Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Actually, do you think it's possible that Paramount is missing the Islands in the Stream elements *because* of Bruce? I'm not saying he did anything wrong, but it seems that once he returned the elements to Paramount, they were misplaced (nothing intentional on his part, of course)! Had he never asked for them, even with the best of intentions, they would still be in inventory. I guess! But that was good thinking his part to make a copy, cause you never know what's going to happen. I can't tell you how many projects were aborted because of missing elements.

I can't tell you how many projects were aborted because of missing elements.[/quote]

Could you possibly elaborate on this Roger?

-Rick O.

Hmmm... The film's 1991 laserdisc edition presented the score on an isolated audio track. So I wonder exactly when Paramount lost track of their masters?

Laser discs' isolated scores were almost always monaural, relegated to one of two analog tracks. Due to the nature of the LD format, isolating music in stereo would have meant people with older machines (without digital audio) being unable to access the film's normal soundtrack with dialogue and sound effects.

I just checked -- the ISLANDS laser track is only the fluctuating-volume film mix, so I guess that's not where the missing masters went. However, a great feature on these iso-track LDs issued by Pioneer was having a chapter stop placed before each music cue. These included ROBIN AND MARIAN, SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, and OBSESSION.

Terry Cloth, that one might help you endure the wait until your favorite Herrmann gets reissued.

The source of the isolated score on the laser would have been one of the stems for the soundtrack. I don't recall whether Islands in the Stream received a full stereo mix, but if it didn't, it is possible that the isolated score track would only have been in mono.

This new CD sounds fantastic, however, and I think things worked out for the best.

An odd permutation in the practice of the isolated score was the Criterion Collection edition of Short Cuts, which had an isolated music track in mono, but it was on both analog channels (I believe this option was preserved as a 2.0 Dolby Digital mono track on the DVD).