[Request] Early Bond mono preservations

[pipefan413]

Depending on what's already been done and what others have available, I guess this could be seen as a request first and a proposal second.

Like many European discs, the UK Blu-ray releases of the early Bond films are filled up with foreign language dubs and do not include the original English mono, instead choosing to feature the 5.1 remix exclusively. This is rather frustrating for those of us who prefer to hear the original mix, particularly since the films were made here in the first place.

I notice that the US Blu-rays do feature the original mono, though only in low-bitrate Dolby Digital (AC3) as opposed to something like uncompressed LPCM. The old US Criterion Collection LaserDiscs also appear to feature the original mono mixes, although they are not entirely straightforward to source from because they add a Criterion logo and an alternative MGM logo at the beginning instead of the MGM lion seen on the Blu-rays (therefore the lion roar does not exist on the LaserDisc audio). Syncing it to the Blu-ray video would presumably be straightforward enough apart from having to source the lion roar from somewhere else and disguising the transition between the two sources.

Here are the big priorities, and the ones I could possibly do myself using Criterion LaserDisc sources if I could work out the lion problem:

Dr. No (1962)
From Russia With Love (1963)
Goldfinger (1964)

Ideally, I'd also like the following:

Thunderball (1965)

Thankfully, The Aluminum Falcon has already done a restoration of On Her Majesty's Secret Service including the original mono from LaserDisc in LPCM. From memory, I don't think the colours are quite as horrible in the first four films, so I'm really just concerned with restoring the original mono audio for them in the best quality possible.

Does anyone have such a thing already, or is anyone willing and able to do it? If not, I'm probably either going to try a LaserDisc resync myself or simply import the US Blu-rays with the lossy Dolby Digital tracks.

EDIT: I've just realised that I could source the lion roar from Aluminum Falcon's OHMSS restoration, so that might be enough for me to do the first three films. However, I've also noticed that the LaserDisc tracks I have aren't actually LPCM because they've been repurposed for DVD as Dolby Digital. Presumably, they're therefore not significantly better than the Dolby Digital mono tracks on the US Blu-ray Discs. Perhaps importing from the US is the answer here. I was really hoping to avoid buying these films for something like the fourth time...

[Stamper]

I’m already syncing them all, done Dr. No OHMSS and Goldeneye already. Releases soon.

[pipefan413]

I’m already syncing them all, done Dr. No OHMSS and Goldeneye already. Releases soon.

You're a legend, sir.

[alleycat]

I'm also just in the middle of doing these as Criterion preservations, Dr no done, FRWL almost done, just Goldfinger left to do.

[pipefan413]

I’m already syncing them all, done Dr. No OHMSS and Goldeneye already. Releases soon.

Just to be clear, what will the releases entail? Is this the unmodified Blu-ray transfers used as vid source, but with the addition of digital 1.0 16-bit LPCM mono (plus the commentaries, possibly) from LaserDisc? (Or are we talkin' synced audio tracks without video so we can mux ourselves?)

[Stamper]

They are on the list.

I've done and checked Dr. No on my set up. I sync all available tracks on the THX DVDs as they have all the same sync. English, french, and spanish. Once synced, it appears quality varies on a lot depending on the mixes, for example the spanish mix mono sound way better than the others.

However I add any LD audio rip that others have made, so for example, the Dr. No LD sync is the best of all the lot. I also synced a french LD track.

Note these are synced to the Blu-ray tracks, but I also sync them on the 4K tracks using a delay. I will give the delay for each release so that people can all enjoy them on either the Blu-ray or the 4K.

[pipefan413]

They are on the list.

I've done and checked Dr. No on my set up. I sync all available tracks on the THX DVDs as they have all the same sync. English, french, and spanish. Once synced, it appears quality varies on a lot depending on the mixes, for example the spanish mix mono sound way better than the others.

However I add any LD audio rip that others have made, so for example, the Dr. No LD sync is the best of all the lot. I also synced a french LD track.

Note these are synced to the Blu-ray tracks, but I also sync them on the 4K tracks using a delay. I will give the delay for each release so that people can all enjoy them on either the Blu-ray or the 4K.

Cool! Well, do let me know once you're happy with 'em and I'll drink those buggers right up. You doing the Criterion commentaries as well or should I go ahead and attempt to sync those myself? I have 'em as slightly iffy analogue captures with the odd pop here and there but I suppose they function well enough!

[Stamper]

Nope I'm not touching the Criterion as they are based on different masters with differences in frames between each reel.

The 007 films starting with the THX DVDs and the SEs, are mostly the exact same save for differences at the starts.

[pipefan413]

Nope I'm not touching the Criterion as they are based on different masters with differences in frames between each reel.

The 007 films starting with the THX DVDs and the SEs, are mostly the exact same save for differences at the starts.

Ah, interesting. Thanks for the info!

[Johnny-5]

Blah-Ray has made a new blog post about Dr. No comparing the mono mixes on pretty much every release. According to him:

1988 MGM LaserDisc [ML101401] - Connery Classics: Very natural and quite detailed. It suffers a bit from being an analogue track, which introduces distortion during loud moments, but it fares well overall and is probably my second favourite release. Strangely, a 20-minute segment starting at about 17:00 has more hiss than the rest of the film, yet it doesn't possess any more or less detail.

1991 Criterion LaserDisc [CC1292L]: The best sounding edition overall, with minimal (if any) high frequency attenuation and no problematic EQ changes. It's evident that the best extant sound elements of this film are probably optical rather than magnetic, since it still sounds considerably worse than From Russia with Love.

It does have one error, though: the end music transitions into what is apparently the soundtrack version of the Bond theme. The edit isn't concealed well.

So ideally one would take the MGM Laserdisc ending audio and splice it onto the Criterion track for the best possible mono mix for the film. Does anyone happen to own these?

As for From Russia with Love, Blah-Ray's blog post for that states that the 1992 MGM Connery Collection Laserdisc sounds the best, with the 1993 MGM Laserdisc sounding similar. The included waveforms look slightly different, but I'm not sure which one would seem better.

He hasn't made an in-depth post for Goldfinger yet, although I imagine that will come sometime in the near future.

(Also, this thread should probably be moved to the Audio projects subforum.)