Audio Remixes Discussion Thread

[SpazeBlue]

A thread for discussing various audio remixes; the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Any favorites? Most hated? Good upgrades? Talk about 'em here.

[notops]

The Atmos remix of John Carpenter's Christine is a well-oiled machine

[samlop10]

One of my favorites: the Atmos track of Synapse’s 4K disc of Suspiria. That thing sounds like it was made with Atmos in mind when the film was originally made. It’s impressive in any context but even more so considering the age of the film. Probably my favorite remix so far.

Other great ones are Atmos remixes of The Matrix and Saving Private Ryan.

There haven’t been any that I’ve downright hated. But there are a couple which I thought were lacking. The Atmos track of Total Recall should have sounded better and more authoritative, and I didn’t think the overheads added much given there just wasn’t a lot of height activity in the film itself. So it seemed a bit needless and that mixed with the lacking low-end made it even more questionable. It’s still fine imo (i.e. I think it’s still watchable and not actually bad), but it should have sounded better.

The DTS-X remix of Independence Day is one I thought had too much dynamic range. The action was just way too loud and the voices too low relative to the level of the action. It just needed better balance.

Other notable mentions in the ‘questionable’ category are the DTS-X remixes of Fast and Furious 6 and of Furious 7 given they’re lossy DTS-HD HR and not lossless. Still don’t get why they messed that up.

I know a lot people complain about the Disney ones but I never thought it was even worth mentioning. The low-end on them I think is still pretty decent when the volume is dialed in well. The heights could be used a bit more on their earlier releases but I thought all of them nonetheless enhanced the sound over their previous original mixes. People like to mention The Incredibles a lot saying the bass was reduced but the 5.1 mix actually clipped sounds, and the Atmos mix pulls back on that, preventing the clipping and providing more definition with still pretty good bass.

[Krynoid-Man]

One of my most hated remixes is the 5.1 on Fistful of Dynamite. Some of the dialogue is censored and a couple of scenes have the wrong music cue (including the final flashback, which was incredibly frustrating because up until the Eureka release in 2019 the only English friendly releases that had that scene only had the remix).

[aiman04]

Not really a remix, but what’s up with the ultra deep bass at the beginning of Edge of Tomorrow on blu-ray? I don’t remember that in the theater, I don’t think I would forget something like that.

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by notops

The Atmos remix of John Carpenter's Christine is a well-oiled machine

The 5.1 track on They Live sounds great, particularly the score. The new track on the 4K should be nice as well.

[crissrudd4554]

If it’s faithful to the original sound design I’m all for it, if it completely revises and drastically changes the original (Jaws, Terminator, Grease, Batman, Good Bad and the Ugly, Dirty Harry) then NOOOOOOOOPE.

[BNex99]

I've gotten to where I'm not too bothered by remixes that are just slight adjustments or reformats of what was already there.

But when there are new elements that are obviously not from a film of that vintage (Batman, The Terminator, Psycho, Jaws), or the dialogue, music, and FX are unbalanced in a way they weren't before (Escape From New York, The Dark Crystal), or when it seems like possibly the wrong stems were used (An American Tail), it's kind of annoying.

Sometimes it's a personal preference thing. But new SFX do tend to stick out, even if I haven't seen the movie before.

I admit we (myself included) sometimes get a little obsessive about "original audio" around here. The thing is, many movies have been slightly remixed or adjusted for home video over the years anyway, and we'd probably never notice. It's just that a few of those remixes have been overly revisionist, and I guess that's put us all on our guard.

[moviebuff75]

I hope the next release of Willy Wonka will contain the original, unaltered mono track. A short line is omitted from the remix. I know it is just a "WAIT!" but it is the reason the song stops in its tracks. Now, they stop dancing for no reason.

[hanshotfirst1138]

I would give my eye teeth for a version of Halloween with original mono track lossless so that I could sell my boxed set for boffo bucks.

And then there’s the infamous Terminator fiasco....

[crissrudd4554]

I also want a BD release of NeverEnding Story with the original audio. The 5.1 mix is atrocious but then again I kinda think the video master of that film is pretty atrocious too.

[crissrudd4554]

Originally Posted by BNex99

I admit we (myself included) sometimes get a little obsessive about "original audio" around here. The thing is, many movies have been slightly remixed or adjusted for home video over the years anyway, and we'd probably never notice. It's just that a few of those remixes have been overly revisionist, and I guess that's put us all on our guard.

That’s true and to be fair if it’s simply a matter of upgrading a mix that was mono to surround without changing much I wouldn’t have any problem with these upgrades. I can’t tell you how many people I see join in these audio discussions and say “why would you wanna watch something with one channel over something with seven channels??” as if that’s the actual cause of the issue.

[bigrob]

I quite liked the 7.1 on the restored Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Don't get me wrong, prefer the original mono but I felt that the 7.1 remix was well done and added a lot of playfulness to it

[Monterey Jack]

What the 5.1 track does to An American Tail (which has been stuck on every version of it since the DVD in 2004) is unforgivable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCgWnA2cprg

[hanshotfirst1138]

It saddens me when existing mixes on things like laserdiscs can be used to create restorations of this performed by fans, yet studios seem to show little interest. How long did it take for a release of GBU with the proper English mono? Several years. And don’t even get me started on the Hong Kong tradition...

[crissrudd4554]

Not a “remix” but the mono on the Frankenstein BD is kinda bad.

https://vimeo.com/295910511

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

What the 5.1 track does to An American Tail (which has been stuck on every version of it since the DVD in 2004) is unforgivable.

Here's the new mix over the main titles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jPqqD5wRIQ

All of that extraneous off-screen human "walla" was added for the 5.1 mix. None of it was present in the original 2.0 theatrical or VHS/laserdisc track. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. EVERY quiet scene is overlaid with "cartoony" sound effects or added background dialogue, or both. It's infuriating.

[Jay H.]

"The picture has to look better than it has EVER looked, but don't mess with the original audio!" - the majority of people when a Blu-ray/4K UHD catalog title is announced

[James Luckard]

The early mono Bond films all have dreadful modern 5.1 remixes that have loads and loads of new effects to reflect modern tastes in ADR, with almost every audio source onscreen represented on the sound track. The original tracks are much more minimal.

Worse, they dialed the music WAY down, again to reflect modern tastes.

Luckily, I believe all the discs, except perhaps one, contain the original mono in the US, but I believe other markets drop the mono to include various dubs.

[BNex99]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

All of that extraneous off-screen human "walla" was added for the 5.1 mix. None of it was present in the original 2.0 theatrical or VHS/laserdisc track. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. EVERY quiet scene is overlaid with "cartoony" sound effects or added background dialogue, or both. It's infuriating.

Plus, the end credits music is edited differently, which results in the violin solo at the very end being removed.

That whole remix is an enigma. It's as if some kind of pre-mix stems were used (which would explain the alternate voices).

Originally Posted by James Luckard

The early mono Bond films all have dreadful modern 5.1 remixes that have loads and loads of new effects to reflect modern tastes in ADR, with almost every audio source onscreen represented on the sound track. The original tracks are much more minimal.

Worse, they dialed the music WAY down, again to reflect modern tastes.

Luckily, I believe all the discs, except perhaps one, contain the original mono in the US, but I believe other markets drop the mono to include various dubs.

Thunderball's mono is arguably a downmix, but if it is, it's of the less egregious 5.1 on the Blu-ray, rather than the UE DVD's more revisionist one. Or I guess it could be a very carefully restored original mono track. (Of course, Thunderball's soundtrack has had different anomalies in almost every release, so who knows?)

Goldfinger has the original mono, but the end credits music fades out before the end of the song for no apparent reason.