[Bells Of Notre Dame Instrumental Songs
Oludare Padilla
The final track on disc 1 that everyone is talking about does not end abruptly, so I'd very much doubt the omission of the segment in question was some manufacturing glitch, or a problem with the masters that was passed on to those streaming services. I am expecting the physical set to be the same.
Personally I don't think this was a decision they made intentionally. Not for a set like this. The missing segment was likely meant to be appended to the first track on disc 2 to keep the first disc's running time below the 77 minute mark - and hence reduce the risk of manufacturing glitches. Perhaps this decision was not documented or communicated well, so the score segment was forgotten about, and its space on disc 2 was then given to yet another demo track.
And with all due respect to Mr. Botnik (and I can fully understand that locating, extracting, mixing, mastering and producing this 25-years-old contnet cannot have been easy) this set does not contain "everything". There were number of demos for unused songs among the DVD special features (can be found on YouTube) that didn't make the cut here. Some of those were far more interesting than those iterations of the same demo they ended up including.
Ugh... I think you're right. And as others have mentioned, disc 2 does begin quite suddenly - as though there should be another track before it. The fact though that they packed the rest of disc 2 with yet another demo, makes me think it's less likely that this will be fixed... I really hope it can, though.
And yes, I know that the missing bit is on the OST - but that's an album from 25 years ago, and it's not a "2021 remaster" like everything else. Is it too much to ask, for a Legacy Collection edition to have all the score from the OST (plus more)? This is just a major letdown. Hopefully something can be done. I'd trade basically any of the demos or extras, to get that score cue.
I checked Twitter and thankfully there are multiple people calling out this error. Still, idk if anything will be done. But at least it's not going totally unnoticed. I don't care if they throw out half the demos, I just want this fixed lol.
All pre-order sales are final. No, I'm not joking. I'm not mad, either. As I said, once the physical release comes, I will be burning a CD with the issues corrected. I've already restored the missing cue. Now I am just correcting some cross-fading and that stereo level issue with The Cathedral, and problems resolved.
Most of this release sounds really great. I don't even mind the distant vocals. It sort of gives it a cathedral-effect, which is inadvertently appropriate. I really hope these mistakes get resolved so I can purchase it and add it to my display. I like collecting the physical Legacy Collection.
Oh gosh, yep... For some reason there's a little sliver of silence inserted between the string intro and his entrance. You can actually hear a little blip from the last string note repeated when he sings his first words...
EDIT: Maybe Botnick tried to edit two takes together, the instrumental intro and then a different take for the song. It obviously didn't go as well as planned. I could tell something was "off" when I first heard it, but now I know why: it's that little blip of strings that plays out of nowhere, when he starts singing. Ugh.
Der Glockner von Notre Dame, the German cast album, is brilliant. James Lapine helped with the show's German transformation. It is much darker, Esmeralda dies, the gargoyles are figments of his imagination, etc. if you can find it in lossless or on CD, grab it immediately. It is one of my all-time favorite discs to spin. The Act 1 Finale, Esmeralda, will leave you breathless.
So I went to YouTube tonight to listen to the cast album (1999), given the enthusiasm folks here show for it. And I absolutely love it. It is f$@&ing amazing. Esmeralda is a drop dead phenomenal song/track; I must have listened to it full a half dozen times and scrubbed back over the gorgeous main theme and its reprises countless times more. Cannot get enough of it.
I don't know about the German cast album in its entirety, but the selections they put on the Legacy set are indeed amazing. The gentleman who voices Quasimodo in "Out There" (i.e. "Draussen") totally nails all the vocal ranges for this remarkably difficult-to-sing piece.
This is an easy place to access the lyrics for both the English and German versions of the tunes. Each track's page has a German version and American version tab. The English lyrics to Esmeralda be poppin: The flames grow tall and sharp as fleurs-de-lis
1-07 The Pillory - 1:13 - next cue pops in with a room noise level from total silence, needs a fadein. OST has a shortened ending in a different key. At 2:22 the strings lower in volume for a short time and come back as if there's a transition or performance edit with a slight crossfade there. There's a pop right at the very end, needs a fadeout.
1-17 Sanctuary - The transition into the next track is not correct according to the movie, there should be one voiceless drumroll, the voices only enter after the second one. Can be fixed with a movie rip.
1-18 And He Shall Smite The Wicked - the Big One. 8:02- we have 2 minutes missing, can be patched in with 1:38-end of the OST track of the same name. As released, the OST track version's missing a brass stinger insert/overlay at 1:49, can be ripped from the film if desired.
2-01 Emergence - the previously unreleased held strings at 0:56 sound like they're looped. Can be shortened with a crossfade to the rhythmic and lengthwise desires of the individual listener.
All fixes I listed, minus the AHSMTW stinger and the TBOND bells. I picked the by far most tolerable Someday (to me), ignored all the demos and crap, Finale is The Bell Tower from the OST transitioning into the credits rip instrumental/alternate. Cover is @WampaRat's gem found here:
I'll never understand how fans can pick up on these things so quickly, yet the people spending months working on them, don't (or don't care?). Everything you just listed should have been addressed before signing off on this release and making it available.
For many others this is just a job - complete with all its coordination difficulties, problems, set-backs, and all the internals politics and external life challenges involved with every job and career. These people don't get to work from the comfort of their homes, at the times that is most convenient to them. They are not free to do as they wish - they may be subject to all kinds of legal and bureaucratic nonsense that may influence or even challenge every tiny little bit of work they do to the music.. They may not even be working on a material they actually like.
Albums with cross-faded tracks (and not those where a single track split into smaller bits) usually have some of the issue Holko discovered (i.e. the contents of a track begins towards the last few seconds of their preceding track). I think in order to find the best time-frame (for putting in the marker that designates the end of a track), one has to listen to the piece on headphone to hear all the details in the quieter parts. But I doubt many engineers take this road for such album programs.
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