jerryshadoe said:
@StarThoughts: there are no differences other than delivery method (with the DTS track encoded from the PCM using SurCode DVD-DTS) The isolated score track was NOT on the bluray, per se, because most of the English audio commentary track 5 is an isolated score track in ac3 192kbps. a little bit of talking here and there but very little. I found a FLAC copy of nearly complete score on a Chinese forum (verified to be real CDDA lossless audio) and I have a FLAC copy of the OST as well. Then I looked up the artist and track name for the songs (like what's on neo's headphones at beginning of movie; for example) that are NOT on the OST and have found FLAC copies of those. Now it's a matter of syncing up all the separate tracks into one audio track, where I'm using the English audio commentary track 5 (which specifically focuses on the isolated score) as a reference. In doing it this way, I am able to reconstruct a lossless copy of the score which I will leave in PCM for the release. (Depending on how much of a pain it is, I might even up-convert it to a 5.1 [and end up with two isolated score tracks with a 5.1 and a 2.0], but this will depend entirely on the results, otherwise I'll just stick with the 2.0)
Ah! I thought that the isolated score was just going to be the track from the original DVD release, but you're talking about assembling a new track from scratch for better sound quality! I heartily approve! If you do make an upconversion, I would hope you would include the original stereo version as well.
It sounds like your primary source for the score is the 2 CD promo of the score that was leaked in the early aughts, which I was lucky enough to snag a copy of this when I went looking for something with better sound quality than the compressed DVD AC-3 track. It has the advantage of not having Don Davis talking over the heads and tails of cues (and sometimes over them — as interesting as some of his comments are, they are intrusive if one is trying to listen to the music), and cues play out in full without the album edits.
Most of the songs can be slipped in with some edits made, but there are a few moments where the film has song remixes that don't appear on the album or the promo. The ones that spring to mind are “Clubbed To Death” and “Leave You Far Behind.” In those cases, you may be limited to the isolated score track.
I feel Don Davis' scores for Matrix trilogy to be outstanding and unique. I was somewhat surprised for a while that more scores didn't start sounding like the Matrix trilogy. I guess I shouldn't have been, as one of the reasons why these scores work so well for their films is because, in the tradition of the best science-fiction scores, they have a very specific sound that relates to the subject matter.