[Help] The Thing (1982) -> Best Mix?

[spoRv]

Yep, good idea!

I'd include a PCM 2.0 from LD and Turbine 4.1.

[PDB]

Nice work PDB. I have choice paralysis just looking at that.

LOL sorry about that. I tried to balance having everything versus having as many interesting tracks as possible. With past projects I went for everything but here there is just no way to include it all. Frankly, as it is now this is still overkill but I did cull about 6 or 7 English tracks from this list already.

I haven't done an extensive comparative listening test yet. Been mostly working on the sync so I can't say what the major differences are. But for me, in my limited experience, I say just go with the letterbox LD 2.0 or the Sig LD 2.0.  Both of those sound good with little noise reduction that I can hear and seemly little messing with foley sounds. The Sig sounds a little beefed up but that might be my imagination. Either will be fine. If you want a discrete track go with the Shout 4.1 or for better sync the Turbine 4.1. Both are basically the same thing regardless of sync.

I said before the letterbox/WS and the Shout seem similar while the Arrow/Tur are like the Sig LD but all the 2.0s are slightly different. Short example here of the ricochet from Blair's gun:

Thanks for the effort, PDB!

I don't want to alter anything that is inherent to the original film, so if Turbine modified the audio to be different then what was made in 1982 then I rather not use it.

Even if I do not agree, I can't understand but... following your idea, what's the point to include track without "Superstitious", and even more, to add one that is corrected? Isn't it even worse?

Again, we should start a thread about "restoration ethics: do's and don'ts"!

This is a you-do-you kind of thing. You can choose whatever tracks you want that fit your philosophy about preservation/restoration. I mean you in a general sense not specifically you spoRv.

For those who want authentic, there are those tracks. For those who want sync, there are those track. For those who only care about 2.0 got all those. For discrete guys or people who like the 5.1 remix have all those too. You can pick and choose what you want. I even included the DTS-X which I personally think is garbage but someone might want.

The point of both versions of the letterbox is that the original LD track is preserved as it is found on the disc but since the movie was suppose to have that song there is that version also. So people can have it all

Changing the sync to me is, in theory, as the same as mixing into Atmos or DTS-X. It takes the film and changes it for modern sensibilities. To me, its no different then changing the colors of a film. But in practice, I have no hill to stand on because I have zero idea what the original was sync on The Thing. Maybe it was originally in sync and slow got screwed up over time on home video. That's entirely possible and has happened before. Or maybe it was always out of sync. All I know for sure is that all the soundtracks have different sync once visually/frame synced. So I have no idea which is the real deal.



And I, personally, can not see the major differences when watching close ups in the film. Others might be better and I'll wait for their assessment.

Incredible work PDB, hope you're not sick of the film by now!

It may be worth releasing this as an MKV with a default track, for example the WS LD PCM, then collecting the other tracks into a folder for optional muxing. Then folks can pick their poison so to speak

Yep, good idea!

I'd include a PCM 2.0 from LD and Turbine 4.1.

Hopefully I did everything right. It was a lot to line up and I'm not perfect.

Tired but never sick of it. Too good of a movie.

I'm fine with that idea of a MKV

and separate tracks. I think I can make it work.

[spoRv]

I said before the letterbox/WS and the Shout seem similar while the Arrow/Tur are like the Sig LD but all the 2.0s are slightly different. Short example here of the ricochet from Blair's gun:

Quite different indeed!!!

About sync: me too I always put in sync visually - I "suppose" the tracks are properly in sync; I can understand that few ms out of sync is none, so I do not care; I do care when I can easilsy detect track is out of sync, though!

[Hitcher]

Short example here of the ricochet from Blair's gun:

Is it sad that I knew exactly what gun shot you were referring to before I even checked the time stamp?

[X5gb]

To sync unedited commentary maybe sourcing the video from original dvd would help, unfortunately don’t have it to hand, only the audio which I passed to you.

[MrBrown]

On what DVD release was the unaltered commentary?

[Bigrob]

On what DVD release was the unaltered commentary?

the original non-anamorphic version

[PDB]

About sync: me too I always put in sync visually - I "suppose" the tracks are properly in sync; I can understand that few ms out of sync is none, so I do not care; I do care when I can easilsy detect track is out of sync, though!

I like doing waveform since it is a lot more precise. Problem is, for me, it takes forever because I scrutinize every last millisecond. So, for more current projects like Die Hard 2 and Star Trek II, I've done waveform for the laserdisc tracks but have done visually/frame sync for the DVD tracks. If I didn't I'd never finish those projects

Luckily for me, on those projects everything had the same frame count.

Is it sad that I knew exactly what gun shot you were referring to before I even checked the time stamp? 

Its an odd foley effect isn't it.

To sync unedited commentary maybe sourcing the video from original dvd would help, unfortunately don’t have it to hand, only the audio which I passed to you.

I have a copy but it oddly doesn't fit 100% on frame sync from the start so I synced to dialogue in the middle and it seems to work overall. I'll let others decide if it truly works.

I started manually editing the uncensored to the censored and found they cut out a lot. Not just the lines of dialogue but pauses like um, stuttering, JC's smoker's cough (but not always the sound of his bic lighting up a cig), gaps of silence, etc. I think it was not just for certain things said but to make the commentary sound more like a "professional edit".

I was going to sync the two DVD 5.1s and the HD DVD's EAC-3 5.1 but I'm burned out and there is enough there for now. I don't they vary enough to be a loss anyway. Here is the list, in order of home video release:

1. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the Letterbox laserdisc with "Superstition")
2. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the Letterbox laserdisc without "Superstition")
3. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the Signature laserdisc)
4. DTS-HD MA 5.1 (from the Universal BD)
5. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the Shout BD's DTS-HD MA 2.0)
6. DTS-HD MA 4.1 (from the Shout BD)
7. DTS-HD MA 5.1 (from the Shout BD)
8. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the Arrow BD)
9. PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround (from the Turbine BD's DTS-HD MA 2.0)
10. DTS-HD MA 4.1 (from the Turbine BD) - synced by Scavenger
11. DTS-HD MA 5.1 (from the Turbine BD) - synced by Scavenger
12. DTS 5.1 (from the Universal UHD BD)
13. DTS-X 7.1 (from the Universal UHD BD)
14. Commentary Unedited (from the Universal CE DVD)
15. Commentary Edited (from the Universal UHD BD)

I'm going to follow the recommendation here and upload the 1080p copy with just track 1 if people want that. Otherwise they can just take the tracks they need to sync to the UHD BD.

Anyway I'm beginning to pull everything together for an upload.

[stwd4nder2]

Fantastic work!
Looking forward to checking out the new 4k master with a decent audio track to go along with it.

[X5gb]

+1, Thanks for all your hard work PDB, look forward to the synced uncensored commentary.