Conference cookie::notes$archive:cd_v1

The Empire of the Sun soundtrack (Warner Bros.) is fantastic.  John Williams
at his best  Sounds great to me.  (Everything about the movie is great!)

    
    By Request by John Williams is excellent too...It's 73 minutes long.
    And it contains themes from Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Raiders,
    Superman, Return of the Jedi....It even contains the NBC news theme.
    

    The soundtrack from ``The Big Easy'' is very fine overview of Lousiana
    music: cajun, zydeco, gospel, etc. The sound is quite good, too. It's
    one of my most frequently played disks.
    
    [See also 1033, re Gospel tunes]

    	I second the motion for the Dave Grusin recording-"Cinemagic",
    especially the "On Golden Pond" main title and N.H. Hornpipe and
    "Fratelli Chase" (sp.) from "The Goonies".
    	re:.2
    	I believe the NBC News Theme is "The Mission". Does anyone know
    if there is a soundtrack album of this film?

    The soundtrack of "The Mission" is on CD.  The NBC News Theme
    is also on Philips 420.178-2.  The other title of the NBC News
    Theme is "Mission Theme" and is by John Williams.  The sound-
    track that I'm thinking of is by someone else.  I don't remember
    the name, but I'm pretty sure the initials are M.M.

    Well, I got part of it right.  The "Mission Theme" (commonly
    heard as the NBC News Theme), by John Williams is the on the
    Philips I listed.  The movie soundtrack to "The Mission" is
    by Ennio Morricone, who also wrote the soundtracks for "The
    Untouchables" and "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly".

    Well I just bought the soundtrack for "Good Morning Vietnam"
    and I'm a little disappointed at the length of the disc.
    
    Only 34:47, and that includes a time of 5:50 for dialoge from
    the movie (Robin Williams as Adtrian Cronauer).  Less than
    30 minutes of music for a soundtrack from a recent movie!
    
    Here is a list of "songs" on the disc:
    
    Nowhere to run, I get around, game of love, suar and spice,
    liar, liar, the warmth of the sun, I got you (I feel good),
    Baby please don't go, danger hearbreak dead ahead,
    five o'clock world, california sun, what a wonderful world
    (Louis Armstrong version)

    This seems to be typical of soundtracks, and I don't think it's
    confined to just CD's.  'LaBamba' was only about 30 minutes.  This is
    especially frustrating when you KNOW there was more than 30 minutes of
    music in the movie (how about the soundtrack to the Big Chill). 

    Re:.7
    
    While watching "Good Morning, Viet Nam" and the almost unending
    stream of vintage music I thought the soundtrack album has GOT to
    be at least an hour long!
    
    By the way, does the album include the Alex North background music
    or just the rock/R&B stuff?
    
    >R.Michael

    Re: .-1
    
    You got me on that one, who is Alex North?

    Shame! Alex North is the arranger/composer for "good morning" and
    also for a lot of fine films over the past 25 years. 
    Sounds like I should buy the record instead of the CD for this one.
    
    Dennis

        re .8 and
        
>         music in the movie (how about the soundtrack to the Big Chill). 
        
        The CD version of _The Big Chill_ soundtrack is about 43-45
        minutes.  Ten songs are from the movie, and there are another
        four songs that aren't in the movie.
        
Jim Stratton
        

    My version sounded awful, Real tinny and scratchy.
    Did I just get a bad pressing?

        I'm not sure I qualify as an "audiophile", but I'm sure
        that my disc isn't at all "real tinny and scratchy".  Is
        it too late for you to return it?
        

    
    	RE: .8 and .12
    
    	Big Chill, the actual soundtrack was nothing to rave about,
    but Motown put out a CD called "Music From The Big Chill Generation"
    that might prove to be more entertaining.
    
    	Good Morning Viet Nam, soundtrack has only the listed songs
    and Williams stuff. Nothing By North.
    
    	Dirty Dancing, Since we are talking soundtracks here, this Cd
    is good only if you no longer have some of the older songs on this.
    The new stuff sounds just fine, but the older songs have had the
    *%$#@ processed out of them. Micky and Sylvia sound so flat and
    mutted that I think my old 45 sounds better with the pops and clicks.
    
    	Does anyone know if the soundtrack to "Cat People" with the
    Bowie song has made it to CD?? This is my favorite soundtrack. If
    only they would release a REAL soundtrack of Bladerunner, my life
    would be complete.

    RE: scratchy, tinny sound
    
    I think it's been said before....
    
    The actual CD is a digital medium. If it's bad, you'll get mistracking,
    badly jumbled sounds, garbage. If all the right music is being played,
    with all the right words, at the right speed, a new disc is unlikely to
    be any different. The tinny, scratchy sound would have had to be
    introduced in one of the earlier, analog, transfer phases. Now, if they
    went from original tape to CD master several times to produce a number
    of pressing masters, one disc may sound different to another. 
    
    - roger

  don't CD's like "The Big Chill" contain music that is too old
  to be of expected CD quality?   the quality you receive can
  only be as good as the master recordings which may not be of
  high quality to begin with?

                                     tlr

    Re: .-1
    
    This is also a question related to .-1, can't they do some digital
    filtering so remove the background hiss type stuff?

    I remember being disappointed by the sound of the "Big Chill" CD.
    It wasn't "tinny and scratchy", but it was not what I had come to
    expect of CDs.  Flat and lifeless is how I would describe it.
    
    					Steve

    But look what you can do with even 30-year-old masters!  The MCA
    collection of Buddy Holly songs sounds like he's in my living room
    singing!  They remastered it from the original masters.
    
    No hiss.  No noise.  Wonderful! 
    
    Paul

    .19
      Ya that's what I was talking about Flat and Lifeless!
    {Thanks Steve for letting me use your definition}
    I bought the tape of "The Big Chill" when it first came out.
    It sounds great. When I saw it on CD I thought it could only be
    better. For some reason at least I think so, The CD sounds terrible.
    This has been my most disappointing CD purchase. I don't think it
    has anything to do with when the music was originally recorded, Because
    I have other stuff that was recorded before the 60's and it sounds fine
    on CD. A bad mix? Any opinions?  
    

    Seems to me that soundtrack CD's are often collections of songs
    by various artists, which more often than not orignially appeared 
    on different Record Labels.  (Big Chill, Dirty Dancing [the old
    stuff], etc.).
    
    Could it be that the compilations were not mastered from original
    master tapes,  but from inferior second generation tapes?
    
    "Dirty Dancing" is a prime example, because it's made up of half
    new stuff (probably DDD, or at least ADD) and half old stuff
    (at best ADD,  and more likely AAD).   The new stuff sounds great,
    but the old stuff sounds "flat and lifeless".   Since they're all
    on the same CD, they must come from different masters,  hence the
    idea that "Dirty Dancing" may be made up of half DDD and half AAD
    material!
    
    -Monty-

    RE: .15
    
    Yes, I have seen Cat People on CD. Sorry I don,t remember where.
    Cat People is also one of my favorites as is alot of Moroder material
     such as , American Gigolo, Midnight Express, and Foxes. 
    
    Dennis