Tonight I was watching Macross: Flash Back 2012 (1987) [BEAL-132] (in 2012, that's weird) and I'm now using a surround receiver and speakers for the first time in my life. Usually I always found stereo to be sufficient.
Now this LD is entirely music with just a sound effect thrown in here and there, but it really seems to come across as a fully Dolby Surround soundtrack. Areas where I notice this:
In the very beginning where Minmay is beat counting. It seems to entirely come from the center channel.
The crowd in the scenes at the beginning and end that were made just for 2012, they are definitely coming from the rear channel.
Music in general.
The LDDB lists this as a Stereo release, and since this is from 1987, not a big budget Hollywood movie, and contains almost nothing but music, it would be perfectly fine that way, but it seems be Surround. I'm new to Pro Logic so is it possible that when decoded the thing just accidentally pulls rear and center info from regular delay? Since this question will be asked, yes, I'm running in standard Pro Logic mode with no added BS effects like "hall" or "stadium" or anything.
I have a theory. I bought this disc in the mid 90s after the Macross: Do You Remember Love? Perfect Edition LDs had come out. I say "LDs", the plural, because unless I'm crazy in addition to Macross: Ai Oboete Imasuka (Do You Remember Love?): Perfect Edition (1984) [BEAL-448] there was another "Perfect Edition" in CLV. Anyway, those had all sorts of work done to the soundtrack to make it into Surround. There are even, IIRC, new sound effects added, although I can't really remember all the differences anymore since I've seen nothing but the Perfect Edition for the last decade plus. Since the Perfect Edition adds Minmay's Megaroad launch concert/cocaine-fueled dream from Flashback 2012 at the end of the movie...is it possible that they reprinted Flashback 2012 when the DYRL Perfect Edition came out and converted some of the sequences to Surround? Obviously it wouldn't have been worth it to do Flashback alone, but since they were re-doing the the entire DYRL anyway...they did charge 8320円 or something ridiculous like that for the thing. They had the revenue to justify it.
My copy looks identical to the original, as far as I know, but its almost certainly a reprint since I bought it from a seller that never had anything vintage (Laser Perceptions, if anyone remembers them) nearly a decade after release and this was new in the package for full price.
Or maybe it was Dolby Surround all along and the LDDB just needs a tweak?
