Bram Stoker's Dracula audio & rumors of Jurassic Park LD
Jaime Villacorte
There's an article in the most recent WideScreen Review (Jul/Aug '93)
magazine which compares and contrasts the Criterion and Columbia release
of Bram Stoker's Dracula. There was discussion of the audio tracks on both
releases laserdisc releases which I found interesting.
I've had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that the audio from
my Columbia disc (the one with the 1/2 hour documentary) was quite the same
as the what I rememebered hearing when I watched BSD in a theater playing
a Dolby Stereo Digital print. I thought the surround audio effects on
the disc could have been more aggressive, and in the back of my mind, I
thought some sound effects were missing completely.
Well, this article confirmed what I had suspected. Here's what it said
about the audio on the two Dracula releases...
"...The Criterion soundtrack is made from the soundtrack that won
the Academy Award...It was combined into the Dolby Surround matrix
from the actual six track 35mm mag Dolby SR master stems which
contain the split stereo surrounds used to make the Dolby Stereo
Digital six-track release prints. The stereo surrounds were summed
and the bass boom track combined into a remixed four-track discrete
master which was then passed through a Dolby SEU4 encoder to
produce the LT/RT (left total/right total) matrix encoded two-track
laserdisc soundtrack master. This was laid straight across to
the D1 digital telecine picture master that Pioneer used to press
the laserdiscs. The soundtrack was mixed and monitored through a
Dolby SDU4 decoder at 85db SPL wiith no added equalization in
a living room sized 15x20x10 foot suite at Digital Magnetics in
Santa Monica."
"...The Columbia soundtrack is the Dolby Stereo composite mix from a
different set of Dolby SR stems. It is every bit as dynamic as the
Criterion but is missing about 40 sound effects, most of which are
contained in the split stereo surround Dolby Stereo Digital master.
In the opening scene, for example, when Dracula's wife Elisabeta
throws herself off the castle to the river below on the Criterion
version, we hear in the surrounds the thunderous sounds of water,
while the Columbia is virtually silent. Actually, the Criterion
package contains on Analgog track 1 the same music and effects
track as is on Columbia's digital soundtrack."
BTW, this issue has great articles on the history of HDTV, the digital
sound format wars happening in theaters, part 1 of a the history of Dolby
Noise Reduction Systems, an interview with Ioan Allen ("father" of Dolby
Stereo) and the 2nd part of an article discussing aspect ratios. All in
all quite a feature filled issue.
Lastly, here's a little teaser related with the release of the
Jurassic Park laser disc that really made me do a double-take. It's from
the article which discussed theatrical digital sound formats...
"...On the consumer front plans are quietly in place to introduce the
DTS six-track discrete digital system on home video with the laserdisc
release of Jurassic park. The company has not released technical
information on how this will be accomplished. The channel
configuration will be the standard digital discrete 5.1 format - five
full bandwidth channels alllocated left, center, and right front,
and left rear and right rear stereo sounds, plus a dedicated
subwoofer channel. Dolby also has plans to formally premiere Dolby
Surround Digital next year for home theater systems..."
- jaime villacorte Hughes Aircraft Co, EOS El Segundo, CA
ja...@tcville.hac.com Ceci n'est pas une signature