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Lots of fabulous responses here... and enough questions to fill those oceans that drank Atlantis! Here're a few answers that may satisfy.
The original MCA albums to both movies are true OSTs. They're not re-recordings. Both albums used cues from the actual soundtrack sessions, selected by Poledouris and his engineers as representative of the highlights and mixed down for release. Since we have the actual 24-track session elements, we're able to newly remix everything and allow solo lines and other colors to exhibit more clarity than possible back in the two-track stereo mixes made in '82 and '84 respectively.
Both albums used those original two-track mixes. The Varese CD to CONAN THE BARBARIAN was expanded solely because Poledouris had retained some additional cues on his own 1/4" 15 ips copy. Having been scored in Italy, there were no AFM restrictions on inclusion of the extra cues on a CD. But that expansion was limited to the handful of extra cues Poledouris retained, and the audio was necessarily limited to the two-track mixes.
We have a significant amount of alternate and rehearsal material, some interesting, some not. What makes portions interesting are the ones such as the main titles (Anvil Of Crom), where Poledouris starts with his French horns up an octave, then discards the idea after the first take. Hearing stuff like that from gestation into what we know and love is actually quite exhilarating. Listening to him develop the scraping sound of the tam tams or whatever for later takes of his "Wheel Of Pain" sequence is also of significance. Much of this score is a progression not of literal notes played as written but of creating sounds, percussion colors and whatnot right there as composer and musicians combine to create genuine primal energy, all fortunately while those 2" tape reels are spinning. (And how wonderful all those reels survived over the decades intact!)
Anyway, whether including this work-in-progress stuff becomes a matter of economics, of course. These are important film scores - the first one certainly one of the greatest ever - and one could easily end up with a massive box set chronicling the history of this incredible music, from the rehearsals and first takes to the tweaks and changes that ultimately created this genuinely powerful music. Maybe I'm a masochist, but for me, hearing Basil ask his bass drum and tympani players to try several different patterns until he gets just what he's looking for is fascinating. But, big surprise, every additional tidbit that might be fun also has licensing and mechanical fees - of course. What would the world be without fees.
Lots of wild info gets tossed around with projects anxiously sought such as this. For the record, Poledouris told me he was excited about the raw energy he got with the recordings, and how crisp the actual sound was. His disappointment came largely from the budgeting that wouldn't allow any multi-channel sound mixes, requiring what he called "rough" two-track mixes for the records and mono mixes for the movies themselves.
I gets lots of emails asking whether I prefer the "originals" or the "re-recording(s)". The quick answer is that both serve a wornderful function. The latter allows one to examine under a microscope years later the printed music as edited and polished, the former allows one to hear the raw emotional power of that same stuff actually being created. For specifics, however, in previously unreleased cues such as the "Pit Fights", I prefer the incredible savagery and piercing brass performances of the original to the clinical playing of the re-recording anyday. And nothing beats that original recording of those pounding percussion rhythms, followed by the unison French horn players literally being unleashed. Nothing. (But that's me.)
Oh, and for those multi-channel CD enthusiasts (which appear to number less than 7), we are most assuredly keeping the separate 24-track session masters intact, should anyone ever convince me that sales of 5.1 CDs would warrant such expenses.
As a post-scriptum, it's certainly exciting to find the new Blu-ray release of CONAN THE BARBARIAN taking advantage of the 5.1 audio at long last. And the music gets favored in the mix, too. Bravo! Basil's legacy is at work!
--Doug
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