Singin' in the Rain (1952)

1983 MGM LaserDisc [ML100185]: This old analogue track isn't bad at all and holds up rather well, but it has too much distortion for my liking and lacks some detail.

1988 Criterion LaserDisc [CC1152L]: Not too dissimilar to the 1983 LaserDisc, but it's obvious that some form of early noise management has been used - it's quite muffled.

1990 Criterion LaserDisc [CC1210L]: Like the earlier Criterion LaserDisc but with some bass attenuation.

1991 MGM LaserDisc [ML102196]: Easily the most detailed edition among these. Less noise reduction than the Criterion releases (although still probably some), and very clean and distortion-free.

2000 R2 Warner DVD: Like the 1991 MGM LaserDisc but strangely less detailed. There doesn't seem to be any more obvious hiss reduction, but everything sounds just a bit more woolly. It's also filled with constant digital clicks.

2002 R1 Warner DVD - Special Edition: Like the 1991 MGM LaserDisc but with significantly more noise reduction.

2022 Warner UHD Blu-ray: The mono track here is the original mono mix and not a fold, but it sounds underwhelming. For the most part, it's like the SE DVD with more bass attenuation, but Good Morning has less noise reduction (yet still more than the '91 MGM LD). Fidelity-wise, it generally sounds slightly worse than the 5.1 mix.

(Old) thoughts on the 5.1.

Update (4/22/2022): Added the Warner UHD

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

I really dislike the 5.1 mix, the only audio option offered on the blu-ray. It sounds like Warner just took the mono mix and overlaid some of the music multitracks, but that's probably an overly reductive dismissal. It just sounds pretty bad overall -- the music is too loud and there's definitely quite a bit of noise reduction applied, so the vibrancy (especially in strings) of the original mix is gone.

The mono mix was included on the Warner special edition DVDs and various Warner R2 pre-special edition DVDs (but not the R1 pre-special edition Warner DVD!). The SE DVD sounds like the latter but with more noise reduction. The mono on the old DVDs sounds lovely -- free of digital tinkering and much more immediate sounding than the remix. I mean immediate quite literally; the musical sequences have a nice, live sound to them, with the singing and tap dancing actually feeling like they're being emitted from the actors onscreen, whereas the 5.1's music sounds removed and non-diegetic.

Unfortunately, the old DVD mono has clicks (most of which look and sound like digital clicks to me...) every 30 seconds or so, so I had to declick the entire film manually.