Hi there folks. I sure hope I left this in the right place. Anyway I am calling to arms so to speak some people to provde their opinion on which cartoons in our Golden Era would be great in 5.1. I am a musician and an audio designer that is interested in giving this a shot. I am learning how to dismantle the seperate componets of a mono and or Sterio mix on a mag track. I am using Sony Spectral Layers and various other audionamix programs with logic and am acheving some interesting results.

Obviously the Fleischer Supermans would be great but I am finding this particular set of films way too challenging to me at my skill level at the moment. However, I have noticed some Looney Tunes on the box sets with isolated music and effects tracks etc. There can be a lot done with these. Also when did WB start to have Sterio soundtracks on their animated films?

Anyway, I am going to go at this with a lot of passion and a very delecate hand. I want to first isolate the music in instrumentation. The bass, middle and high range instruments into seperate tracks of then further split iso tracks.

Then any lil sound effects on their own tracks. Slide Whistles, cracks, crashes, horns, auto sounds etc on their own tracks

Then Dialogue on its own track

Then I will go ahead and create a sub channel

The first step is asking any or all of you that are interested in experiencing something like this to suggest some classic toons that would REALLY benefit from such a task.

Whats opera Doc?
Duck Dodgers?
Any Popeys or Bettys?
Any UB?

Im open to suggestions. It needs to be a film that has great music moments that can move around the field for a reason. And surround moments that happen too. Like Planes and off "camera" sounds and voices. Explosions. Cars racing and music moving around.

OK, if this is not out of line go ahead and suggest. Im all ears.

PS, if there are any audio engineers on this board please PM me, Im open to help as well.

Thanks.

I would be interested in experiencing any musical WB cartoon like this. Some examples I can name right off the top of my head:

• Rabbit of Seville
  
• What's Opera, Doc?
  
• Long-Haired Hare
  
• Three Little Bops
  
• One Froggy Evening
  
• Baby Bottleneck

Some non-WB cartoons I would be interested in hearing like this:

• Fantasia

Have you heard of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra? Last year (and I believe this year too) they screened Disney cartoons with live orchestration by Mark Watters. It was great.

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Thank you, keep em coming and any audio tech guys out there interested in helping PM me.

...Some non-WB cartoons I would be interested in hearing like this:

• Fantasia

...

Actually, in 1940, Fantasia was shown in a limited number of theaters with a soundtrack in three-channel surround sound. Howard Tremaine, editor of pre-1987 editions of the Audio Cyclopedia (Howard W. Sams), included an extensive writeup (expunged from later editions of the Audio Cyclopedia) of the process used and his role in setting up and operating the audio equipment used in those select theaters.

I'd be curious if the original multi-channel tracks survive in the Disney vaults...

^Dang, you're right! I completely forgot (Disney is not really my forte when it comes to cartoon history).

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In my opinion, if a cartoon was originally released with a mono track, then it should stay with a mono track. Nothing irks me more than "today's" soundtracks with their ear shattering high volume levels and un-natural sound effects.

Good old "Academy Mono" is perfect for me.

Ken, this thread is not for you. I was not asking for opinions on weather or not someone liked what I am suggesting here. If this format exsisted back then you can bet your bottom dollar it would have been used, especially WB! I am not talking about the crappy 5.1 with the added effects and the terrible mastering job. I am referring to turning a stew back into a cow. I have been doing restoration work for a few years now and have seen it work extremely well. Imagine having the powerful music surrounding you while the dialouge is in the center channel and certain action moments use the surrounds. When done properly you can get an original mono track to do just that using spectral layers tech. I am looking for positive suggestions on this thread for toons that would benefit from a tasty 5.1 mix. No more negative opinions. No more thread hijackers, if you want to complain, start your own thread for complaints. Now, what toons in mono would make a great surround experience.