Wasn’t too sure of a good title as STAR WARS is and still an ongoing topic and I wish I could find a more productive topic but I’d rather get this one up.

What I like about the STAR WARS originals is the wild crazy DOLBY STEREO mix that pushed the limits at the time and its still the best sounding format made for cinema over the past 40 years.
The THX CAV laserdisc issues have had some yes we know some added new sound elements such as sound effects and some serious tapering with removing some dialogue panning from the original release of Return of the Jedi (1983).

Before Darth Vader shuttle lands on the death-star an imperial officers voice is panned to the left or half-pan “inform the commander that lord Vader shuttle has arrived” is centred on the CAV and 1995 CLV and DVD and sigh the so called perfect HD 1080p format bluray for deaf ears that don’t listen!

Now if you want the originals best bet is go for the early CLV letterbox USA NTSC versions as those versions are nearly all the way intact to the 35mm release print and its too bad DOLBY AC-3 came too late otherwise we could all have the 70mm six-track DOLBY STEREO versions which is a bigger deal!

When the princess is on her own in the forest except for an Ewok LOL she places her hand on her hip after taking quit a bit bump after being thrown from the speeder bike. She walks around and the voice soon pans off to on screen left channel “Well looks like I’m stuck here...trouble is, I don’t know where here is”?

Its yet another dialogue pan and dialogue panning sounds so super DOLBY cool! Its how I remember it in the cinema and it made Jedi sound so realistic.

Another scene is were Luke walks around and finds her helmet. Next we hear “Luke”! “Luke!” its a hard off-screen dialogue pan to right and again it makes Jedi sound so super DOLBY realistic.

The CAV and later CLV DVD and Bluray you can forget about those issues they’re not 35mm DOLBY STEREO intact.

I have vague sound memory of STAR WARS as I wasn’t into film sound in December 1977 it wasn’t until 1986 when I saw Platoon that I started to take huge listen interest and paying hard listen attention and memorizing where the sounds happened on the theatrical release in the cinema.

Empire is about the same I only heard the film I wasn’t listening in 1980 which is huge difference between hearing the film and listening, listening means I’m paying strict attention!

I have yet to get STAR WARS and Empire on first edition CLV laserdisc I wouldn’t be too surprised if the mix is light-years different in tone and panning and frequency response.

I know Empire is dogs dinner of mess in the SE 1997and the DVD and bluray that are not worth my time anymore. Only DOLBY originals give me the DOLBY flashback experience.
I have listened to the bluray and SIGH what a waste of my listen time. Lucas owes me £100,000billion-trillion for wasting my listening time. Do not buy the bluray its flawed and imperfect with that lousy dts hd master audio and even Han shoots louder now WTF! The blast has been made louder but Han no longer pans first in Jedi so don’t bother with. Sooner or later I might just give the STAR WARS box-set bluray to someone for free just to get it out of my sight.

I have the early letterbox USA CLV version of Return of the Jedi (1983-1990) and I’m sure glad I picked that up years ago for £15.00 well worth it for serious DOLBY Jedi listening!

So is there any one else that takes listening seriously that has all the STAR WARS films on Laserdisc and can do some listen to STAR WARS 1977 I know the effects have been boasted and enhanced and a few new sound effects that sound okay but I prefer original DOLBY vintage.

I have STAR WARS on very early Laserdisc PAL UK analogue DOLBY STEREO and it does sound so choice but the sound effects sound narrow across the fronts in the CAV THX later versions it tends to expand and breath outwards with solid anchored centre DME, but its not the true 1977 DOLBY original.

I think maybe STAR WARS CAV is 95% original and that’s not good enough for vintage collectors
I have to listen to Empire again on an earlier NTSC USA Laserdisc to, say, yes that is how it should have been right up to the bluray with white snow!

Well, this whole issue is pretty tricky. For one thing, there was a 70mm 6-track surround, 35mm stereo, and mono mix (in that order as the film went into wider and wider release) of Star Wars that kept adding (and sometimes altering) things to the mix, for a mix of clarity and adding details they didn't have time to dub in....but at the time, George Lucas, Ben Burtt and others felt that the mono mix was the version of the soundtrack that should be considered the ultimate version for the film. Empire and Jedi had higher budgets/more time/more care, etc, so their soundtracks were pretty cut and dry when they came out.

Problem is that Ben Burtt did a revised stereo mix in 1984 for home video use....home theater didn't really exist, so he made the mix more midrange-friendly for the majority of viewers watching on just a TV. In 1993, for the THX Laserdiscs, he went back to the stereo mix and then put a few overdubs in (most notably the "glass shattering" sounds when the security cameras in the detention block are shot) that weren't present. At the same time, a few lines that were in there were "lost", because they were in the mono mix, not the original stereo one--so obviously they didn't carry over from the stereo soundtrack stem.

On the whole, though, I consider the Dolby Surround LD mixes to me the ultimate version of the soundtracks available, since they were based off the original soundtrack stems and pretty much left alone--even if there are alterations, they are pretty minor, because at this point the goal of the LD was to present the trilogy, as is, the best way it could be....all the tweaks and re-edits would come later. Additionally, the original CLV widescreen versions have matting issues and aren't as sharp as the THX version (CLV or CAV). So, you have to pick your poison.

Both the Special Edition and 2004 DVD (not buying the Bluray ever due to the tweaks) have totally rearranged soundfields, much more added sound effects and changes, and the score disappears or is significantly lowered in the mix at points. In short, a major travesty and having little in common with the original mixes--which on LD have amazing frequency response, huge dynamic range, and are just a joy to listen to.

Cheers for the reminder I know of part of the history its sound origin roots concerning the 35mm mono 35mm Dolby stereo optical and 70mm Dolby mag release.

Oh but that is interesting about The Empire Strikes Back. I would guess then the low end on it will be a bit softer or milder than the CAV THX later versions. But what of the 1990 release is that the same mixing style approach or has it been beefed up on the low end scale of the frequency spectrum?

I have spectrum lab which is down-load free device that was aimed at radio astronomy use and is very good at seeing what is messing in terms of frequency response and level.

I have heard the VHS PAL linear DOLBY stereo version which I didn’t mention in the first post. I once had an early Ferguson Video-star with DOLBY type B as and the sound in stereo was nice but I have vague memory as it was around 1987 I think.

I have read thou its brief the booklet that comes with CAV THX versions and the commentary track on the STAR WARS CAV is poorly thought out. They could have had two commentary tracks on L-R so more information can be put onto the disc. Also the downside for analogue Laserdisc owners can’t listen to the film. Maybe they should have left channel L as commentary and channel R as mono film mix of the original mono 35mm print? I think they should have put more commentary without leaving some 5 or 10 sometimes longer breaks between each CAV disc as its like listening to a silent-film.

I heard roamers that often the sub bass track would be mixed into the films soundtrack and often today its only heard/felt on the digital track only and not the 4.2.4 matrix mix.

So is there any truth to STAR WARS having the baby boom track mixed into the film and where would that track come in at? (As well as the rest of the STAR WARS films).

Well when I see a good Empire deal going on the bay, I’ll grab it I saw one many months ago but hesitated, sigh, well there are still plenty of them out there!

What are you referring to about Empire? The 70mm version had some different dialogue overdub takes than the 35mm. That's about all of the tweaks it had between versions.

As for the baby booms in Star Wars from the 70mm version, they acted like a subwoofer/LFE channel today. I would suspect these effects were just collapsed into the 35mm Dolby Stereo mix. But there's no proof of that, because no discrete version of the original 6-track mag exists for us to hear at this time for comparison.

That's an interesting thought on using the other track on the Definitive Collection, though, for the mono mix. Would definitely have been a neat feature.

From what I've read on OriginalTrilogy.com, the 1130-84 CAV release from 1985 has the original theatrical stereo audio mix. The mono mix and the 4.2 70mm mix never were released on home video, as far as I'm aware.