Jonno said:
Hmmm... just received and captured Moonraker. Another disc mastered in 1990, another digital track with a -9dB ceiling. Why were these folks so reluctant to use the full range of the digital signal?
For now I'll resist the urge to normalise and edit it as-is - it's actually a very clear and clean track, and I guess folks' amps can fight it out with the limited volume.
Odd, as that is arguably the best sounding of the Dolby Stereo 007 LD titles. This one may be due to the way the film was recorded rather out of house in France. (The score tapes are still missing) The sound, especially the score has always been very different sounding. This LD is easily the best the film has EVER sounded.
Mad Max's original Australian mono is only available as lossy DD on the DVD and BD. No LD releases were ever done, but that doesn't discount a foreign VHS/Beta somewhere.
How does the MGM North by Northwest audio compare? The Criterion is seemingly print sourced and has many many source defects, I've often wondered what MGM used on theirs. Criterion credits the source as stereo soundtrack masters transferred to 24 track digital for the LD master. The missing effects come as no surprise. The 5.1 loses a great deal of the soundfield in favor of multichannel usage and plastering the score over everything, much as the Vertigo remixes. And it harms the mix in a irreparable way. Once you hear the mono track, you can never go back to 5.1. Everything is placed perfectly in the mix, and for all those that defend the multi-channel mix as being VistaVision accurate: N by NW was mono-only.
For GBU-DEFINITELY stay with Italian mono. That has original effects as designed by Leone with the original mixing and quite excellent Italian dubbing. The MGM mix loses a great deal of Leone's careful sound design by erasing and plastering everything with horrible out of place and obvious effects. Additionally the new voice recordings are very jarring in that they weren't done very well, weren't integrated at all, and you can painfully tell the actor's age difference. I've watched the Italian version many times, and it is actually less jarring to switch to Italian w/subs for scenes than the MGM nightmare--even downmixed (like their total failure of a mono downmix for DYS)
I've never done a side by side with Red October, just usually pop in the awesome LD Dolby Stereo. Great news on the Temple audio. That needs to be heard...wait, experienced by everyone. Same goes for the rest of the trilogy if only for the original sound design and panning.
Since this has become the dedicated thread, is it possible to put up some general how-to's on capturing digital audio properly and general guidelines on re-syncing to different sources? I've dabbled in this a bit before, and now that I have a brimming LD shelf I'd like to get some equipment to work with the audio.