Jerry Goldsmith / Rambo II (Deluxe Edition) / FLAC / MP3 / HiRes / Remastered

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? 🙂

Ah, Yes. Finally. Thank you for the work.

Great !!! Thanks a lot !

Thank you very much for this, Sonic!!

thank you

Thank you!!

…you know that Disc 1 was repressed later with the complete version of "the Map"?

from the Intrada Forum:

We have re-visited CD 1 of our Rambo II release to include the take of "The Map" that ends with a 13-second coda. Since we needed to create a new master and re-press the first disc anyway, I decided to go ahead and "drop in" the two wild percussion hits that go with "The Cage",

Thank you very much!

Fant�stico!!!… Magn�fico, amigo!!!… Thousand thanks!!!… 🙂
A great Jerry score… One of my favorite!!!…

Thank you

grateful thanks for sharing your hard work my friends!!!

…you know that Disc 1 was repressed later with the complete version of "the Map"?

from the Intrada Forum:

We have re-visited CD 1 of our Rambo II release to include the take of "The Map" that ends with a 13-second coda. Since we needed to create a new master and re-press the first disc anyway, I decided to go ahead and "drop in" the two wild percussion hits that go with "The Cage",

No, I didn’t know.

Intrada’s version sounded awful… like you said… no Bottom end … all top end ….. plus the weird Stereo Balancing on some of the tracks …. really disappointing ….

———- Post added at 04:18 PM ———- Previous post was at 04:16 PM ———-

…you know that Disc 1 was repressed later with the complete version of "the Map"?

from the Intrada Forum:

We have re-visited CD 1 of our Rambo II release to include the take of "The Map" that ends with a 13-second coda. Since we needed to create a new master and re-press the first disc anyway, I decided to go ahead and "drop in" the two wild percussion hits that go with "The Cage",

that’s great but did they fix the sound issues and did they re/mix and Master the Album to make it sound better

Hello
Great job
thanks

Thank you very much.

This sounds sweet

Thanks!!!

AWESOME Share Sonic & Thank you so much again 🙂

This sounds so vibrant & rich on my Hi-Res player & headset!!

I’m loving it. =)

Thank You so much for your hard work!!

Saved a copy of your first post for the explanation, makes it all the more special!

that’s great but did they fix the sound issues and did they re/mix and Master the Album to make it sound better

PeterJJ was so nice to send me the re-pressed first disc. And except for the aforementioned altered tracks it is exactly the same as the first pressing. BTW, I don’t think I will alter my set. The addition to "the Map" sounds very strange, this little snippet seems very unnecessary. The percussion hits in "The Cage" can be found in my additional-tracks-archive and I think that they – if they are used within "Cage" – are not good for the flow. I would be interested: what was the version Jerry Goldsmith intended?

And except for the aforementioned altered tracks it is exactly the same as the first pressing.

ok…thanx…that is cleared up now….

Thanks a lot!

Thank you again for your work on this score, Sonic. As a matter of fact, I like the music.
I think it’s Goldsmith’s funniest "muscle score" 🙂

This is a terrific score. Thanks very much for taking the time to work your magic!

Great post, love it!

Thank you kindly.

One of Goldsmith’s best scores!
Thanks for you effort!

Thank you!

Thank you all for the nice words 🙂

Sonic, this has always been one of my favorite Goldsmiths. I’ve never seen the movie, except once a bit on TV, just to see the Goldsmith music on the screen, and it is hilariously bad. Didn’t watch enough to spoil the music for me forever afterwards, though. I’ve got it on LP, the Silva, and as I was cooking supper just a couple hours ago, I was listening to the Intrada. For one of my favorite pieces of music, have to admit I’ve been puzzled at how uninvolving the Intrada has sounded. Thought I was just getting bored with the music.

Now I know. Just started listening to yours and it’s like hearing it for the first time all over again. What the heck happened at Intrada? Well, you said what the heck happened at Intrada. But still… ??? What the…

This is what it’s supposed to sound like!

Thank you so much for restoring an old friend to me. This is just wonderful. I’d say more but I have to go and un-pause it right now. All the best, you’re the best, and thanks again!

Thanks. Excellent work as always. The sound is better.

Thanks again!
I’m surprised you don’t like this score, it’s one of Goldsmith’s best!

Sonic, this has always been one of my favorite Goldsmiths. I’ve never seen the movie, except once a bit on TV, just to see the Goldsmith music on the screen, and it is hilariously bad. Didn’t watch enough to spoil the music for me forever afterwards, though. I’ve got it on LP, the Silva, and as I was cooking supper just a couple hours ago, I was listening to the Intrada. For one of my favorite pieces of music, have to admit I’ve been puzzled at how uninvolving the Intrada has sounded. Thought I was just getting bored with the music.

Now I know. Just started listening to yours and it’s like hearing it for the first time all over again. What the heck happened at Intrada? Well, you said what the heck happened at Intrada. But still… ??? What the…

This is what it’s supposed to sound like!

Thank you so much for restoring an old friend to me. This is just wonderful. I’d say more but I have to go and un-pause it right now. All the best, you’re the best, and thanks again!

Really?? Awww, thanks! This is why I do it 🙂

P.S.: Don’t watch the movie 😉

———- Post added at 12:51 PM ———- Previous post was at 12:50 PM ———-

Thanks again!
I’m surprised you don’t like this score, it’s one of Goldsmith’s best!

Can’t help it. But it gets worse with the third while I love the first!

Thanks for the share�

Thank you so much for sharing another sparkling remaster, Sonic! As a Goldsmith devotee, it is a great pleasure to hear his music so well represented. And as the we begin to transition into Summer, I expect this will be in regular listening rotation with Goldsmith’s other muscular adventure scores 🙂

Thank you so much for sharing another sparkling remaster, Sonic! As a Goldsmith devotee, it is a great pleasure to hear his music so well represented. And as the we begin to transition into Summer, I expect this will be in regular listening rotation with Goldsmith’s other muscular adventure scores 🙂

That’s great, music should be fun! Especially Goldsmith’s 🙂

Thank you so much- love that score and Goldsmith’s work!

Oh man! Never thought this would come. Really thanks that you took up the challenge and add in your magic touch!

———- Post added at 11:01 PM ———- Previous post was at 10:57 PM ———-

PeterJJ was so nice to send me the re-pressed first disc. And except for the aforementioned altered tracks it is exactly the same as the first pressing. BTW, I don’t think I will alter my set. The addition to "the Map" sounds very strange, this little snippet seems very unnecessary. The percussion hits in "The Cage" can be found in my additional-tracks-archive and I think that they – if they are used within "Cage" – are not good for the flow. I would be interested: what was the version Jerry Goldsmith intended?

Sonic, the film version used the additional overlays in the Cage. As for what Jerry intended for the album, he left out two of the percussion hits. There’s two ways about it. With the percussions hit, it sounded very much like classic Goldsmith’s style. Without, it’s still effective as this was the version intended for the album and what we are used to through the years before this new expanded edition comes around.

Thank you very much!

Thanks for the share downloaded the Hi Res files sounds superb.

Another great version thank you Sonic, top notch.

Thanks for the share and work.

Just curious, What is the point in offering up CD-sourced (44.1 kHz) re-masters at 88.2 kHz?

Sonic, the film version used the additional overlays in the Cage. As for what Jerry intended for the album, he left out two of the percussion hits. There’s two ways about it. With the percussions hit, it sounded very much like classic Goldsmith’s style. Without, it’s still effective as this was the version intended for the album and what we are used to through the years before this new expanded edition comes around.

Thanks for the information. That decides it then. I will leave this alone as I like what Goldsmith did without the percussion hits.

———- Post added at 11:07 AM ———- Previous post was at 11:03 AM ———-

Just curious, What is the point in offering up CD-sourced (44.1 kHz) re-masters at 88.2 kHz?

Exactly.

People don’t seem to mind that it’s an upsample (done soleley for ease of processing). I can easily do them since I keep everything in 32/96 on my HDDs. So I can produce any version I like for any purpose.

The quality of the remastering is really really amazing. The score comes alive with new details in the bass range. And the End Credits – it’s an astouding transformation. Still picking up pieces of my jaw from the floor when I heard it. Now it sounded like a good quality 1950’s mono recording from the EMI classical label.

Must take up a lot of Hard Drive space.

The quality of the remastering is really really amazing. The score comes alive with new details in the bass range. And the End Credits – it’s an astouding transformation. Still picking up pieces of my jaw from the floor when I heard it. Now it sounded like a good quality 1950’s mono recording from the EMI classical label.

Thank you very much! Though I’m surprised about the End Credits. I don’t think it shows good quality. I wish I would have been able to lower the noise just a nudge. But I didn’t have the noise alone so I couldn’t produce a noise finger print. With the noise a little bit softer, I could have done something about artifacts caused by recording it onto tape.

———- Post added at 02:09 AM ———- Previous post was at 02:04 AM ———-

Must take up a lot of Hard Drive space.

Not so much, no. Did you see how small the HiRes version is? I’m really surprised that no one noticed 😉

Thank you so much, your work is always splendid. Besides, you also have good taste in choosing the right composer for your latest project! 🙂

Can’t wait to listen to this. I’ve have the older expanded version and will be curious to compare the two.

Thanks for this score !!

Thanks for this, Sonic!

Also, thanks for not cutting out the Frank Stallone song. 🙂

Thank you for this and for explaining all the Tech Talk as well, I learn more on each Edition you do.
Plus you inspired me to find a actual FLAC burn program so I can not convert or destroy very high quality audio files.

Thank you for this and for explaining all the Tech Talk as well, I learn more on each Edition you do.
Plus you inspired me to find a actual FLAC burn program so I can not convert or destroy very high quality audio files.

Oh, don’t exaggerate 🙂 You can just convert them back to .wav with, for example, foobar and burn it then. Those actions will not change the sound. With Nero or any other program of your choice.

Thank you

Well, once again, one of your editions far exceeds what the official release will probably ever be 😀
And it’s always fascinating to learn more about music and mastering from the master himself.
I would give you another rep, but, you know 😉

Seriously would an old CD release sound ‘terrible’ on modern players due to the whole Emphasis thing?

Also, I couldn’t resist making a few cover alternates as well..

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Seriously would an old CD release sound ‘terrible’ on modern players due to the whole Emphasis thing?

No, most players have built-in Emphasis that is used when appropriate. Recent bluray/dvd players might miss it though. After all, it is very rare on CD.

Thanks for this! Hadn’t gotten around to hearing the newer, expanded release of this. I do believe this should just about do the trick. Thanks for all your hard work, as always!

gracias
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Many thanks !!

Thank you for the links!

Thank you.

Gracias

Interesting to learn of this. Nice work. Thank you, SonicAdventure!

SonicAdventure, your shares are always a treat to listen to and also very informative. Thank you for the work and generosity.

Finally I listened this edition. Stunning remastering! Congratulations! 🙂

Thanks for doing this. Looks like the files for cd quality and hi res are all gone. Can anyone reup? Glad to see this was done at a higher sampling rate since a lot of DAW plugins have problems at 44/48. What does everyone think of the Varese cd? I haven’t had it in years but I liked the sound back before the Silva.

any chance for 24bit version re-up?

Any chance for a reup?

any chance for 24bit version re-up?

+1 🙂

Thank you so much!

All Gone 🙁

I would also like to see it re-upped as well please.

”To survive a war, you gotta become war"
Re-up mp3 320: https://mega.nz/#F!05BX0KRK!KI7w-yjlqdWdTNwttUOTvA
Thanks again Sonic for your hard work.

”To survive a war, you gotta become war"
Re-up mp3 320
Thanks again Sonic for your hard work.

Many Thanks Marvin!

I also would greatly appreciate a re-up of the audiophile version. 24bit would be amazing, but regular lossless would be fine too.

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any chance for 24bit version re-up?

+2