Silva has pretty good versions on their Goldsmith and Jarre "Essential Film Music" 2CD sets.

Blue Max has a nifty 16-minute suite.

Tim, I know you're into Jarre, and the whole Maurice Jarre set actually surprised me by how good it was, in addition to the great Lawrence of Arabia cues.

NP- Doctor Zhivago (Maurice Jarre)
Now this wasn't that much longer after LOA but it sounds so much better!

Lawrence of Arabia
Music by Maurice Jarre
The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Tony Bremner
Silva Screen Records SSD 1010
13 tracks, total time: 51:20

NP: Frank Skinner Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra/Stromberg (Marco Polo)

quote:

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Originally posted by Shaun Rutherford:
TimT,
Take your copy back and ask for the Varese Sarabande release. It sounds better, but at a certain point, you're going to have to realize that the recordings are from 1962 and 1966 (Arabia and Blue Max, respectively). There wasn't a DDD recording in sight. Shaun

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I understand what you're saying but look at the Rhino released of Doctor Zhivago (1965?).
It sounds a whole lot better than those 2 other scores. And to my knowlege it the original recording.
I blame it all on the audio engineers that tried to remaster these scores for thier 1995-2000 CD releases. They seem to be having real trouble!

In my opinion, the Legacy Blue Max disc sounds like tapes used were a copy of a copy of a copy (of a copy?) of the master, and that perhaps too much noise reduction was used.

Maybe Mr. Thaxton can shed some light on this subject, since I recall that he had something to do with this album. Unfortunately, I do not have my jewel case in front of me to verify that. I'm sure that just locating the 30 year-old tapes was a tough task, and I really am surprised that they still existed.

I personally would rather have a little hiss (example: Masada), instead of a muffled sound after too much noise reduction.

It's always bugged me that earlier film scores seem to be recorded with inferior equipment... I like to use Rio Conchos (as heard in the mono tracks on the FSM album) as an example. It features a great performance by the musicians, but the recording sounds like it is significantly older than it is. I'm sure aging of the tapes had to do with some of it, but I think most of the bad quality of the sound was a result of lower quality equipment used in the recording.

"If you compare pop recordings of the day, I think that very few of them sound as bad as film score recordings. I also think that the vocal track for Rio Conchos sounds better than the rest of the score recording. Perhaps this track was recorded using better equipment since it was going to be released on a 45rpm record. It also could be that I'm imagining things."

I wrote:

That bothers me as well. A few years ago, I purchased the Verve reissue of Night Train by The Oscar Peterson Trio, and the 1962 recording sounded AMAZING. Same with Blue Train, which was '57! The sound quality of older scores---while it doesn't bother me exactly---reminds me of the difference between recording on really good Sony blank audio tapes (just an example, I don't use Sony) and the ones you see in line at K-Mart (three in a pack, with a sun-faded look to the blue and yellow sticker on the all-black cassettes). Maybe film scores were recorded on the K-Mart tapes.

Shaun

NP---still not Reel Life, The Private Music Of Film Composers, Volume One

Then there are 70s recordings like The Wind and the Lion that sound "not that good." Because of the sound quality and performance of the orchestra, I've always been under the impression that the Hungarian Opera Orchestra recorded this music. It seems that 10 years down the road, they were using the same equipment when they recorded King Solomon's Mines. KSM sounds a little bit better, but the bottom of the orchestra is still missing from the recording.

And I know exactly what you mean with those "3-pack" tapes.