How has your experience been with Soundtrack Factory releases? This Andorra-based label has quite a few musicals and Woody Allen comps in their catalog, as well as some interesting movie scores from yore (like Duck Soup). I mainly remember them as being the label with the only Third Man soundtrack available, although it really was the "movie on CD" with dialogue and all (the "injustice" has since been sorta corrected by Silva's new recording of the score for release a year or so ago).

Anyway, your experiences with Soundtrack Factory? Sound quality? How's the Humphrey Bogart collection or their version of the Alexander Nevsky score? Leave no stone unturned....

These cds sound like crap, as if someone recorded it off of a video cassette.

The "recording technology" available to Prokofiev wasn't exactly top-of-the-line. Yes, it's true that he reportedly used some ill-conceived sound techniques ... but since the film's surviving audio track is by all accounts an UNFINISHED, temporary track, there will always remain doubt as to how the final score track and audio mix would have sounded.

There are so many excellent recordings of the Nevsky cantada -- along with the wonderful rerecording of the reconstructed original score -- that there's no reason to bother with the inferior Soundtrack Library release.

It would be interesting to see someone completely re-do the audio on Nevsky, dialogue and all (although what voice actor would be able to equal the great Nikolai Cherkasov?) ... or at least replace the score, if it's possible anymore to separate the original music/dialogue/FX elements.

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...he reportedly used some ill-conceived sound techniques...

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So we're probably talking about an ancestor of Shawn Murphy at the mixing console?

Finally, here's one thread that hasn't taken the left turn at Albuquerque (in other words, it has kept on topic) and quite spectacularly "left no stone unturned" as I'd hoped. Thanks to all who've responded, including you Hellstrom, as you've provided exactly the material sought.

A thread asking about the merits or non-merits of Soundtrack Factory.

Replies about how Soundtrack Factory sucks.

People reading the thread get a clear idea that this label is best avoided.

Then a post from someone whining about people bashing Soundtrack Factory, but the whiner bashes Soundtrack Factory too...

IMHO fo cuorse,

Reagards,

Movie: $15.99CDN + time spent on ripping score from movie

vs. Soundtrack Factory CD ($18.99CDN) - all the work already done for me.

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Originally posted by Hellstrom:
Why would you wish to discuss Soundtrack Factory?

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"Presumptuous?" I think that needs some explaining in the current context. I don't know what you mean about the gap between "producers" and "fanboys," but to me it should be obvious to anyone who purports to be in the soundtrack "retail" business that it becomes very important off-the-bat to know which labels are legitimate and those which aren't. Soundtrack Factory has not just arrived on the scene this minute, they've been around for several years. Consequently you should have been aware of their status already, not asking lame questions at this stage....use your loaf Peter, that's all we're saying.

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Originally posted by Hellstrom:
Oh and Dinko, go back to smoking some more crack. It'll clear your head of all that bullshit.

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Yes, presumptuous. I must be the retarded one for wishing to confirm any notions about this label before spending all kinds of $$$ filling up the store here with SF's crap, and then having to deal with the expense of refunding credit cards, paying for returns, etc, after customers find this stuff absolute crap and demand refunds. Varese, Intrada, FSM, SAE, etc will not go out of business by anyone (let alone a person like me who "pretends" to be in the soundtrack retail business) posting a little thread on a message board like this.

As for me pretending to be in the soundtrack retail business, such libel bothers me none at all. I am only left bewildered that such a statement comes from a person whose name is on so many CDs my company has sold. To the discussion: I have never owned any SF releases, and only came across a few this week for the first time when buying a large lot of CDs off a collector getting out of the hobby (some "fanboys" do more than just complain). I always understood SF had crappy quality, and knew they were closely projected as a bootlegger. However, unlike other prolific bootleggers from Europe (aka TSUNAMI et al), this one has not yet been put out of business and, by the looks and sound quality of the Humphrey Bogart collection and other recent/newer releases, SF has possibly moved from bootleg to legitimate status as a label. A physical address, fax/phone, UPC, copyright information, etc, all appear on the inserts of the few CDs I am looking at, all which would support a theory the company may be on the right track. I do understand many bootleggers fake lots of this info, but not "necessarily" in SF's case. Call it naive on my part, or call it giving companies the chance if it appears they are righting themselves. However, if I learn, by whatever means I think most economical, that this company is still as wretched as once believed, I am satisfied. That's what I was after. Time and money are saved, and according to Hellstrom logic, so are Varese, SAE, Intrada and FSM.

As for the whiners and the producers outing the whining fanboys at every opportunity, everyone should remember this: the same people who buy soundtracks are the same people who whine about the lack of soundtracks, or the problem with them, whatever those problems may be. Instead of widening the negative relationship that has developed between producers and consumers, perhaps a "thank you" or similar positive can be found, or nothing at all. Things were better in the days before the internet when producers and fanboys did not intermingle. How ugly it's become.

Dinko A. Clueless-Fanboy<HR size=1></blockquote>

Dink,

Can I call that Post the "Hellstrom Chronicle"?

James

P.S. SF CDs are reguarly stocked at Tower Records too. I've never bought them as I figured they were taken right off the films.

James

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Originally posted by Bond1965:
P.S. SF CDs are reguarly stocked at Tower Records too.

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I am not really interested in adding SF's poor quality products to the store, but with all this information about SF's product being available in the most high-profile music stores, the indicators suggest the label may be righting itself.

Hellstrom, any explanation why Craig Spaulding would carry SF product? Am I "using my loaf" a little too much, or is he not using his?

When I picked up The Sound Track Factory's release of FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN the other day, I sort of half-remembered this thread, but not the details, so I took a chance.

Yup, this is another awful release from that label. A sort of condensed aural summary of some of the key moments from both films, taken direct from the movies themselves.