Arcane technical Q: recording of ST:TMP score

[Saavy]

Greetings. Does anyone have any technical knowledge about the recording of this great Trek score? Or perhaps can provide some references?

In the interests of audio technology, I was having a discussion with some like minded individuals when conversation turned to the early eras of digital sound recording. While I am aware that digital sound is not often the sonic revolution it is often assumed to be, the change is a pervasive one in our technological evolution, thus my curiosity. It has been said on occasion that the score for ST:TMP was one of, and some claim the, first movie soundtrack recorded digitally. Also I have been told that the great engineer Bruce Botnick, who worked on this (and many other great recordings ranging from The Jungle Book soundtrack to The Doors classic rock albums), has claimed it to be the first.

There is some reason to wonder. If I recall rightly, filming for TMP began August of 1978. I am not aware of the dates of the recording sessions for the score, but I would assume it was during 1979. This was, as per movie industry standard procedure a multitrack recording. Digital recorders, all tape media, existed but were to my knowledge 2-track (stereo) until the following year. It is conceivable that they synchronized as many 2-track units as desired. The movie industry did the same for multiple mono optical film recorders for decades beginning in the 1930s, which as you might imagine was much more difficult. But I do not know if this was the case. There also exists the claim that The Black Hole (1980) was actually the first.

A side interest of this is in the interest of the current condition of the original recordings of the score. This score is justly praised for its quality. It is the most enduring effective aspect of this project to my opinion. It is also remarkably brilliant in terms of sound quality. Apart from the original, abbreviated vinyl release of the soundtrack, subsequent releases are not all they could be sonically. Better could be possible as long as better sources exist, but in what form does it exist? Digital tape proved to be a poor choice in archival respects. Most have been unplayable for some time. Presumably if it was recorded to digital multitrack, those recordings are no longer usable. Did they also record to an analog multitrack, as some in the music industry did for some years? If so, then no loss as it might be that they sounded better to begin with and may still be playable.

Lastly I understand that the film was released in the same Dolby Surround format as Star Wars, and I seem to remember seeing it in that presentation. I had a most illogical concern that it would never conclude. This has more recently manifested itself in a concern that should I screen it, I might plunge into the V'ger effects cloud only to return at the conclusion of Tron a few years later. At any rate these issues are quite immaterial. The recut by Robert Wise released on DVD must have had its soundtrack reconstructed, so the score recordings must exist in multitrack in some form, but what form I do not know.

I thank you for your attention to this subject.

 

[trevanian]

Jeff Bond did a MUSIC OF ST book that might be of use to you. He is also at trekmovie.com and except for liking trek remastered and thinking Daniel Craig is okay as Bond, he is a good guy with good taste.

I thought BLACK HOLE was the first digital recording (on LP anyway.) There was a big sticker on the LP that made this claim. And HOLE was probably recorded a bit earlier than TREK, since I think Goldsmith scored between Sept and Nov of 79, and HOLE didn't have the time crunch TMP did.

 

[Indysolo]

Some tracks were recorded digitally for the album, but even then I read it was intermittent and it's not clear which tracks were and which weren't.

The entire score was recorded 24-track analog at Fox and they still exist that way, at least they did at the time of "The Director's Edition".

There was a wonderful interview with Michael Matessino in Film Score Monthly in 2001 about this score. If you're a subscriber on-line you can get access to the back issue archive and it's there. Volume 6, number 9.

Neil

 

[Saavy]

Gratitude, trevanian and Indysolo, for the references. I shall attempt to further the research. It is good to know that the original analog tapes were usable for the Director's Edition. That would suggest they were not among the varieties of 1970s tape stock which have proven unstable, in which case if cared for they should last indefinitely.

Live long and illogically.

(just to snap out of the Vulcan mode)

 

[number6]

Gratitude, trevanian and Indysolo, for the references. I shall attempt to further the research. It is good to know that the original analog tapes were usable for the Director's Edition. That would suggest they were not among the varieties of 1970s tape stock which have proven unstable, in which case if cared for they should last indefinitely.

Live long and illogically.

(just to snap out of the Vulcan mode)

Storage has a lot to do with it, though I've seen Scotch 250 shed like crazy after only a few years. If kept in a climate and humidity controlled environment, most tapes can last 25 or so years, even longer. IIRC, when they remastered the SW OT, prior to production of the prequels, a great deal of SFX tapes had to be baked to be playable again. Some were lost for good. Baking tapes will buy you one pass at best to transfer to another medium.

Phillips had pioneered digital recording for recording classical music. I've heard of some recordings that date back to as early as 1976.
There were several formats for digital recording being developed at the time.
I don't recall if the bits were encoded onto VTR reels back then or if there was a proprietary tape machine format prior to Sony's PCM F-1 converters, which could be recorded straight to VHS tape. This format would later evolve into DAT mastering recorders and ADAT machines.
Hard disk recorders didn't start cropping up until the mid-eighties.

 

[Saavy]

Storage has a lot to do with it, though I've seen Scotch 250 shed like crazy after only a few years. If kept in a climate and humidity controlled environment, most tapes can last 25 or so years, even longer. IIRC, when they remastered the SW OT, prior to production of the prequels, a great deal of SFX tapes had to be baked to be playable again. Some were lost for good. Baking tapes will buy you one pass at best to transfer to another medium.

Phillips had pioneered digital recording for recording classical music. I've heard of some recordings that date back to as early as 1976.
There were several formats for digital recording being developed at the time.
I don't recall if the bits were encoded onto VTR reels back then or if there was a proprietary tape machine format prior to Sony's PCM F-1 converters, which could be recorded straight to VHS tape. This format would later evolve into DAT mastering recorders and ADAT machines.
Hard disk recorders didn't start cropping up until the mid-eighties.

Quite right. You seem familiar with the subject. In the event anyone reading may not be and might find it interesting, I will elaborate some.

Some tape formulations in the 1970s were, as mentioned, particularly problematic. "Sticky shed syndrome" is I believe a term applied to some forms of failure. Ironically many formulations that were even older have proven more stable. Quality tapes made from the late 1940s well into the 1960s, in cases where they were reasonably well stored and properly handled, are still with us in perfectly playable condition. It is speculated the natural "lubricant" used is a factor, as it was banned from use at the time of the problematic formulations. Quality tapes since the 1970s have proven to be durable thus far. Improvements in storage practices undoubtedly help.

Unfortunately, digital tape has not proven to be a good medium archivally. Tape media undergoes subtle change in response to age and exposure to temperature changes, resulting in subtle shrinkage or subtly uneven surfaces. In normal cases these phenomina have absolutely no discernable affect whatever on analog recording methods. Digital methods have an all-or-nothing aspect which allows very little tolerance for the natural variances of the media. Should the exacting tolerances not be met, no sound at all is recovered. Many digital recordings to tape are no longer playable by any method. Tapes suffering "sticky shed" or which are "baked" of course would be well past any recovery. One can only hope backups to other, more durable media were performed, and one would be left with whatever fidelity the backups have.

Thus the original tape recording in the studio when Frank Sinatra sang You Make Me Feel So Young is still playable and can sound today as it did the moment it was recorded, while some of the original tapes recording on the sets of ST: TMP may have become unplayable 20 years ago. Evidently fortune is with us. It appears the soundtrack to this film was not, contrary to some claims, an instance of early digital recording. The tapes recording Goldsmiths' great score are a stable formulation and are analog, and thus have so far escaped the ravages of time.

We may someday have the pleasure of an even finer sounding edition of this score. Perhaps on Blu-Ray? Perhaps not in our life times. But it is possible. Whatever the future may make of the film itself, the soundtrack can be there in best form and likely to remain a thing of beauty, wonder and delight.