"Grease" - the pre-1998 audio mix?

If you jump to time 6:00 mins into this clip you will hear how Hopelessly Devoted To You was suppose to sound with the original audio, this is how I remember it sounding in the movie theater back in 1978. All of this was lost with the DVD and Blu Ray versions which they added all these backing vocals and added so much echo and reverb that was not on the original movie audio track.

 

.....There's no Vince Fontaine in the title track?!

 

That’s because the Blu Ray etc. used the single mix. Sucks in comparison with the film version. The same with the title track. It ruins the charm of the movie for me,

 

Interesting. This will always be a very special film to me but I only saw it at the theater once. I have bought almost every version inc the laserdisc. I did think something weird was going on and that ABC video confirms it wasn't always like that. There is a very strange disconnect between the music in the opening and the vocals, and a weird echo throughout which has been in every edition going back a long ways, though I don't recall what the original laserdisc sounded like and I never had the videotape. I always want to push up the vocals in the mix when I view the dvd. But the broadcast version posted is the way you would think it should sound! Very strong vocals in front of the mix and clear music without the very fake post processing effects clearly introduced later on. I will always be amazed that one person is allowed to screw up something like that and no one is allowed to fix it. Paramount paid for it...you would think they woukd at least want to fix it. It is an obvious issue, at least to my ears.

 

I agree with you about the opening beach scene and dialog starts. In fact here is the same clip from a 1982 VHS tape of the same opening, pay attention to start time at 1:48 when the dialog starts, it's so much clearer. This is how I remember it in the theater, the talking between Olivia and John was crystal clear and it's what the audience was suppose to be paying attention too and you can hear that the background music is somewhat lowered. When the DVD and blu ray are not like the original VHS audio.

 

The original laserdisc has the correct mix. Unfortunately it’s pan & scan.

 

This is also how I remember "You're The One That I Want" in the movie theater and the earlier VHS copies, pay attention to the time around 1:40 right after John screams, you hear just John and Olivia's vocals...in later video pressings later they added this funky audio backing vocals that make it all sound weird.

 

Just for comparison, how this sequence currently sounds.

 

Oh, and one more comparison, how it sounds on the soundtrack album.

 

Much better! Well, obviously there is a reason it was changed. Hopefully someone in the know, maybe Vidiot, will have an explanation.

 

Talk about screwing around with something just because you can! Geez that's awful when you compare the two. Kinda like Lucas and some of his changes to those little films of his. Wish they would just leave this stuff alone for us to enjoy the way we remember it. After all, it's us that pays for it.

 

I regret selling my Pioneer Laserdisc player many years ago. I had the Grease p/s version with the original audio. I further regret not making a copy of that version. I have an old VHS tape with the original audio but as I remember the laserdisc had a bit better video quality. Although P/S is anothefr issue. Ha

Yes I agree in how they messed up the audio for Grease is how George Lucas messed up the video in the remakes of Star Wars.

 

I have the original Star Wars on Laserdisc, though very beat up as I got it used...it was a demo at a store...and Grease was probably among the first discs I bought. I also have that massive Star Wars trilogy box set...a beautiful package. I don't know why I hung onto those really, but they weren't worth a nickel a few years ago. Don't know what the Star Wars box is worth now, but likely a small chunk. I also had the first box set in CAV (like vinyl playing at 45rpm for better quality) and I actually gave it away 15 years ago. I have about 40 discs left, stuff I thought would never come out on dvd. And, for the most part, they haven't. Stuff like the movie The Wild Life, with all that licensed music and a score by Eddie Van Halen. Guess license fees make it unreleasable. Never dreamed they would change sound mixes on stuff, so I will have to see if I still have Grease.

 

I'm not sure how many of you remember this really old thread but someone wrote about what the director said about the change in the audio for Grease. It still doesn't make a lot of sense in the fact that when your in a movie theater the last thing you want to hear is your neighbor singing off key so if the idea was to add backing vocals so the audience could sing along was a mistake.

For me it's like I want the clarity of the blu ray but the audio from the original VHS tape. lol

Here's the link

Different sound mix on Grease Rydell DVD?


"When the re-release was confirmed, Paramount's Vice President of Post Production Sound, Cecelia Hall, went into the vaults and examined the original 35 millimeter music masters. The adhesive on the film had become a flaking gooey mess. The music tracks could not be unwound, much less played. Cecelia had heard of a technique to temporarily bind the brown oxide to the clear mylar film, at least long enough to make a transfer, by heating them. There was nothing to lose. We couldn't use them in their deteriorated condition.
She took these original music masters to her Tujunga home and baked them in her kitchen oven at 150 degrees for six hours. Miraculously, it worked and she saved the tracks allowing the Dolby six track mix to be done.
Having attended midnight showings, and having seen the success of TNT's bouncing ball singalong version, I realized that many people in the audience want to sing the songs in the theatre with the soundtrack. For the enhanced stereo re-mix, we put backup singers and hand clapping in the surround speakers to encourage this idea."

 

A kitchen oven vs a convection oven is risky to me given how it heats, though it obviously worked in this case, at least for the purposes of making a preservation transfer.

It's still very surprising to me such drastic changes for normal versions of the movie (excluding any separate mix for "sing-a-longs") were made in the newer mix. It's not uncommon to make a new mix for a new format, but that should have been limited to using the old mix as a reference, and just making adjustments/changes that might correct actual problems or genuinely improve things (which, of course, are very subjective, and require judiciousness/restraint). Making changes like what was done with "Hopelessly Devoted To You" where there was originally a significantly different mix used in the movie vs the album (since it worked better in the context of the movie) were revisions and not correction of problems, and those should have been avoided.

 

Awful. The new soundtrack ruined the movie for me.

 

Bumping an old thread because I believe our complaints have been addressed.

Grease 40th Anniversary 4K Blu-ray

 

Finally getting Grease 2 on bluray! Yessss!

 

According to imdb, the there were 2 original sound mixes - the Dolby Stereo (matrix surround) for the 35mm prints and the 6-Track for the 70mm prints. The original negative was 35mm so the 70mm was a blow-up.

According the Laserdisc Database (link) the pan and scan laserdisc uses the Dolby Stereo soundtrack. I'd assume any stereo VHS tape would be the same. From my understanding (and please correct me if I'm wrong) Dolby Surround is pretty much Dolby Stereo re-branded for the home video market. So if you have the stereo VHS or LD pre-1998 and a Dolby Pro Logic receiver, you can at least emulate the original Dolby Stereo mix as it was heard in the cinemas on the 35mm print.

As for the original 6-track 70mm mix? One would assume (again, could be wrong), that the Dolby Stereo mix would have been a matrix reduction of the discrete Dolby 6-Track mix. Or (at least) would have been following the same template as that mix as close as they could.

Perhaps someone on the Original Trilogy boards could put together a "restoration" combining the Blu-Ray image with the original Dolby Stereo soundtrack?

 

From BluRay.com

"In addition, the audio was enhanced from a six-track mix created for an original 70mm release, giving the music more clarity"

"enchanced" remastered? "enhanced" remixed? I guess we'll see. You would think it would be just a remaster.

 

If the design is any indication, I'm already concerned. The Grease logo is not even the right color on the box. I'll admit the picture quality will of course be top notch but I have no faith that this new release will contain the original Dolby mix pre 1998. They keep using the words enhanced, remastered remixed and that always means the "98' over blown, reduced dialog, echo added backing singers mix"

When they say the audio has been enhanced to give more clarity...seriously this does not say anything about having the original mix. Mr. Randall will never allow the original mix since he feels the 98" mix to be what the audience wants, a sing a long movie.

Will I buy it, of course. Lol

 

I also really hope that cover is not the final version, not only is the Grease logo the wrong color, why do Olivia and John look like cartoon characters?

 

But how do we know what audio they’re using?

 

Actually the 70mm would've been a "baby boom" mix so the same mix as 35 (left-center-right-surround) with the two remaining channels (left-center and right-center) used for bass enhancement.

 

I can't believe Paramount released Grease on UHD BD before Saturday Night Fever which in my opinion is a much better movie than Grease. I guess they were milking the cow with last year's 40th Anniversary release of Saturday Night Fever BD and once the fans got this, then they later release the movie on UHD BD forcing us the fans to buy it again. The 40th Anniversary was scanned and restored at 4K so all they need to do is an HDR pass to the 40th 4K master and do the new disc authoring.