CONAN THE BARBARIAN: 3-CD Set of Complete OST from Basil Poledouris

[Beard Esquire]

Originally Posted by Kryptonic

Disc 2 was loose in my set as well, but not scratched. Haven't tried to copy them yet.

Turns out it was my BD burner going bad. Last night the room smelled of burning plastic. Dang thing is toast. So it wasn't the discs at all. I was able to copy them to my pc before the epic meltdown.

[shamus]

Originally Posted by shamus

Any reviews yet? I have the Varèse Sarabande version. Would this be a worthy upgrade?

has no one listened to it yet?

[vidjunkie]

Holy Cow guys! it sounds fantastic, there are samples right on Intrada's Site for crying out loud, if you are a fan of this Score it is simply a no brainer lol, and it includes the Varese 12 track CD, not the 16 track CD, this is 1 of the best packaging I have ever seen and the booklet is huge and now we have all tracks available to us, so open up the wallets and just buy it, no reason to sit on the fence here at all.

Thanks

[shamus]

Thanks Vidjunkie! I already have the 16 track version that cost me an arm and a leg last year. I really don't care about alternate takes and music that didn't appear in the movie. Is this still worth the upgrade?

[vidjunkie]

Originally Posted by shamus

Thanks Vidjunkie! I already have the 16 track version that cost me an arm and a leg last year. I really don't care about alternate takes and music that didn't appear in the movie. Is this still worth the upgrade?

I have the 16 track as well, bought it when it first came out so I fortunately did not have to pay what it is going for these days lol and to answer you HELL YES it is worth it, it is a great set, but this is my opinion, I just love this score, so having more tracks plus having the 12 track CD is a win, win for me.

[Dark Light]

This Intrada version is not perfect, sadly. Some interesting things that I've read so far:
- people tend to prefer the original album versions (on CD3) - they feel they sound better (warmer) than the new remasters (but shouldn't the 3rd CD come from the same remasters?),
- a gong is missing towards the end of "Orgy" (on the CD2 version),
- "Prologue" is much too loud which lowers the impact of "Anvil of Crom" (and listening to the sample - do I hear hissing in the Prologue?!).

What really bugs me though - why aren't the "Cantigas" (the original movie Tower of Set music) where they belong - between "Hopefuls At The Tower Of Set" and "Infidels", on CD1? And why did they replace them with some alternate unused music ("The Tower of Set" and "The Snake") on the complete score? And why why why did they have to combine an original track ("The Infidels") with an unused track ("The Snake"), thus preventing us from creating a custom (correct) playlist?

[shamus]

Thanks for the info. Any links?

[vidjunkie]

Originally Posted by Dark Light

This Intrada version is not perfect, sadly. Some interesting things that I've read so far:
- people tend to prefer the original album versions (on CD3) - they feel they sound better (warmer) than the new remasters (but shouldn't the 3rd CD come from the same remasters?),
- a gong is missing towards the end of "Orgy" (on the CD2 version),
- "Prologue" is much too loud which lowers the impact of "Anvil of Crom" (and listening to the sample - do I hear hissing in the Prologue?!).

What really bugs me though - why aren't the "Cantigas" (the original movie Tower of Set music) where they belong - between "Hopefuls At The Tower Of Set" and "Infidels", on CD1? And why did they replace them with some alternate unused music ("The Tower of Set" and "The Snake") on the complete score? And why why why did they have to combine an original track ("The Infidels") with an unused track ("The Snake"), thus preventing us from creating a custom (correct) playlist?

Any links? I would love to read this myself.

Thanks

[Blu Warrior]

Originally Posted by Dark Light

And why why why did they have to combine an original track ("The Infidels") with an unused track ("The Snake"), thus preventing us from creating a custom (correct) playlist?

Why does that prevent you from creating a custom playlist? Audacity is your friend.

[Dark Light]

Originally Posted by shamus

Thanks for the info. Any links?

There are two threads at Film Score Monthly:

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/boar...ID=1&archive=0

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/boar...ID=1&archive=0

[Dark Light]

Originally Posted by Blu Warrior

Why does that prevent you from creating a custom playlist? Audacity is your friend.

It's not just that "The Snake" and "Infidels" are on the same track, the music is slightly overlapping.
Intrada has a sample of this track at their site, the "Infidels" part starts at 00:51.

[shamus]

I'm very confused about this release (and all the other releases).

Is the 3rd cd a remaster of the Milan disk or the exact same release?

Is cd 1 & 2 just an alternate take that was never used?

If all I want is the original music that was used in the movie, which one do I want? (I have the varese release).

[NzYme]

I finally received the CD and popped it in for a listen last night. Sounds fantastic!!

[odinson]

Originally Posted by shamus

Is the 3rd cd a remaster of the Milan disk or the exact same release?

Is cd 1 & 2 just an alternate take that was never used?

If all I want is the original music that was used in the movie, which one do I want? (I have the varese release).

CD3 is a remaster of the original Milan soundtrack album that Poledouris compiled for LP release in 1982 (the Mako intro, which was included to as a bonus on the 1992 CD, is added as a bonus here at the end of the disc).

CD 1 & 2 is the complete score as conducted & recorded by Poledouris, which includes all* the music from the movie, plus a fair amount music that wasn't used in the film, such as the track "Wolf Witch", the full edits of "Warm Welcome" and "Hopefuls at the Tower of Set" (in the movie, the first min. of the former is looped, and only about 1 min. of the latter is used at all), and two original compositions for the snake ceremony scene that were not used in the movie. (Used instead was a track previously recorded by The Rene Clemencic Consort: "Las Cantigas de Santa Maria #166: Como poden per sas Culpas", with some choral voices etc. added for the movie by Basil Poledouris. This is altered movie version is included at the very end of CD2 as a bonus, rather than after track 12, to follow the movie playing order -- this is why some are complaining). Then there are alternate takes of a few tracks like "Prologue" and "Anvil of Crom".

*minor exceptions:
1) there's a choral section that appears only in a scene of the Czech version of the movie (when Thulsa Doom lectures Conan about the Riddle of Steel). Search "Conan Czech version" and you can see this on Youtube -- and it sounds pretty good, but there is dubbed Czech dialogue over top of it

2) the gongs at the end of "The Orgy" are missing on CD2, but they are on the CD3 version.

3) some editing differences between the movie and CD versions of "Defilers" ...the CD edit is actually too long

Originally Posted by vidjunkie

it includes the Varese 12 track CD, not the 16 track CD

You mean the Milan 12 track CD!

[shamus]

Thank you for the great summary! I was under the impression that the Varese was superior to the Milan edition... am I wrong?