Heavy Metal (1981) LD vs BD audio comparison PLUS downmixing tips

[SilverWook]

I should have samples of the missing sounds up tonight if my internet cooperates.

[jerryshadoe]

No worries

I'll take a look at it and let you guys know what can be done. Out of curiosity, was the audio on the VHS tape mono or stereo, as that does make a rather big difference in terms of splicing everything back in. Not saying that mono couldn't be spliced in, but it would require a little more finesse.

[SilverWook]

It's mono, and sadly not even Hi Fi. I doubt there were many stereo bootlegs out there in the old days. I bought more than a few "gray market" tapes at cons in the early 90's, and the quality was all over the map. I went through a lot of extra hassle on this, because the tape had either mold or bug droppings inside the shell, which required a little transplant surgery of the reel before I was going to risk playing it. I'm amazed the tape wasn't completely blank, or had been recorded over with pron to be honest.

These are VOB files easily viewed in VLC media player. I captured the sound as PCM. If the links don't work, let me know!

https://mega.nz/#!68V2zBaR!N_D-o1LfDLjQu...k6GqIgVXHw


https://mega.nz/#!G89CCZYJ!LmTTcR3SYDt-V...XXdbUAM8DU

There will hopefully be a better quality source for these very soon.

[dwalkerdon]

get the first Heavy Metal DVD from 1999 that has a Dolby Surround/Pro Logic Mix, that is most likely the theatrical stereo track!! convert it to WAV/PCM and it will get rid of the dialnorm!!

[dvdmike]

Amazing work

[stwd4nder2]

So the UHD is out, and it claims that it contains the "original 2.0 mix". But comparing it with the LD audio I'm not so sure.

Honorable mention: 14min 36.250sec - the BD contains something extra that isn't on LD. on the right channel (NOT center) we hear "thank god" and I did NOT add this into the LD audio

honorable mention: 33min 29sec - the line "power is not deminished" occurs 35ms early on LD, but was left "as-is" because music and sfx are still in-sync

Honorable mention: 40min 55sec - 41min 05sec - the dialog here is 35ms early on the LD while the music is in perfect sync with the BD. There is no lip-sync here, so I left it "as-is"

Honorable mention: 45min 40sec - the line "what the hell is happening back there?" occurs 430ms earlier on the LD but the music and sfx are still in perfect sync so left this one "as-is" (no onscreen lip-sync issue here)

Honorable mention: 44min 40sec - 44min 50sec - here, the dialog is 2.3 seconds (!) early on the LD, while the music and all sfx are identical and insync with the BD audio. Here, the BD audio is fucked up and they mixed this wrong. Most people didn't catch it because there is no onscreen lipsync issues, but the placement of the dialog makes sense on the LD, whereas on the BD is obvious that it's off. Left this "as-is." Also, on the LD, we hear "I'm coming b..." and then a clanking sound, whereas on the BD you hear the entire sentence because it's placed after the clanking sound.

Checked all of these. The UHD 2.0 is closer to the BD 5.1 then the LD. Possible downmix?

Here's a waveform comparison between the UHD and the LD. LD is on top.


And for anyone curious, the offset needed to sync this LD track to the UHD is +1021ms