Frankenstein (1931) Audio Preservation

[crissrudd4554]

I’m going to the Dracula Frankenstein reissue on Saturday. If anything stands out about the audio I’ll report back though I imagine the audio will be more or less the same as the regular BD especially since someone on Blu-ray.com checked out the 4K version of Frankenstein on iTunes and from his observation it seems the audio was the same.

What about the jump cuts in Frankenstein and Bride ? Any informations on those ?

I can’t comment on those. I haven’t seen the 4K Frankenstein yet and there’s no version of Bride in 4K available at the moment. Only Dracula, Frankenstein, Invisible Man and Wolf Man are being released in 4K at the moment.

[stwd4nder2]

Where are the jump cuts in Frankenstein? I'm also going to a showing on Saturday, I'll try and look out for them and report back.

[crissrudd4554]

Where are the jump cuts in Frankenstein? I'm also going to a showing on Saturday, I'll try and look out for them and report back.

It’s not really a jump cut per se. It’s something that’s always been there but on the Blu-ray they sorta reconfigured it I guess you could say.

It’s when Fritz and Henry are pushing the cart with the coffin up the the hill towards the gallows. Previously there was a jump mid sequence. Either something was cut or they tried combining two separate takes and it didn’t quite match. For the Blu-ray they changed the timing of the sequence to basically run smoothly with only Fritz, Henry and the cart now jumping mid sequence rather than the whole shot.

[crissrudd4554]

Just got back from the showing and yeah a rinse and repeat mostly. Same audio track. Sure there were moments it stood out well in a theatre situation but overall it was the same. Same quality, missing bits still missing, yaddiyaddiyadda. Am I surprised?? Nope I expected this. And yes the jump cut “fix” remains.

[stwd4nder2]

Yeah, it was pretty jarring going from Dracula, which had a lot of noise but otherwise sounded pretty good, to Frankenstein.

[stwd4nder2]

FYI the new UHD is in perfect sync with the old BD, so this project will mux just fine with it.

[crissrudd4554]

FYI the new UHD is in perfect sync with the old BD, so this project will mux just fine with it.

That’s good to know!

[Turisu]

crissrudd, would you say the audio tracks on the 1999 DVDs are superior to the BD/UHD tracks? I happen to have these DVDs and I'm wondering if it's worth syncing them to the new UHDs.

[crissrudd4554]

crissrudd, would you say the audio tracks on the 1999 DVDs are superior to the BD/UHD tracks? I happen to have these DVDs and I'm wondering if it's worth syncing them to the new UHDs.

In ways yes in ways no, at least in Frankenstein’s case. It’s definitely a much cleaner sounding track than the BD but I also sorta consider that part of its problem. The 1999 track has been heavily filtered to remove audio crackle and the results are a mixed bag.

The biggest problem is for the most part it’s too quiet. I tend to have to turn the volume up each time I watch it just to hear anything. But then there are scenes where some effects seem to be mixed higher than others so you get a mix that ranges from very quiet for the most part to somewhat louder in spots.

So it’s kinda a double edged sword. Would I prefer it over the BD track?? Absolutely but there are problems it has that are a bit hard to ignore each time I hear it.

[captainsolo]

Dracula is the biggest example due to the complete de-hissing of the BD audio and the 1999 audio being the easiest to grab that is complete, uncut and hiss is intact.

We need to do a deep dive comparison on all of the Uni horrors audio outside of Frankenstein. I'm not entirely sure on every single film but the audio does seem to vary from title to title on which edition my ears seem to prefer. The general rule of thumb is the older the edition the less messed with it will be-but the further back you go the worse the element used will likely be.