Thanks again for both parts of the soundtrack. I have spent many hours comparing it to my Lp version, haha.
One thing that I noticed, and it may just be my ears, but the climax to Ave Maria, starting at the final sung verse, has been severely flattened, dynamically.
Furthermore, listen to the first words sung by the woman, it sounds like a different person! (The rest is the same of course)
What first drew my attention was that I had the 1990 track playing in the background while doing other things, and I was waiting for the dynamic ending, but suddenly the track was already over. I though to myself, was I that distracted?. I listened to it again, and sure enough the entire ending seems normalized, flat, and even, to the point of no dynamic change (which is why I missed it).
I put them both into an audio editor to look at the waveforms, and it definitely seems that way.
here is an image of the waveforms: http://i.imgur.com/B0zfyPB.jpg
and audio comparison file: http://www.mediafire.com/?704h5fxbrdpbjtj
first you will here the 1990 version starting right where the female verses start, to the end. then you will here the 1957 LP version.
What do you think?
reply
share
DickyBettsBass
11 years ago
You're absolutely right! This is fascinating stuff indeed. Hadn't noticed it. The voice on your recording is so much more resonant and warm, and more dynamic, it gives me a 'Deanna Durbin' period feeling of involvement and emotion, if you know what I mean, in a way my restored version doesn't. So great to have this!
What happened? It seems like Dolbyfication made it sound dull, and the flattening? I guess the editor missed a cue here, or perhaps thought that a higher volume for the choir would lead to edgy distortion. No way, as your recording proves.
Dicky
reply
share
eightiesarecool
11 years ago
The DVD and Blu-ray make it sound even flatter because at least I could hear the harp strings on the VHS!
reply
share
starbond8
11 years ago
Another thing too is the the flattening of the string backing at that spot. In the 1957 version as soon as she starts, the strings are very fluid and full, along with the harps. In the 1990, you can barely hear anything but the voice.
I'm kinda sad that Ave Maria is located at the (physical) end of the record. It becomes victim to "inner grove distortion" in which the last few minutes of the track gets scratchy for no other reason but for its location on the LP. So where the choirs sound get rough, its just the stylus not reading the record correctly.
This is a bit unrelated, but still kinda neat: You know the " jazz improv" movement where the orchestra gets jazzy? Well in the 1990 VHS version, you actually see different angles and scenes than in the "restored" DVD version. Granted the scene is shortend in the VHS version, but its still cool to go back see a few seconds of scenes you havent seen in the later versions.
reply
share
DickyBettsBass
11 years ago
OK, that's weird, but a nice find .... I have the VHS, but my player is broken.
By the way, you can listen to (and download) Leopold Stokowski's 1937 monaural recording of 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' here:
http://www.stokowski.org/1937_Electrical_Recordings_Stokowski.htm
I hear some notable differences with the stereo recording.
Also, John Canemaker will publish an annotated, printed edition of the famous rediscovered Schultheis Notebooks in 2014 - the ones already shown on the Blu-ray disk. It will show, for instance, how live action effects like tracking shots, rotating cogwheels, bubbling mud, ink dissolving in water etc. were integrated into the Fantasia animation, rippled and frosted glass and bent metal sheets were used to distort images, among lots of other things.
http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=3080
I will certainly get it!
Dicky
reply
share
starbond8
11 years ago
Nice find! The quality is pretty nice for its age. and sounds similar to the way the 1957 LP is. (a.k.a. accurate to its time period)
That book is incredible! I feel like people should really give more credit to Fantasia, if at least for the pioneering graphical effects that went into making it. I look forward to checking it out.
reply
share