The Exorcist - 4K Audio Re-syncs

[woodsyallen]

After spending time re-sycning the '79 6-track surround remix to the open-matte 35mm scan that was floating around (thank god for DaVinci's cut detector feature) I decided it might be worthwhile going back and re-syncing all the various versions of the soundtrack to the two new 4K masters.

Look, there's no denying the 4K versions are flawed, especially in the final reel. But I think on the whole they're pretty good, and moving forward will be how I likely will want to watch the film.

However, my biggest beef is that the included surround track (Dolby Atmos) for the theatrical cut is based on the remix for the "Director's Cut"/Version You've Never Seen and includes a bunch of new FX added to that version. And while it's nice that they included the original mono version finally, it would have been nice to also have included the 70mm surround remix (which is apparently on the '97 flipper DVD), and the 25th anniversary surround remix (which is basically just a minor expansion of the mono mix into the rears).

Similarly for the DC, the new Atmos mix is impressive and all, but it really should have included the "original" Dolby EX remix.

So what I've done is gone back to my DVDs and Blu-rays, and extracted the audio tracks from those, and then hope to re-sync them all to the UHD so that people can then re-mux the tracks themselves.

I've already managed to get all the audio tracks, so that part's done, now the tricky part of losslessly re-syncing them begins. This is where I'm a bit stuck. I'm on a Mac, and have access to plenty of editing software solutions, but because some of these tracks are encoded as AC3 or DTS tracks, loading them in to slip them and edit them isn't exactly easy. Will gladly take suggestions on the best tools to do so (I'm a Final Cut guy myself, but have Premiere and Resolve at my disposal as well).

I did manage to take the 97 flipper DVD's surround track, and sync it to the UHD, and it seemed like there was only a 1-frame difference (the DVD starting one frame earlier). So I was able to re-mux with MKVToolsNix and offset the track by 1 frame (though had to figure out the offset in milliseconds) and skimmed through and visually things seem okay.

I'm less bothered by the DC remix, since it is in fact a remix, but after discovering that the Atmos mix does actually make a few changes from the original Dolby EX mix I figure it's worth preserving that, but for now the focus would be on the theatrical cut.

All this being said, if there's someone out there who wants to help and is better at this sort of thing by all means I'd be happy to send over my assets so far. I'm not too proud to admit I may not be the best person suited to this...

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Theatrical Cut
- Original Mono track (from UHD)
- Dolby Atmos Remix (from UHD)
- '97 Flipper DVD surround track (purportedly the 79 surround remix for the 70mm presentation)
- 25th Anniversary DVD surround track
- Blu-ray surround track (DTS version of 25th anniversary mix)

The Version You've Never Seen aka Director's Cut
- Dolby Atmos Remix (from UHD)
- Original DVD Dolby EX mix
- Blu-ray surround track (DTS version of the previous mix)


If anyone wants to help/offer advice please feel free. I'm new to this whole fan-edit/fan restoration biz, but would love to offer my contribution.

[alexp2000]

Hi Woodsyallen - check out this thread for a great guide to ac3 5.1 editing:

https://fanrestore.com/post-63512.html


The same method could work for DTS tracks if you convert them to FLAC first

[woodsyallen]

Hi Woodsyallen - check out this thread for a great guide to ac3 5.1 editing:

https://fanrestore.com/post-63512.html


The same method could work for DTS tracks if you convert them to FLAC first

Thanks so much! I'll definitely check this out. I'm terrible with command line tools but this seems relatively straightforward.

[alexp2000]

Haha if I can manage it anyone can! Just ask if you're having any issues and I'm sure someone will be happy to give you some pointers