SonicAdventure
05-12-2017, 12:02 PM
WHY?
A few months ago, someone approached me via PM and asked if I had heard the expanded version of 'First Blood: Part II' released by Intrada. I did not, this score has never been one of my favourites. I used to own the old SilvaScreen version but I sold it more than a decade ago when I needed the money (at that point it was quite rare). Anyway, that person reported that the score now sounded brittle and generally awful. Subsequently I read other opinions on FSM confirming this, there seemed to be some issues with the sound. So I decided to order it, to Hell with my opinion ;) When it arrived, I listened to it and thought that "brittle" doesn't even cover it halfway. 'Rambo II' by Intrada is in fact one of the worst sounding CDs I've ever listened to. Causing me to remaster it or, in other words, doing the mastering Douglass Fake should have been doing in the first place.
DIGITAL HISTORY & EMPHASIS & SOUND:
Before I arrive at the sound issues of the Intrada set, I have to explain some things first. When the CD was released in 1982 digital recording was still in its infancy. Digital Noise and aliasing rejection (getting rid of ghost frequencies) were still problematic for early PCM converters. To counter those problems, Sony/Philips embedded a sound effect into the CD standard, called Emphasis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emphasis_(telecommunications)#Red_Book_audio). Emphasis (or Pre-Emphasis) basically is an optional switch built into those PCM converters that boosts treble by effectively 12 dB before the analogue signal is digitized. The signal is then recorded with a huge amount of treble unsuited for normal listening. That treble-heavy signal is then pressed onto CD. When that CD is played back, the CD player recognizes this Emphasis automatically and rolls off treble by the same amount used to boost it during recording (De-Emphasis). Not only would the frequency response be back to normal, the noise of the ADC (Analogue/Digital converter) would be gone as well. Sort of like a digital Dolby. But how would the CD player recognize that the CD was encoded with Emphasis? In the data stream resides something called a "Flag" (or "Emphasis-bit"). If this bit is set within the data stream, the CD player recognizes it and activates the treble roll-off normally not used for all other CDs. While all of this sounds nice in theory it wasn't used often. When it was, it was mostly for classical music. A famous example in mainstream music would be the first CD release of 'Dark Side Of The Moon' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon) by Pink Floyd, released on CD in 1984.
Why is this important for Rambo II? Bruce Botnick downmixed the multi-track mastertapes, done by Mike Ross-Trevor in London, to 2-track. He recorded the result on one of those early PCM adaptors, a Sony PCM-1610 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCM_adaptor). While this converter was a machine used in many recording studios at that time, it was also (in)famous for its sub-standard aliasing rejection. To alleviate those problems, Bruce Botnick apparently recorded the downmix using Emphasis (the PCM-1610 does have a switch for it). All of this is no problem - if it's recognized properly. When you now copy the contents of this Emphasis-encoded 2-track master digitally to a, say, DAT-Tape, the Emphasis-bit will be copied as well, enabling the DAT-recorder to switch on the treble roll-off. BUT: when you digitally copy the 2-track master with a digital audio workstation (a computer equipped with a soundcard featuring digital inputs), the Emphasis-bit is ignored, effectively deleted. The same happens when you use a CD burner (or DVD drive, Bluray drive) to copy for example the album by Pink Floyd mentioned above (Exact Audio Copy does indeed show you if the Emphasis-bit is set).
I believe that Douglass Fake copied the contents of the 2-track mastertape with a workstation with the result that the Emphasis-bit was gone. Now, what was shocking to me was that he either didn't realize that this master was recorded using Emphasis or that he chose to ignore it. Both are pretty bad. The latter would mean that he doesn't know how something sounds natural, the former that he doesn't know what Emphasis is and how to properly recognize it (which I can't believe). So basically, the Intrada version of Rambo II is an Emphasis encoded CD where no CD player will recognize that it is encoded. How does it sound? It sounds as if you turned the bass knob down on your amp while you turn treble to max. The sound is very noisy, piercing and way too thin. Not very good, wouldn't you agree? And this is not the first time this has happened with releases mastered by Douglass Fake. 'Predator' suffers from too much treble, too. With that one, Douglass recognized the elevated noise levels caused by NOT using De-Emphasis. What did he do? He de-noised it. The latest version of 'Secret of Nimh' suffers from it, too. Though I'm very puzzled with that one - it was an analogue copy so there couldn't have been any Emphasis active.
So my main goal was to compensate for Pre-Emphasis. Luckily, this is extremely easy to do, many EQs already come with a pre-set for Emphasis. I confirmed its existence by cross checking with the safety copy of the SilvaScreen version I did many years ago before I sold it: when I apply a De-Emphasis setting to the Intrada release, it sounds exactly like the Silva Screen release (minus the awful dynamic compression). But when I applied it, I revealed a problematic mix. Several tracks were sounding decidedly different (aka muffled): tracks 3, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16 & 22. Which means I had to alter their frequency response to fit the rest. These tracks also had some stereo balancing issues that weren't corrected by Douglass. So I had to do it. Mind you, I wasn't fully successful, some issues remain. And for all tracks something else is true: if Rambo II needs one thing it's bass, not treble. In the end I applied a setting I was happy with, making the sound slightly more contemporary. Even more important is that tracks now sound consistent (down to the trailer music and the song). This is one of the goals of mastering: sound should be the same from track to track. You can argue that the way Doug did it would have more historic value. But I think that the ultimate goal of music is to be enjoyed by people, you and me. And for that, it has to sound good, with a frequency response and dynamics that play well on any system. I'm very happy with the sound I ended up with, it's pleasant but still gritty. BUT: the tracks from the promo cassette tape still sound like shit. But I got rid of the odd latency issues between left and right channel and added a very slight touch of reverb. De-noising was impossible so expect three noisy tracks at the end. BTW, I didn't de-noise, it wasn't necessary. And while I changed the gain of some tracks (making them softer) I didn't use dynamic compression, it wasn't necessary since soft parts were loud enough.
You know why Douglass Fake masters himself? To save on money spent on releases. Since he is the boss of Intrada he only spends his time instead of paying a mastering engineer. IMO, he should leave mastering to other people. From everything I know about the Intrada-release of Rambo II it is clear that it has been a labour of love. But then why doesn't it sound like it and why does it have so much issues? No self-respecting person would listen to it and say "Yup, it's finished." I cannot understand why it was released like this. Don't get me wrong. I like Douglass Fake, I really do. He is a character and I always like people with opinions. He's funny and not an idiot. And he's passionate about scores and wants to release as much as possible to make us happy. He's a treasure. But when it comes to mastering he does decisions I cannot support most of the time.
COVER:
IMO, the design of the Intrada CD was also lacking. So I attempted to correct this. But otherwise the cover is my usual mediocre job, it's not beautiful and not stylish. But it does the job. I hope.
Contents:
Essentially I took the contents of Disc 1, remastered them and added the trailer music and the three cassette-tape alternates. I also remastered the contents of Disc 2 - but not to the same extent. The music on Disc 2 has worse sound quality compared to Disc 1 and only serves some historic value. So my version of Rambo II is a 1-CD release, IMO this is enough. BUT: you can still download the rest if you want to. The additional tracks not on my Edition can be found in the archive called "RednecksRest".
Despite my reservations with the music I enjoy this Edition. And I hope you will too. So have fun 🙂
Tracklist:
1. Carolco Logo 0:18
2. Main Title 2:14
3. The Map 0:59
4. Preparation 1:19
5. The Jump 3:20
6. The Snake 1:55
7. The Pirates 1:31
8. Stories 3:31
9. The Camp 1:25
10. Forced Entry 1:03
11. The Cage 3:59
12. River Crash 2:23
13. The Gunboat 1:19
14. Betrayed 4:26
15. Bring Him Up 1:18
16. The Eyes 1:01
17. Escape From Torture 3:43
18. Ambush 2:48
19. Revenge 6:17
20. Bowed Down 1:06
21. Pilot Over 1:56
22. Village Attack / Helicopter Fight 4:55
23. Pre Lift Off / Home Flight 3:26
24. Day By Day 2:09
25. Peace In Our Life (Performed by Frank Stallone) 3:20
26. Rambo Promo No. 1 (Original) 1:06
27. Rambo Promo No. 2 (Revised) 1:08
28. The Map (Alternate) 1:01
29. Helicopter Fight (Alternate) 4:20
30. End Credits (Alternate) 3:14
Pass (for all archives): TotalKillCount:69
CD (16/44.1):
https://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/FYR2OEYG/RepublicansDelight.rar_links
MP3 (VBR):
https://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/WWQ6WSIA/SmallRepublicansDelight.rar_links
HiRes (24/88.2):
https://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/FN1DHNLL/BigRepublicansDelight.part1.rar_links
https://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/1YEXUZHN/BigRepublicansDelight.part2.rar_links
Additional Tracks (MP3):
https://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/1USSOHLO/RednecksRest.rar_links
Considering recent takedown events here at the Shrine, maybe someone would like to provide mirrors? :)
