[marknyc]

Hi everybody,

I wanted to share a project I recently finished - a DVD of "Girl Crazy" in true stereo! As you know, "Crazy For You" was based on this 1930 show which was filmed in 1943 with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.

I started this project because when I saw the film back in the 70s (at the impressionable age of 19), I was blown away by Dorsey's arrangement of "Fascinatin' Rhythm." I had to have a copy, and searched many years to find a soundtrack recording. First, I tried to make an audiotape off TV (this was before home VCRs), but they cut the number for time. Then I found a bootleg LP, but the sound was horrible. Finally I bought it on Beta HiFi and had a reasonably good copy.

But I was especially thrilled when the entire soundtrack was released on CD, and I found that it was in stereo! Apparently, when MGM recorded the music for the film, they used multiple mics and then mixed it down to mono for the soundtrack. Happily, the separate elements were preserved, and they could be remixed to true stereo. Great sound, since it was recorded optically onto 35mm film, not 78 rpm discs. So now I had great audio but only okay picture quality (the film was never released on DVD).

When I recently bought a DVD recorder, I decided I had to try to make a DVD of the film, for personal use, in full stereo. To do this, I burned a DVD off the air, transferred it to my computer, used MPEG Video Wizard to convert the files for editing, SoundForge to stretch the CD audio to match the film audio (no easy task), Pinnacle Studio to replace the audio, and TMPGEnc DVD Author to create a DVD.

It's been a ridiculous amount of work, but I think the final result was worth it. The sound and picture quality are outstanding. It's full DVD quality, and to see a 1943 musical in real stereo is just amazing - especially one with a score like this! I don't think there are any plans to release this great film on DVD, and if they do you can be sure they won't spend the money to replace all the songs with the stereo versions.

If you'd like more info, let me know!

Best,

Mark