The mono tracks on the old Russian Krupnyi Plan DVD, the Japanese IVC blu-ray, and the Russian Close-Up blu-ray aren't the original sound mix; they have added ambient sound effects -- things like birds chirping, wind, etc. These three are essentially the same. They're pitched 0.7 semitones too high and exhibit the same 20 kHz cut-off, indicating the Close-Up/IVC blu-rays used an old AC-3 file made for DVD publication for their mono tracks. I believe this mix was produced by Ruscico in the early 2000s, when the 5.1 remix was made.
Interestingly, the 5.1 mix (available on the Close-Up blu-ray and most early non-Criterion DVDs) has different added Foley: lots of gimmicky pans and generally more reverb, but also different ambient sound effects compared to the aforementioned mono remix. It's also pitched too high, opening music aside.
The original mono mix was released on DVD by Criterion in 2002. This track has a severe amount of hiss reduction, far beyond the norms of Criterion's audio mastering back then and even now. The Criterion blu-ray (and the Artificial Eye blu-ray, which was presumably licensed from Criterion) sounds the same. The Criterion booklets indicate it was sourced from a 35 mm optical soundtrack positive, but even a generation removed it shouldn't sound as bad as this -- it's been nuked with noise reduction. It is the original mix, but this means little when it sounds horrible.
Enter the Potemkine blu-ray: it possesses the original mono mix with drastically superior fidelity. The difference is enormous.
Update (17/9/2021): Toho LaserDisc from 1986 (TLL 2334) sounds dupey and undetailed.
Amazing. I hope someone at Criterion picks up on this blog. Many thanks for all the info - invaluable!
ReplyDelete