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Author	Topic: Empire Strikes Back: Special Edition

TimT Oscar® Winner	Isn't this supposed to be a re-recording? ? Becuase sound quality is kinda bad. "Special Editoin" Whats exactly is so special about it? I'm not really a Star Wars fan at all so I just recently got this score, I must say that it's way better than An New Hope, which I found so annoying I wound up trading off. How is Return of the Jedi compared to Empire strikes back? -NP Galapagos (Mark Isham) [This message has been edited by TimT (edited 22 June 2000).]
posted 06-22-2000 09:04 AM PT (US)

jonathan_little Oscar® Winner	You're talking about the BMG 2 album set, right? As far as I know, this is the original recording as used in the movie (Read the liner notes, they'll tell you everything) What makes it "special edition" is that BMG released the virtually complete score of all three Star Wars films. In 20 years I guess we can hope that they do it again with "The Phantom Menace" (unfortunately it seems a 200th Titanic release is more profitable than a second TPM disc). As for "bad sound quality," it sounds pretty good for my ears. Take a listen to "The Wind and the Lion" if you want to hear bad sound "quality." I remember reading someplace that this album was re-mixed for some mysterious reason and the person who was writing about this remix was saying that the sound had been messed up, but like I said, it sounds fine to me. If you do want a re-recording, pick up this re-recording that Charles Gerhardt did with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. I haven't listened to it, but I hear all of those Gerhardt discs are good. I personally think "The Empire Strikes Back" is the best of the Star Wars albums. NP: The Empire Strikes Back - "The Asteroid Field" [This message has been edited by jonathan_little (edited 22 June 2000).]
posted 06-22-2000 11:20 AM PT (US)

Scott Oscar® Winner	TimT, u ok? I have had that album for quite some time now. Sound wise I think it is great. Musical wise it is the bomb. Yet, I realize taste differ. Anywhoo, hope you'll be feeling better. Scott
posted 06-22-2000 05:20 PM PT (US)

Swashbuckler Oscar® Winner	Bad sound quality on The Empire Strikes Back? I know that Jedi has some really rough spots, but Empire always sounded almost impeccable to my ears. NP- The Living Daylights by John Barry [This message has been edited by Swashbuckler (edited 22 June 2000).]
posted 06-22-2000 05:40 PM PT (US)

AaronR1074 Oscar® Winner	Oy! If you wanna hear bad sound quality go back and listen to the original crappy Polydor release with 10 tracks and horrible analog recordings. Sadly, Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom is still only available in this manner. I HATE POLYDOR!!!!!!!
posted 06-22-2000 07:01 PM PT (US)

TimT Oscar® Winner	Well the sound quality to me seems flat and a tad muffled. Definetly not a re-recording like I thought it was. NP- Perfect Storm (James Horner)
posted 06-22-2000 07:12 PM PT (US)

JJH Oscar® Winner	I think the ESB sounds a wee bit tinny and high. RoTJ is the one that sounds slightly dull. I wonder if there was a different recording technique used for RoTJ? but overall, I don't care. It still sounds marvellous. A small bone to pick for me I guess. NP -- Island of the Sharks
posted 06-22-2000 09:44 PM PT (US)

Marian Schedenig Oscar® Winner	ESB sounds like many old film score recordings - like classical recordings from the early 50's. You can hear every instrument, which is why I still prefer them over some newer CDs (Phantom Menace), but they "feel" bad-sounding. The remastered CE3K, as old as Star Wars, sounds fantastic, and the expanded Jaws seems to be very good, too (but I have to listen to it with headphones to be sure). Wasn't ROTJ recorded digitally or something? I think the liner notes say that they used a different technique. Don't think it sounds bad. NP: Jaws Expanded
posted 06-23-2000 06:18 AM PT (US)

Darth Fart Oscar® Winner	ESB SE sounds terrific to me, of course it's not perfect, but it's such a great score that I never even listen for any problems. ROTJ has some problems on disc2, it just sounds dull, especially track9 on disc2.
posted 06-23-2000 07:08 AM PT (US)

A.G Oscar® Winner	quote: Sadly, Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom is still only available in this manner. I HATE POLYDOR!!!!!!! Dude, my CD sounds fine, just as good as 'Crusade. I'm sure we'll see a "proper" release of this soon...
posted 06-23-2000 03:13 PM PT (US)

Shaun Rutherford Oscar® Winner	I second the above, that Temple Of Doom sounds fine. Not everything has to be digitaldigitaldigital, folks. And, I can't believe more of you aren't posting about Return Of The Jedi's awful sound quality (I'm referring to the RCA releases), especially from those of you who own the Arista box set. I mean, listen to the box set Jedi disc, then listen to the RCA disc. Are you telling me that it sounds FINE?!? It sounds like it was "remastered" underwater, with extremely noticeable hiss and remarkably tinny sound (this is an official release and it sounds like a bootleg!). Clean your ears out, my fellow men (and women), Shaun
posted 06-23-2000 03:28 PM PT (US)

H Rocco Oscar® Winner	(sigh) I'm not an audiophile; I should know better than to get into this. HOWEVER: there used to be a link at FSM that connected one to a site -- I was there exactly once, more than two years ago -- which railed about the poor quality of the double CD versions, compared to the Eric Tomlinson-recorded originals, as heard as on the original LPs and original box set of CDs. (I'd have furnished the clip by now -- honestly, I was looking it up again when this thread first started -- but I couldn't find the place again. Sorry, people.) NP: JAWS 2 (by some guy) (it's not bad! parts of it sound amazingly SIMILAR to some other movie whose title I also can't remember. Strange that this is called JAWS 2, does anyone remember if there was already something called JAWS? I mean, it could have been a joke of some kind. Some kind of in-joke like that Jerry Goldsmith person you kids are always talking about. sigh maybe I don't get out of the house enough.)
posted 06-23-2000 09:57 PM PT (US)

jonathan_little Oscar® Winner	H Rocco, I'm not sure if I found the article you were mentioning, but... After playing around with the Altavista search engine (since FSM's search engine is "blacked out") for about 15 minutes, I found a search (+"star wars" +CD +LP +mix host:filmscoremonthly.com) that produced great results. Of course, it was a dead link since FSM has changed the structure of their "daily articles" directory, but the URL gave the date of the article. Anyway, This January 18, 1999 article has a link to "The Unofficial John Williams Home Page" and here is the specific page that the FSM daily article was refering to. Happy reading! [This message has been edited by jonathan_little (edited 24 June 2000).]
posted 06-24-2000 02:26 PM PT (US)

JJH Oscar® Winner	Rocco, You havent' experienced Jaws 1 and 2 unless you've heard them in the Spanish language dub. Roy Scheider never sounded so great. NP -- Hush, Christopher Young
posted 06-24-2000 02:31 PM PT (US)

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