2 Questions 4 Randy

[will]

(1) This was posted on another "soundtrack" website - any knowledge about it?

"According to a message on the John Barry forum, a Disney executive has said The Black Hole hasn't been released on CD because "...was recorded in 4-bit (most modern recordings are 16-bit or higher). When this was investigated in the past the master was deemed to be of insufficient sound quality to re-release, particularly as there would naturally be attention drawn to the so-called "better quality" of digital recording."

I looked at my LP of THE BLACK HOLE and it clearly states "A DIGITAL RECORDING", and to my knowledge, this was the first DIGITAL LP recording of it's kind. So how can it not be CD compatible.

(2) If I can buy b@#tL*g CDs of SOMETHING WICKED... and THE BLACK HOLE and MULAN and THE BLACK CAULDRON and well you get the picture, why hasn't DISNEY picked this up and release these soundtracks on CD for the general public?

 

[thx99]

"According to a message on the John Barry forum, a Disney executive has said The Black Hole hasn't been released on CD because "...was recorded in 4-bit (most modern recordings are 16-bit or higher).

I have serious doubts that THE BLACK HOLE score was recorded at 4-bit linear quantization (a.k.a., # of bits to encode each sample). It would be absolutely unlistenable and unusable for purposes of the film(!), much less the commercial LP release. And having listened to the LP, I can safely say that whatever quantization was used, assuming that it was a digital recording (which it appears to have been), it was well above 4-bit.

Now, it's entirely possible that because it was an early digital recording, the fidelity is below what is expected of modern recordings. We've obviously experienced this with recordings pre-magnetic tape, and it could apply here as well. Early digital-to-analog converters, though stated as 16-bit, often produced recordings with 12-bit resolution. But I doubt that even if this were the case with THE BLACK HOLE, that this would prevent Disney from releasing a CD.

"I looked at my LP of THE BLACK HOLE and it clearly states "A DIGITAL RECORDING", and to my knowledge, this was the first DIGITAL LP recording of it's kind. So how can it not be CD compatible.

Well, if a digital recording was not produced with the same specs as the CD standard (Red Book standard) of 16-bit/44.1 kHz, then the recording would ultimately have to be requantized to 16-bit and/or resampled to 44.1 kHz for production of an audio CD. These processes can be performed digitally or, gasp!, the original recording can be played back (digital-to-analog) and redigitized in the CD standard!! So, in effect, NO audio recording is CD incompatible!

(2) If I can buy b@#tL*g CDs of SOMETHING WICKED... and THE BLACK HOLE and MULAN and THE BLACK CAULDRON and well you get the picture, why hasn't DISNEY picked this up and release these soundtracks on CD for the general public?

Well, the mere fact that the b@#tL*g CDs are out there doesn't help the situation! It is rumored that Disney put the kibash on a CD of Paul Smith's score for 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA because of the existence of a b@#tL*g, which apparently leaked from someone inside. Disney, Universal, and Paramount are notorious for not releasing their film scores on CD, but certainly Randy's fantastic efforts with releasing various Disney scores/soundtracks have been a blessing!!

The reasons that certain film remain unreleased are many: high reuse fees (although that situation has improved over the years); damaged or missing original recordings and quality sources; disinterest on the part of the rights holder(s); difficult to legally ID the rights holder(s); no one willing to fork out large amounts of $$ for licensing, reuse, mastering, production, etc., with little hope of recouping costs (much less seeing a profit); etc.

 

[will]

thx 99

Thank you for the in-depth report. I would still like to hear what Randy has to say about the recording, whether it is ever released or not, or whether he knows anything about this memo - be it from Disney Execs or not.

As for the boots, as a shareholder of DIS I would rather get some reinvestment from my investment, but as a music lover, I will take what I can find -- and so far I have found on CD:

THE BLACK HOLE
SONG OF THE SOUTH
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES
TRUE LIFE ADVENTURES
THE MOON-SPINNERS
ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD
THE ONE and ONLY, GENUINE, ORIGINAL FAMILY BAND
THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE (expanded)
BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (expanded)
just to name a few