Lend me your ears.....

[JohnS]

The Edge. Instruments seem wider, with blurred edges, better filling the whole balanced panorama. Some (woodwinds) seem closer, very intimate, but still enveloping. Other (string sections, brass) larger, more at the back, but not too distant, without gaps between sound planes.
Mummy sounds more like a concert piece, with instruments clearly placed and separated on stage.

 

[José Herring]

The Edge, and it isn't even close. That's a truly lovely recording. I didn't know this music, and I've never seen the film, which is ironic given my background. Where was this recorded?

Recorded on the CBS lot in Studio City in Todd AO scoring stage (RIP). Recording Orchestra only into a RADAR recording system with Lexicon 960 as the only reverb. They took the drives directly to the sound dub with no additional mixing. It was amazing.

 

[ChickenWhisperer]

In my opinion (which is not professional and that might be slightly relevant because most people who listen to a track are not professionals) the second song sounds better, more full and warm, the first one sounds a bit dry to me. The same thing happens in the second song at 4:25, it suddenly gets very dry and it sounds a bit weird to me, but then it gets to that warm sound again. In the second track I also like the part at 9:26 when those (toms I think) come in the background and complement the rest of the orchestra, I think they're panned slightly to the right (or at least that's what it sounds like in my headphones). I'm not sure if those are toms, I'm still not that good at identifying orchestral percussion, I can only tell snares and timpani for sure by sound so sorry if I got that wrong. But I like both songs, I'm not sure why you assumed people would hate them, but I believe the second one sounds better in terms of mixing and mastering.

 

[I like music]

Very interesting that this is hugely lopsided towards The Edge. Given that they are two different aesthetics, I kind of expected people to be split down the middle but unless I'm reading it wrong there's a clear winner here.

There are many Goldsmith scores which I wish were a bit drier. Luckily got to hear a couple of concerts of his live with the London Symphony Orchestra. It was an absolutely amazing experience. You could hear everything so clearly (at the Barbican) and it gelled together in such a lush way.

 

[JohnS]

Very interesting that this is hugely lopsided towards The Edge. Given that they are two different aesthetics, I kind of expected people to be split down the middle but unless I'm reading it wrong there's a clear winner here.

There are many Goldsmith scores which I wish were a bit drier. Luckily got to hear a couple of concerts of his live with the London Symphony Orchestra. It was an absolutely amazing experience. You could hear everything so clearly (at the Barbican) and it gelled together in such a lush way.

I've found the exercise very interesting. If I were to choose the orchestral library, I would probably prefer the one in which instruments can be clearly separated and defined in (big) space. But when listening to those two pieces in the context of movie score, I had to admit to myself that I prefer closer, yet blurred and more enveloping, immersing sound, not drawing too much attention to separate instruments, away from the picture on the screen.

 

[PeterN]

Sounds like The Mummy uses microphones more distant and The Edge uses microphones closer. Maybe even some more modern techniques for processing. But the closer mics would be the reason The Edge sounds 'more refined'. The low end reverb 'reveals' this microphone setting. Or maybe its a larger hall.