Frankenstein (1931) Audio Preservation

[crissrudd4554]

Did you read my post last night about the 1999 DVD?? Would that by any chance be of use to this project?? Keep in mind we haven't seen, well heard, examples of your results as of now so I'm not entirely sure what would be useful and what wouldn't. Also I guess it's time for me to be the annoying perfectionist but anyways I wanted to point something out since I know you've made edits to keep everything in sync and you're making an 'enhanced' track. In the scene where the Monster makes his first entrance, between the point when he turns to Henry and Henry says 'Come in. Come in' there's some tapping/clicking going on. On the mix used since 2004 aka the BD mix these aren't there. Most likely the boys at Universal mistook this for audio crackle and removed it. However, listening carefully and considering that most if not all pre 2004 releases have it, I don't think that's what it was. I think it's just some noise going off in the background and not some glitch in the track. Below is the scene from the 1999 DVD if you wanna compare. Skip to 0:27.

http://youtu.be/nur4g4r1LN4

[jerryshadoe]

I did read your post and I was doing some research before I answered your question. From what I have been able to find online, MRA Entertainment released TWO different copies of the film, the first in 1999 (the one that I posted the ebay link for and the one referenced in your hi-fi writer link) with an LPCM track and the second release was in 2003 (the one that you posted an ebay link to) that had a Dolby track (which is even in the description of the ebay link you posted) and that second one is the WRONG one! The way you can tell it's the correct disc is by the "Silver Screams" logo on top of the front cover of the DVD. Yes, it's from an old transfer. Yes, it's the old censored version. Yes, there is a really good chance that it's identical to the LD PCM audio track. Should it be acquired? Hmmm... That one review I posted earlier suggests that there are no clicks, pops, or drop-out which would mean that it's not identical to the LD audio. But there's two things to consider there: one, how reliable is this guys review? (some of the other ones I have read by him for discs that I own, were not always accurate) two, what if it's the track sounds like that because of noise reduction? (although, again, I have a hard time believing that considering how poor the picture quality of that DVD is)

Really, without getting it, I'll never know... Is it that important? NO!

Now, on to the foreign dubs and things I have "discovered."

So, the French and German dubs are lower fidelity than the English version, mostly because there was some noise reduction applied there too, although not as liberally as the English track. One first glance, some of the elements appear to be from the same "master" (i.e. identical scratches, clicks, etc. to the English track) and some appear to be from different elements. Most likely, won't use anything from either of these. The Italian track has everything dubbed, including the Latin bits, and a lot of the crowd yelling too. Some of the sfx are different too. The parts that are the same, also appear to be from the same "master" as the English version, although a generation later (in other words, a dupe which introduces more degradation) Some noise reduction was applied, although it seems to be less than the French and German dubs. And then, there's the Spanish dub... it has almost no noise reduction at all, if any. The elements used in it appear to be from an entirely different "master" than any of the other language versions (given away by scratches, clicks, fidelity, etc.) To make things even sweeter, it's a nice "middle-ground" in quality between the English LD PCM track and the CD audio I have now.

Most of the parts that I wanted to fix involve no dialog (except for the uncensored dialog, which is also on the CD) so I should be able to use a combo of the CD and Spanish dub to fill in ALL parts that need it.

HOLY SHIT!!! Before I posted this, just out of curiosity I checked the uncensored dialog part on the Spanish dub. That part is in ENGLISH (it roughly switches from "It's alive. It's alive!" in Spanish to "In the name of God, now I know what if feels like to be God!" in English!)

I was right that the CD has been slightly filtered. This part of the audio on the Spanish dub is COMPLETELY UNFILTERED and doesn't have that "crystallized" sound to it that is present on the BD and to a lesser extent on the CD. But on the Spanish dub, it's a "raw" transfer!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

With this development, I can now confidently say that I have EVERYTHING I need to do a complete proper preservation and separate restoration of the audio:victory:

[crissrudd4554]

WORD!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[crissrudd4554]

P.S. I'm not sure what I'm looking forward to most. The complete track(s) or the completed log that details everything you've done! XD

[jerryshadoe]

Well, it's gonna make the post where you were apologizing for "...the long post" look like a single sentence in an entire book, LOL

As far as the audio "crackle" you referred to that was removed from the BD, I did NOT remove this from the LD audio

[crissrudd4554]

Well, it's gonna make the post where you were apologizing for "...the long post" look like a single sentence in an entire book, LOL

As far as the audio "crackle" you referred to that was removed from the BD, I did NOT remove this from the LD audio

Lol oddly enough I believe you! And AWESOME!!!!!

[jerryshadoe]

For those interested in the quality comparison for the uncensored line:

https://mega.nz/#!lYYE3TYb!oUEuUhbOckDpS...QBHQe-WjrY

The first six seconds is audio from the English BD track and the second six seconds is audio from the Spanish dub BD track.
The difference is night and day!

Here's the spectral analysis:

[Image: J4Vifcf.png]

[crissrudd4554]

Some slight clarity on the Spanish dub track although it sounds like theres an extra roll of thunder in the background while he says the line. Still, impressive catch!

[jerryshadoe]

I wonder if that's the way it sounded originally and on the English track it can't be heard due to the noise reduction... Although that's just speculation. When it comes to hearing the difference - it was pretty obvious when I listened on headphones and extremely obvious when I listened to it on my YAMAHA sound system.

As far as "catching" this, I have done stuff like this a couple of times before and learned a long time ago that foreign dubs can be a "lifesaver" due to the fact that they are usually from entirely different masters. When it comes to the uncensored line of dialog, that was just a hunch (a "gut" feeling) that told me to check that too and I (well, "we") just got lucky:victory:

[crissrudd4554]

A little off topic but here's a commentary I did for the film about 2 years ago. Not scripted so I stumble from time to time but I give myself an A for effort. I'll probably do another one though XD

https://vimeo.com/87491842