[Released] Terminator 2 CDS mix

[MrBrown]

I try to make a small sample of the German audio at the battle this evening.
Maybe it is just a faulty PAL conversion, or the old German distributor tried to "pimp it up"...

[Stamper]

Ok I ordered the double french Blu will see if it has the original mix. At worse, it's unique as it has a french 3.0 track that seems unique to this release. It will also be worth checking out if the SE has the CDs track or not.

It may be that some of the Dolby Surround track on DVD out there on the T2 DVDs Ultimate and further might be the remix folded down to Dolby Surround.

My library have the DVD version of the same french double disc, so I'll rent it today to see if the 5.1 is the CDS or not.

After locating all the materials of the film, Van brought in Gary Rydstrom, the movie's original sound designer and the re-recording mixer who had won two of his four Oscars for T2, to begin re-mixing the entire movie and adjust it to near-field listening environments. "We did the mix last November," (1999) Van recalls. He and Lightstorm representatives went to George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch to remix the movie's soundtrack for use on the DVD. It took them about a week to do the work needed for both versions of the film and several other elements for the disc. "Luckily in 1993 when we did the Special Edition Laserdisc, we tried to do all the audio materials in six track, which helped us immensely now."

The soundtrack for the previous DVD release of T2 was created using a Sony linear 6-track, but for this release, Van and Gary went back to the original source elements they found. The result is a brand new 5.1 Dolby Digital mix that even contains spatial information for an additional rear center speaker as outlined in the Dolby Surround EX specifications. "The disc will actually contain the Dolby Digital 5.1 plus-EX track and a Dolby Digital 2.0 mix. We're also planning to create a DTS audio track, but we're currently still discussing whether that will be a separate release," Van explains. Because of DTS' heavy storage requirements he is concerned that adding the DTS track to the existing disc would ultimately force them to sacrifice the image quality, a tradeoff no one involved is willing to take on this prestigious project.

[Beber]

Stamper, the SE will not have the CDS mix. It's a theatrical cut mix only. And as it happens I manage to get the SE disc of that 2-disc set, so I already checked how it sounds. The question remains for the theatrical disc.

[Stamper]

OK. Regarding Dolby Surround mixes, I checked the japanese Geneon Blu-ray, and indeed the Dolby Surround track is NOT the original Dolby Surround, but the remix repurposed in Dolby Surround. The rhythm a 2mn is missing and appears a bit later during the scene like it does on the remix from 1999.

On a note, the rhythm appears on the 1999 mix when the armies of endoskeletons appears on screen.
It's absence create a hole in the sound, when a resistance fighter waves at the other to advance near a burned up wall, there's suddenly silence before the other music sounds starts again, that previously was covered by the rhythm beating constantly. If it was a creative decision to remove it, it's weird they didn't notice that it created an expiration on the soundtrack where previously there wasn't. We don't wanna take a breath there, we want to see more and more destruction it's the beginning!

Regarding the SE, the 1994 Laserdisc should have it with the CDs mix, only with the new parts newly mixed no?

It would be good if that LD track was issued by mistake on a Blu-ray somewhere.

[Beber]

Possibly on LD, but I would not expect it to be on Blu-ray or HD DVD. And would it be 5.1 or Dolby surround only? What's the status of T2 SE on LD regarding multichannel mixes?

[Stamper]

From what I can gather, the SE on LD is probably the CDS mix with the new parts newly mixed in 3 years later.

From the time the Ultimate Edition was issued in 2000, the SE features the 1999 remix with the parts mixed in 1994 remixed to blend. Not sure if there is a big difference in those parts between the two. I think the LD SE exists on the russian tracker with the original LD sound if you want to check.

So that means there was an original mix for the new scenes which isn't on DVD or Blu unless a mistake happened

[zoidberg]

The Special Edition Laserdisc only has Dolby Surround PCM and was a video only release (unlike The Abyss). So it was probably remixed using the Dolby SR stems, although I believe it may have been the first to suffer a near-field 'hobbling'. It would have debuted in 5.1EX on the Ultimate Edition DVD. For the Extreme DVD Van Ling recreated the jump cut frames that were lost when the camera negative was spliced to conform the o-neg.

[Stamper]

Can you see me smile? Can you see me effin' SMILE!?

I checked the DVD version of the same release as the double pack Studio Canal french Blu-ray and....


and.....



and...


it...

is...

the...

CDS MIX on the 5.1 english!!!

I checked the intro at 2mn and I could definetely hear the rhythm track (it also plays the same on the french Dolby Surround track), I checked the mall corridor scene and when Arnold kick his rifle into gear, there's no activity in the surrounds, the echo stays all front.

I'm getting the Blu-ray either tomorrow or monday (sent by post this afternoon by the seller) so assuming it has the same english track, only lossless, it means we will finaly have our hands on a pristine version of the original mix!!! YEAH!!!

[MrBrown]

I am going to check the French Theatrical Cut HD-DVD tonight for any evidence...
I forgot that Germany only got the SE cut on HD-DVD, so it is still possible that Studio Canal put the old mix on the TCs and the remix on the SEs in France, and with only SE on HD-DVD in Germany, the old mix was lost to Germany HD releases.

[Stamper]

Can you direct me to the post where all the differences between the mix are noted? Can't find it in this thread.

It maybe the french Theatrical Cut HD-DVD is also the same mix as the DVD. They share the same sleeve and were released at the same time.