nearly identical to the 35mm version, but not entirely, and while its dynamic range probably reflects similarity to the 70mm, its content does not. It is possible the 70mm mix may not have had the snowspeeder crash sound either, but that's only speculation on my part. Furthermore the 70 seems to have had at least some of the dialogue differences of the SE, but not all of them, and possibly some that appear in no other version--but without a recording, it's impossible to know for sure. I find this rather confusing to think about!
Yes, more specific info would be great to have on this matter. As I understand it the '93 DC mix is basically the 35mm Dolby Stereo mix but remastered from the unlimited four-track master mix, resulting in better bass and dynamic range than its original optical track, but what I don't get is why that four-track master mix is missing that whining snowspeeder sound fx that is on the earlier Laserdiscs and supposedly was present in the original 35mm Dolby, so that single sound effect was the only thing added to the final print-master? I don't know, it's weird. It's more likely IMO that it was a fault in the '93 remastering stage.
The only 70mm differences I trust are those Michael Matessino listed way back in Film Score Monthly magazine:
* After the probot lands on Hoth and moves frame left, there is an optical wipe to the overhead shot of Luke on his tauntaun, instead of a straight cut.
* After Luke wanders through the snow and falls face down, there is an optical wipe to Han instead of a straight cut.
* The bacta tank scene starts on a close-up of Two-One-Bee and pans right to a closeup of Luke in the tank. It then cuts to FX-7 extending it's arm to the tank. There is no cut to Leia, Han and Threepio observing.
* In the snow battle scene, when Luke drops into the snow after throwing a charge into the Imperial walker, the AT-ST in the background has no atmospheric depth. It looks to close and small.
* In the Emperor scene, the hologram of the Emperor is already present in the first shot-it does not "tune in" gradually.
* The Imperial fleet establishing shot after the magic tree scene has a different TIE fighter sound effect.
* When Luke falls from Cloud City into the Millennium Falcon, the Falcon's radar dish is not added to the shot.
* The telepathy between Luke and Vader during the "Hyperspace" cue has straight cuts instead of quick dissolves.
* In the final scene, there is no tracked music from "Yoda and the Force". The scene begins with the first establishing shot of the rebel fleet, then cuts inside the Falcon for Lando to say, "Luke, we're ready for take-off" (but a different take of this was used). After Luke says (voice over), "Good luck, Lando" the scene cuts to inside the rebel cruiser where Luke says, "I'll meet you at the rendezvous, " etc. Not in this version are two more establishing shots of the fleet and an interim effects shot over which Lando says, "When we find Jabba the Hutt and that bounty hunter we'll contact you."
The Emperor and Falcon's radar dish have since been confirmed and the films final have been known for a long time, there's probably other differences in the mix as well but in terms of music-editing there's no chance IMO that the two transitional Imperial March cues that are present in the SE could have been part of the 70mm cut that I've heard rumored. First, why would Matessino mention such a minor difference as the different TIE -sound but not the musical difference in the same scene, secondly why would the 70mm cut have a more complete soundtrack when it was the first one out. I think the same goes for the Boba Fett departure music editing (I know you did it for your personal satisfaction;) All these rumors started when the SE audiotrack was so different, some may be true but as you have said I also think the 70mm mix is closer to the '93 remaster than what most people think. It would have been fantastic to get a hold of that guy on the other forum, who said he owned a copy of it.