TK421138

first of all let me just say congrats to you all who helped with this great project. I waited until these had been out a while to gauge feedback before downloading them. I do have a nagging question though...where do I obtain english subtitles for Empire and ROTJ? Been looking all over the place for them and probably just don't see where they are available. my partner can't stand the noise of the movies when she is trying to sleep and it would be nice to have subs for the rest just like with SW V2.1. Thank you again Harmy for all you have done.

DJ,

Colour me interested in whatever projects are forthcoming from you two. Star Wars related or not your quality is unmatched. Keep me informed please.

I am going to throw my two cents in also on this amazing project. Firstly, I am shocked that not many people have taken more of an interest in this fantastic project. It has been said plenty that the work here is beyond your everyday restoration, I second that assertion. Having recently downloaded, burned and listened to all of ABC's and 7FN's restorations, I didn't expect anything to ever top the quality of work they put in to preserving and improving the soundtracks. That was until I saw the B&W film with the iso score on top.

One thing to take comfort in ABC and DJ, genius rarely gets credited very often. I have received very little feedback on my current project as well. It is a labor of love, I'm not just doing for the fans, I'm doing it to preserve something great that should not be lost to the cruel hands of time. I don't care if anyone likes or approves what I am doing, I'm doing it to give something back to GL and to all SW fans out there.

Your work has really touched me and I for one think it all stands up on its own without having to justify it.

GOOD WORK MEN! The force is strong with you.....

Cheers,

Adam

I am wondering if anyone out there has any large hi-res artwork for the Story Of albums. This is the artwork I am looking for:

The Story Of Star Wars - 1977

The Story Of Empire Strikes Back: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker - 1980

The Story Of Return Of The Jedi - 1983

Any help in obtaining these would be great!

Cheers,

Adam

I am wondering if anyone out there has any large hi-res artwork for the Story Of albums. This is the artwork I am looking for:

The Story Of Star Wars - 1977

The Story Of Empire Strikes Back: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker - 1980

The Story Of Return Of The Jedi - 1983

Any help in obtaining these would be great!

Cheers,

Adam

Greetings everyone, thought I'd give another little update roundup.

    Great strides have been made in the realization of this project. Three of the books are finished and in their final form. They are Flash-based and I must say they look great! I am working hard to finish color correction on Return Of The Jedi as we speak.

Each book is 24 pages and features realistic page turns, embedded audio that starts and stops at the end of each page to correspond with R2-D2's beep. Every attempt has been made to keep the colors faithful to the original books so tweaks to the picture have been kept to a minimum, mostly to pull out the rich colors and get rid of the lone dust specks, dirt and grime etc...

We are almost at the half-way point of this project as far as the books themselves go. I am also trying my hand at resizing and color correcting the two comic books that are spin offs from Droid World and Planet Of The Hoojibs. My question for you all is would you rather have these comics apear in a .CBR file (comic book file extension), where they seem to look the best, or would you prefer them in a regular Flash book mimicing the experience of reading a real comic book (i.e. page turning etc)?

After reviewing my very nice copy of The Star Wars Treasury featuring all three adaptations of the Storybook trilogy, I have determined that this will be the next project following the release of the Read Along Adventures.The quality of each book and the overall condition makes them a must for preservation.

Anyone out there know of a good web service for building your own website? I would like to keep a running blog detailing the restoration process and offer downloads but I haven't found anything that allows me to customize the webpage to my liking. Any help is always appreciated.

So until the next update, may the Force be with us.....

Cheers,

Adam

Just a thought while we are on the subject of Read Along Adventures....I recently purchased a nice lot of the Star Wars Treasury released by Scholastic Books in 1983. I use to have this set as a child a long time ago. This wonderful set contains all three large size storybooks in a handsome hardcover case. You might remember these books as the first time we ever saw a printed image from the "cut scene" of Biggs and Luke. These books are a somewhat forgotten piece of memorabilia from the first wave of Star Wars fever that swept the world. I was sort of entertaining the idea that after I tackled the Read Along books I might just have to tackle these.

Anyone remember these? Please share your thoughts....

I'll have a more in-depth review of them to post this weekend....

Cheers,

Adam

Wow, I never really thought of it but a tablet seems to be the all in one portable these days. In regards to a tablet version, my team has decided that for now there will be Mac and PC versions of the Read Along Adventures. Not to say that if one of you wanted to tackle a tablet version in the future that we couldn't work something out though. I entertain ALL ideas and input.

Cheers,

Adam

Thank you for your interest EIN502. Yes a lot of blood, sweat and tears have been poured into this project so far, with more to come. The volume of work left to do outweighs the work that is done. This is both fun and daunting at the same time. But I believe that the finished product will be something worthy of a place in every Star Wars fan's collection. I'll keep everyone updated as we make further progress.

"I hope I can get this to work on my android tablet."

Our main goal right now is to get a working version of each book available to view on Windows and Mac computers. I'm not making any promises about compatibility with smart phones or tablets at this point. But then again, never say never right?

Cheers,

Adam

Happy New Years everyone. I hope that your holiday celebrations were fantastic. Months ago I announced that I was working on the Star Wars Read Along book and record set. Happy news, I'm still working on it. I figured it was time for an update on the progress of this ambitious project.

What's the status so far?  It has been a busy five months. Color correcting anything that is approx 30 years old take a tremendous amount of time. It has been a trial and error process to put it lightly. So far I have one book that is in the finishing stages, and two more that are ready for finishing. With five books still to go.

What's it gonna look like?  To retain the feel of an actual book, Poita has created a unique Flash based flip book with turning pages. The audio is embedded within each page and when you here R2-D2 beep you can either turn the page to continue to the story or turn it back to the previous page. You also have the option to quick jump to anypage by highlighting the far left or right corner and choosing the desired page number. There will be a master menu from which to choose any book and/or bonus material.

Any extra goodies or bonus materials?  I have given this some long hard thought and I have decided to include the following bonus materials along with the eight books:

Rebel Mission To Ord Mantell 30 minute radio drama

Marvel Comics issue featuring the story of Droid World 

Marvel Comics issue featuring the story of Planet Of The Hoojibs

What format will this be available in and where can I pick one up?  In keeping with the tradition of a read along book, I have decided to release this as a CD-ROM. This will be a collection of digital books and I think it only fitting to require you to sit down and read them like a book a la turning the pages. I haven't determined where the CD-ROM will be available from, most likely though I will have a link to it on my website for the books. Myspleen might also be an option when it comes time for a release.

Release date?  I'm not a huge fan of putting a timeframe on things so suffice to say it will be available when we are happy with the finished product. 'Nuff said.

As always any questions or comments should be addressed here and PLEASE do try to keep it on topic. It has been a joy working with these books and falling in love all over again with them. I hope you will too.

Cheers,

Adam

Thanks Tyrphanax, the project will be very cool as soon as it is finished. I wouldn't say that ability is lacking whatsoever here at OT.com. Lots of talented people turning out fantastic projects. Rather I think that many people are involved in many projects at the moment and may not be free. I wouldn't put it past someone out there to have the know how to pull this off. Just not me at the moment grins

WOW I'm surprised noone out there wants to help with this project. I am now exploring the avenue of Flash. I think this may yield better results. The idea being that you would have an icon to click on to move each page forward and backward. See examples of this on the following website: http://www.readalongadventures.com/list.htm

Cheers,

Adam

Hello all!

Adam here again with another product update. The project has come to yet another exciting new phase. The audio has been recorded and fixed and the images are being scanned and color corrected as we speak. This leaves one aspect of the project yet to start. Putting it all into an animated 3D book.

What I am looking for is something along the lines of a 3D book that would open up and have realistic pages turns in sync with the audio. I am seeking anyone out there who has experience with 3D animation or 3D book design to assist me in bringing my ideas to life.

I currently own Adobe After Effects CS6 and I use GIMP 2.8 as my image editor. I am a total Noob when it comes to After Effects and I don’t know the first thing about the software to be honest.

A word about the images I captured. They are high quality BMP files scanned at 600 DPI and color corrected using GIMP 2.8. They are pretty big files so I would be using Dropbox to share them with someone. Each book is made up of approx 25 still images.

Where am I on the project? I have the first of 8 books scanned in and I’m working hard on color correcting each page in my spare time. Thus far approx 6 pages are ready to go. The Color correction takes the most time as I am trying to achieve something that compliments the actual printed page.

Anyone that is interested in assisting me please reply within or PM me. I sure could use the help.

Cheers,

Adam

Now time to announce some exciting news. Star Wars: The Read Along Adventures (one possible title I am mulling around) is back on track.

I took a listen to several of the 7" records yesterday and I was blown away by how quiet they sound on a decent system. It's even more fun now to hear the "other" voice talents read an extremely abridged version of the Star Wars movies.

I have a rare weekend off coming up and plan to celebrate it in style by recording all eight of the records plus the 30 minute radio drama Rebel Mission To Ord Mantell. I will also resume scanning each book in.

The work continues on cleanup of each individual page and, if I may toot my own horn for a moment, the results thus far are rather eye catching and pleasing. See the post above for some sample pages.

I plan on making some MP3 sound clips for demo purposes, say around 2-3 minutes apiece from each record. If anyone is interested please let me know. I need all the feedback I can get. Also what title for the collection do you all like? What special features would you like to see with this set? Current plans are as follows;

High quality scans of each page

Individual sound files for each book in WAV, and FLAC respectively

The rare Rebel Mission To Ord Mantell 30 radio drama

The Ewok Adveture Read Along book #467 1984

Ewoks: Battle For Endor Read Along book #470 1985

Also planning on doing my own recordings of The Story Of albums and could possibly include them as well.

Cheers,

Adam

I felt kinda bad about not making much progress on the image side of things. So while at work last night I decided to devote some real face time to them. I am pleased overall with the images, although I am certain a few tweaks need to be made to each picture. But here are some samples for you all to look over, please give me some feedback. Feels good to be working again!

Follow this link:   

https://picasaweb.google.com/109695558536788880331/DroidWorldCleanedUpScans

Cheers,

Adam

Thank you for your comment! I am all about vinyl preservation! I own over 4,000 vinyl records and I know what a difference clean vinyl makes in presenting the best overall sound. That is why I just purchased a Spin Clean manual disc cleaning kit. It is awesome! and so easy to use. 

My previous method had been cleaning everything by hand using a Stanton anti static brush and Groovy vinyl cleaner, but it just wasn't giving me the best results. Spin Clean easily blows it out of the water. I can't believe the difference. To dry my records I tend to have very pleasing results with my brush and placing them on racks to dry for a little while, always a good brushing afterwards to remove static buildup and other nasty particles that may settle in the grooves.

As far as programs to "clean up" my recordings I am using what I think is an amazing program from Alpine Soft that delivers better results for me than Audacity did. Though I still find myself using Audacity for little things here and there while I get use to finding my way around the other program. I took a poorly recorded wav file and ran it through this one and VIOLA! it sounded so good again, took like 20 minutes and it was a few button clicks.

My new headshell for the brand new Ortofon 2M Red cartridge is suppose to be here today so by this evening I should have it installed and ready to break in. Good to have my old Pioneer back after a 3 year absence. 

Hope you enjoy the project and that you have some small insight into my rigorous cleaning method, which at this point isn't all that demanding. Takes about 30 min per record from cleaning them to spinning them on the platter. I tend to batch clean about 5 at a time.

Look for a major update to the project in about two-three weeks from now once my system is all set up and burned in.

Cheers,

Adam

thank you sir, and good luck to you as well on any future projects.

Cheers,

Adam

BROOKS said:

That's probably true.  I'm guessing he just doesn't want the technical side of things to be the focus of the project or to start a debate about gear and software?

 Thank you Brooks, and you couldn't be more right. And I believe that is what was said in the first place. Let's keep this forum focused on project updates and questions regarding the content of the project please.

When all is finished, if I feel like posting technical information, it will be found here. I'll refer to 7FN's opening post regarding his fabulous transfers of the Story Of Albums as my closing statement.

"I prefer to keep certain details of the transfer equipment used to myself - I find knowledge of the equipment can sometimes colour one's reaction to the files they're listening to which can hinder one's enjoyment. Rest assured, the equipment used is of a very high standard indeed."

Cheers,

Adam

negative1 said:

Brooks said:

negative1 said:

... it's the streisand effect. you're just focusing more attention on it, now

that you've stated that you don't want to tell us what

you're using.

 

later

-1

That's probably true.  I'm guessing he just doesn't want the technical side of things to be the focus of the project or to start a debate about gear and software?

if he had just said it in the first place or not even mentioned it.

it would never have been brought up.

 

later

-1

 -1,

    Why the drama dude? It's not like I'm intetionally keeping anyone in the dark here, just accept that there are certain technical aspects of the project that I prefer not to reveal. This is so people can fully enjoy the audio portion without focusing on what program I used to digitally fix it with. It would appear that right now the only one focusing attention on this silly issue is you. Just relax and enjoy the project when it is completed.

I got nothing but love for everyone here.

Cheers,

Adam

negative1 said:

TK421138 said:

 

I have purchased an amazing audio restoration program that shall remain nameless as to not colour anyone's opinions. I simply can't get over how well it cleans and preserves the original tone and warmth of an analog recording.

Cheers,

Adam

do you mean izotope?

 

later

-1

 Izotope, nope.

It's designed just for the transfer of audio from an analog source to a digital one. Not really a big deal which program it is. That is not the focus of this project. I'm not keeping any secrets by not releasing the name of the program nor am I being boastful, rather I simply want the spotlight to be on the audio and images and not on the software used. 

My rig is by no means professional, however I am pretty happy with it and I think once I get it all set up and dialed in, I can produce some potentially great preservations.

"Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future." Yoda

WOW! Seems like its been longer than a week since I posted here. My TT is up and running and I must say it has never sounded better. For fun I played my mint copies of The Story Of Albums and the quality was so amazing that I couldn't believe it. My Read Alongs are going to sound killer too!

I have purchased an amazing audio restoration program that shall remain nameless as to not colour anyone's opinions. I simply can't get over how well it cleans and preserves the original tone and warmth of an analog recording.

I hope to be up and running on the audio portion in aprox two weeks from now though it could vary with cart break in time. On the picture restore front that is progressing well too. Almost finished with Droid World and ready to move on to Planet Of The Hoojibs. Pictures to follow soon.

Cheers,

Adam

Update: I just ordered a brand new cart for my Pioneer PL-518 turntable. Once it is up and running and the new cart is properly broken in (avg of 10-20 hrs) I will try recording again. Meantime work continues on scanning and picture adjustment.

So happy to have my old TT back!

    The thing is I don't want to replace anything as that would take away from the original context of the book. Since this is a preservation I believe the book images should be presented as they are. If anything the brightness, color balance etc, needs to be adjusted accordingly for each image.

On the audio front I have suffered a slight hiccup. The USB turntable I am using to transfer the records is not of good quality. There is no way to adjust the tone arm for weight and as a result it is riding too low in the groove of the record and the result is a very noisey record. The quality of the records themselves is not all that great- that is to say they are not pressed on high quality vinyl. It is possible that these records may just be very noisey.

However I have resurected my hi-fi turntable and am ordering a new cartridge and stylus for it. My hope is that with the proper adjustments to the turntable, I can get a quieter, cleaner recording without having to digitally clean up each file.

In the meantime Brooks is doing a killer job with his attempts at cleaning each record up. The results are promising. I am hoping to get another couple books scanned in this week which will then free me up to work on cleanup of the pages and then I can begin designing how the project will look.

Ok to make this crystal clear to you. Alternate angles of certain scenes were used for some still frames in the book, and they do not appear in the film. I can also tell that each image is a full frame image, not cropped to a widescreen image. 

I have included samples of the alternate angles scanned from the book. This should be a good indication for you.

https://picasaweb.google.com/109695558536788880331/StarWarsReadAlongAltAnglesSamples#

Cheers,

Adam

Lexx,

  I suppose I should clarify what I mean by image issues. I'll refer you to

Post 52 to see what I mean.

Cheers,

Adam