Intrada Soundtrack Forum

I'm still awaiting mine, as I can't wait to experience this great CD.

Sometimes I just wish we could all keep these threads focused on promoting what we do get as opposed to what we don't. Considering all the paramount investments and hard work that have gone into acquiring, transferring and mastering these elements, it's rather disappointing to see people failing to rejoice in the fact that, prior to this release, we had absolutely nothing in terms of an official release, not to mention one so beautifully put-together as this seems to be. I can respect people's preferences for what they would have liked to see, but bear in mind this is really Intrada's decision for which I have always trusted because they have always treated their customers in both high regard and respect. They had their reasons to release what they have in the way we shall have it, and all for a mere 19.99 asking price. I don't about each of you, but I don't feel I'm on the losing end of this spectrum.

There are an incredible number of things that go into play when restoring and presenting these film scores. I think most people know the drill here. You've heard it all before. Negotiating licenses, finding stuff, sorting through damaged cues, missing cues, miss-labeled boxes, dealing with myriad contractual obligations, costly licensing snarls, incompatible storage formats, whatever. And costs costs costs. Did I say costs?? I'll say it again just in case: costs.

We pay out this money so hopefully a very small group worldwide will have some wonderful soundtrack music available to enjoy at last that otherwise would simply never be heard from again. Never. Somehow, for reasons hard to figure beyond internet anonymity and entitlement issues, there are always a handful of people who do nothing - absolutely nothing - to help restore, preserve and present this often once-in-a-lifetime music to such a small audience at such great expense. Sometimes they don't even support the single 19.99 purchase!! In any case, they just complain as if they were, well... entitled to the music, to have it delivered to them in a manner only they will approve of. Those people who do so little to help this much neglected art form always find something that they would do differently - a crossfade here, removing a crossfade there, another outtake, just one more alternate, a different cover choice... gads, they would always do it differently and better except - they NEVER put up their own life savings to do just that.

I can't help but wonder how these minority folks would fare going back in time to the sixties or seventies, when a soundtrack album often never existed - or when we were then lucky enough to get one - we got 30 minute presentations, or LPs full of clicks and pops, or pop re-arrangements of the score, or missing cues galore. I do recall those days, and I loved the albums just the same. It helped inspire me to one day build a label and the finances to become a part of that wonderful arena and to contribute to it.

I would never expect everyone to like everything, of course. I was unhappy that when I first bought the LP to The Omen on the Tattoo label back in 1976, it was missing the music when Peck and family drive up to the church and young Damien wigs out. But I surely didn't spit on the record or write to Tattoo and tell them how outraged I was. I just played it to death, clicks and pops and all. In this regard, the internet sure created a handful of monsters. For those sad few, the internet is a haven for them to make really ugly statements that are often far more outrageous than any perceived egregious edit or missing cue could ever be. It's just insane.

So what's my point? I guess it's that I hope people mostly enjoy the music and when disappointment comes that the unhappy individual can find some productive things to say, the old constructive criticism if you will, or even just pass on the album and move on to the next item that catches their fancy.

But I always was just a dreamer.
--Doug

My copy arrived on Friday and I have to say I am completely thrilled. I loved reading Mr. Debney's reminiscences in the notes. Along with Tinkerbell, one of my best soundtrack purchases of 2013. Please keep these great Disney titles coming!

I am absolutely thrilled to finally be able to add this score to my collection. I've been following Debney's career ever since I sat down to watch the pilot of seaQuest and marvelled at the magnificent music from the series. Hocus Pocus has been one that I waited a long time for. Thank you to everyone at Intrada for bringing this great music to us.

Of course, I have never been disappointed with any of their releases. Quite the opposite. But lately I have really gotten tired of listening to all the complaning that's been spoken about each and every release that comes out. I've never once said anything, usually just ignoring it or holding my tongue. But it's just got SO BAD lately that even I've avoided the message boards. Let's just all sit back and appreciate the great work and wonderful music that the labels have brought to us.

That's all I have to say.

Hello Intrada,

After my disappointment with your label's choice to present the Dressed to Kill score minus the reverb from the album, I later got over that and managed to make it work by adding my own. The fact that you put the time, money and effort into getting this release out I know should not complain. Heck, I remember when the only way to get some of the unreleased cues was to rip them straight from the DVD and manually remove the dialogue channel which I'm sure you can imagine takes so much time and effort that is oftentimes wasted due to the sound effects permeating the unreleased tracks.

That leads me to the Hocus Pocus score. First off, I find working with 6 channels a task but you guys tackled 48! Wow! Overall, I do have my complaints but rather than waste the time to go over those like a delusionally entitled and unappreciative fan I want to thank you all around. I remember a few years ago I began compiling my own bootleg complete score utilizing the available promo score and incomplete recording sessions and at the time, I had 95% of it but no matter how hard I searched, I could never find the opening prologue score and a track or two that was missing from the later portion of the score. Personally, I felt that the prologue featured some of the best music of the score but that's not to downplay the rest at all.

Anyway, through some divine miracle a friend was gracious enough to locate a super rare Score Archives promo disc that included, you guessed it, the entire opening sequence plus the additional missing cues and some additional tracks minus their vocal accompaniment. I had finally compiled the first-ever complete sound effects-free edition of the score containing a plethora of bonus material that did not make it to this release but understandably so. All of this came at the expense of varying sound quality. Whoever mastered the Score Archives disc did a terrible job. It sounded to be from compressed sources and the audio was WAY too clipped. I managed to fix that with the aid of some trusty audio editing tools but I knew it would never sound as great as a complete re-master.

That is where you guys lovely work comes in. Tying back to Dressed to Kill, I was a bit hesitant upon ordering my CD because I feared it wouldn't sound as great as I was hoping. I ended up buying it and boy, were my fears quickly pushed aside. While the inclusion of the piano overlay over the Debney material really did not work for me (call me crazy but it sounded very out of tempo/sync and featured startling vocal bleeds under the music that disrupted the experience slightly for me) or several of the organizational choices had me a little irked (which to be fair almost closely matched the organizational choices I had made when I put mine together, give or take a silence added here or a silence removed there in your edition) but overall, the compliments far outweigh any complaints I can make.

All I can say now is thank you for finally giving this score the proper treatment it has deserved for these 20 years. I've refrained from posting in any of these forums for one reason or another but I had to step forward and put forth my thoughts for this release. Hopefully in a time (not another 20 years away), I can be employed with the Intrada group and make quite a difference in the mixing department. Truth be told, when I compiled the first complete score release I was almost sure that this score would be the first film score I ever officially released. Too bad you beat me to it but there'll be room for a re-release some years down the line. Although, admittedly the idea of doing business with Disney has my stomach in knots but we've all gotta suck it up at one time or another to get what we want.

Quick note on Dressed to Kill though, I need to state that I was not happy with the exclusion of the reverb and the downmixing of the woodwinds in favor of the lush strings. I'm not faulting your work for it as it overall sounds much better sound-wise than the original album, it just isn't the best representation of the score but the fact that it happened at all is enough to shut me up. Your input on the downmixing of the woodwinds would be appreciated though. Just to put my mind at rest.

Lastly, I've searched HIGH and freakin' LOW for John Ottman's complete score to House of Wax to no avail. I've even went as far as to contact Mr. Ottman directly (both via phone and email) who only advised me to try and reach one of the music editors who may have a digital copy as he did not have any copies. I can find no contact information for the music editor, Amanda Goodpaster. She seems to be a very tricky person to track down so I gave up on that quest. I was however able to contact his agency Kraft-Engel Management a few times who, after receiving Mr. Ottman and I's email correspondences as proof, naturally was no help. I've given up any hope of this seeing the light of day from its original label: Varese Sarabande (a label I openly admitted to MV Gerhard of LaLaLand Records, at a convention when they were still a budding business, can "go suck eggs") whose album featured less than HALF the full score. It helped seal the deal with LLLR when MV was nice enough to sell me Seed of Chucky for basically what I had in my wallet which was not what the asking price was. I thought that was rather nice of a business to do. Rather nice considering the album was essentially the complete score minus a few tiny changes from the final film's score. I wonder if Varese would ever do that.

Intrada and LaLaLand Records are two labels I have always viewed as a source of quality while Varese I see as merely a source of disappointment. The first Intrada album I ever bought was Kevin Kiner's Leprechaun. Haha, I'm sure you may or may not have tried to erase that little piece of bad cinema music from your memory but I for one have not. To this day 10 years later, it does not leave my iPod. I don't listen to it often anymore but it's still very much a guilty pleasure. It's a great cheesy 90's score with a great original theme on Irish flutes and it was great that Intrada had included 95% of the score from the film with only a sprinkling of tiny cues missing. At the time, that kind of "completeness" was rare for me to encounter. I kept my eye on both Intrada and LLLR for many years and so far Intrada has bestowed upon me Dr. Giggles (my 2nd Intrada album), Stephen King's IT, Dressed to Kill and now, Hocus Pocus plus countless others while LLLR has given me Batman, Batman Returns, Friday the 13th, Willard, etc.

As you can hopefully see, we've had a long-standing history together whether it be of the collective mind variety or not. I do appreciate everything you do/stand for and I look forward to a very long and continuous association. In other words, you're not getting rid of me anytime soon so get used to it.

Anyway, thanks again for your time.

I own only one disc that is longer than 80 minutes. It's The Adventures of Robin Hood (Marco Polo) DVD Audio, and it runs for 82:43 (they added the theatrical trailer music) while the standard CD is 78:27 min long. If Marco Polo decided to include the extra track only on the DVD, it's to follow the commercial obligations and recommendations.
What kind of label produces more than 80 min CDs ? I've never encountered such a disc in my entire collector's life.

I wouldn't dare comment on the new "Hocus Pocus" CD, not being a duly licensed expert on this score, but I sure as hell hope Doug, Roger, and the gang don't let themselves become discouraged by... shall we say, adverse reaction. You seem aware that some will never be satisfied but others of us are having a jolly time with this.

There are people out here who appreciate what you guys do with no qualifications.

_________________
Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon