@ Sam Hain
This is actually a pretty good question, I talked about this before but can't remember where.
So I'll try to shed some light on this for you. I don't mind criticism or skeptical questions, if you're nice you always get a chat with me.
To my knowledge there have only been 3 releases of the LHOTL soundtrack.
- A german vinyl called 'Mondo Brutale' Last House was released over there under that name. Later as 'das letze house links' . I have never seen it and can't even confirm it's existence or release year 100% . There is no way in telling what masters were used.
- A CD released, mastered and produced by David Hess on his own label 'Rock Bottom Rules' signed by himself limited to 1000 copies. (3 bonus tracks) released in 1999
- A CD (I think it was german) with the same tracks as the one above (Not sure if there is a 4th bonus track on this). It had the generic later DVD poster art as a cover. Hardly ever seen it pop up.
-- there are some tracks on bootleg vinyl/cassette comps floating around taken straight from VHS sources.
There was never the intention for a proper soundtrack release when the movie was made. You have to remember that this was a 'first' movie for both Craven and Cunningham and they did not even know if it was going to get distribution, let alone a soundtrack. Also this is 1972 we are talking about and a grindhouse movie. There are no 'first generation separate sound masters' and all that.
We used the CD master David produced as our master for the release. This came from semi damaged German movie DAT TAPES (provided by German distributor ATLAS) and were the only ones decent enough to source from.
We chose this as master for a couple of reasons:
1) contractual : David co-mastered and produced these, this was his vision on his own songs and sound. We could not mess with this, and would not want to either.
2) it was the only and best master available, so not much choice here. But that's ok, it's a good one.
3) Sourcing/mastering again from the un-restored Dat tapes by someone other than David would have been pointless, the outcome would be the same at best.
Now here's the important part : We had it remastered for vinyl by engineers at Rainbo Records. This is important to mention because these guys are top of the line. They are in the biz since the fifties. They did a great job with the material.
Yes, it has it's small cracks and pops and glitches. But it sound great, raw and brutal like the movie.
This is in no way an audiophile recording. It could never have been, our focus was with getting it out there for the fans with the best possible sound and packaging.
As for the bonus tracks and flexi, this is really simple : there was no more room on the vinyl to add bonus tracks. Yes we could have crammed some of them on it and pushing the acceptable limit for vinyl, but there would have been too much sound quality loss.
Making those extra's available on the cd/cassette/digital versions was practical, not 'money making/double cash' intended. If we did a double LP for just four tracks, then it would have been even more expensive for the fans.
There is something for everyone's budget:
* a higher priced collectable version with a flexi
* a standard vinyl pressing
* a cd pressing
* a cheap priced digital download
* even a cassette
So, the choice was entirely with the fan, a version for every budget.
Once again, our focus was with making it 'available'. The 1999 cd version fetched 200+ euro on ebay and the likes. So it was time to get this out there at democratic prices.
'no efforts and cost were spared' ... could not be more true. I worked on it for over a year and spent the money for a small car on it
So, I hope this answers your questions. Thanks for ordering, you won't be disappointed.
