HIGH SOCIETY in 5.1!

[JonUrban]

Well, being 50 years old, I was brought up listening to my parents music (how unusual), hence I became aware and ultimately fans of people like Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. I also got my exposure to the musicals of the 50s and 60s this way. Sure, I grew up to become a rock and roll guy, but these "older" (ugh) artists still hold a place in my musical interest.

Anyway, I got this DVD as my wife and I both like this movie (as well as the Philadelphia Story), and I was suprised to find the soundtrack remixed to 5.1!

Now, it is nothing overly done. In fact, all of the vocals are pretty much firmly placed in the center channel. In the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" tune, both Frank and Celeste Holm are in the center, instead of one in each channel.

But it works. I listened carefully, and it is really a pleasure to hear the musical arangements of the songs if the center channel is muted.

The rears are mostly ambience, with very few things isolated back there.

The most impressive 5.1 mix is the opening High Society Calyspso. Louis is great, and the band is isolated in the fronts as well.

"Swell Party" is fun to watch, and listen to, as is the "Now You Has Jazz", with the great jazz musicians of Louis's band allowed to solo.

All in all, a worth remix. Not real "quad-y", but sonicly and visually a nice presentation. The music is crystal clear and does not sound compressed at all.

If you like this movie or the stars, this is one to check out!

(Kinda goes with the DCC Gold of "Robin and the Seven Hoods"!)

[Ken_McAlinden]

The music for the film was recorded with stereo in mind. When the decision was made to go with the VistaVision film format, which did not normally support magnetic stereo, they wound up releasing it in mono. Fortunately, all the elements existed to do a nice multi-track stereo remix, which is what Warner did for the 5.1 mix on the DVD. :thumbsup:

We also talked about the High Society DVD a little bit in this thread (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14656&highlight=gaggle) a little while ago.

Regards,

[JonUrban]

Thanks Ken, I missed that thread. I noticed the visuals at the intro, but was more excited at the music! I would have loved to seen Louis in concert!

[Ken_McAlinden]

Originally posted by oblio98
Thanks Ken, I missed that thread. I noticed the visuals at the intro, but was more excited at the music! I would have loved to seen Louis in concert!
As an aside, VistaVision origination isn't something you will really notice on home video. It was a large format film process that allowed you to use 35mm film. To get a VistaVision frame, take two adjacent 35mm frames, turn them sideways and eliminate the small frameline between them. It used twice the negative area of a regular 35mm frame. Since it ran twice as fast, you had improved audio bandwidth as well. There were experiments run, but in general, VistaVision films did not support stereo sound. Presentations from VistaVision sources, which necessitated the film running sideways through a special projector, were pretty rare, too, but it could be used to make very high quality standard 35mm "downconverted" prints.

When they restored the VistaVision film "Vertigo", they did it to 65mm, which allowed for large format presentations at theaters equipped to show 70mm films. It just so happens that a VistaVision frame matted down to 1.85:1 (the aspect ratio at which Vertigo was framed) uses almost the exact same negative area as a 70mm frame windowboxed to 1.85:1.

But I digress.

High Society sounds great!

Regards,

[JonUrban]

Great, I love this kind of info! Thanks again, Ken.

[Ken_McAlinden]

The implication which I forgot to make clear from my post above is that Warner could theoretically make 70mm prints of High Society with either a magnetic stereo or DTS presentation of their remix. I would love to see that in a theater some day.

Regards,