It’s been almost two years since the last La-La Land Records Star Trek soundtrack dropped out of subspace, and while we thought they may have finally covered all the Trek music that was available to release, the company is back today with one more visit to the final frontier.
With over two hours of music including a number of unreleased alternate tracks, a new two-CD Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan collection is available today from La-La Land Records, complete with newly-remixed digital sound.
La-La Land Records, Paramount Pictures, and Atlantic Records proudly present a limited edition, remastered 2-CD release of legendary composer James Horner’s (FIELD OF DREAMS, GLORY, TITANIC) original motion picture score to the classic 1982 sci-fi blockbuster STAR TREK II — THE WRATH OF KHAN, starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley, and directed by Nicholas Meyer.
Considered to be one of James Horner’s finest scores, the deluxe reissue showcases this masterwork sounding better-than-ever and expanded with previously unreleased alternate tracks. Disc One features the score presentation, while Disc Two presents the re-mastered 1982 Original Soundtrack Album and additional music.
Produced by Neil S. Bulk and Mike Matessino, and re-mixed and mastered by Mike Matessino, this special 2-CD release is limited 10,000 units and features art design by Jim Titus. Disc One, and the additional score tracks on Disc Two, have been re-edited and remixed in hi-res from newly discovered 1st generation analog 3-track stereo tapes. The original soundtrack album has been newly remixed from digital-to-analog 3-track stereo tapes made in 1982.
The exclusive, in-depth liner notes by writer and musical director/conductor Deniz Cordell feature new comments from Sara Horner, Nicholas Meyer, producer Robert Sallin, former Paramoun Music President Joel SIll, and longtime Horner collaborators Jim Henrikson and J.A.C. Redford.
We had an opportunity to hear directly from the soundtrack’s co-producer Neil S. Bulk, who was happy to share his insight into just what it took to bring this new Wrath of Khan score collection to light — and why this Star Trek II CD release is different from the 2009 ‘expanded edition’.
by Neil S. Bulk
When work began on this new Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan soundtrack in January 2021, I expected to get the same tapes that were used for the previous expanded release, an album co-producer Mike Matessino and I worked on in 2009.
Those tapes had one recording of every cue and the thought was this new album could be wrapped up quickly. It turns out I didn’t know enough about the recording of the score and with all of the new information available, I’d like to share some of these details.
To begin, the score was recorded digitally using a system developed by 3M in the late 70’s that operated at 50kHz-16 bit (source). This was cutting edge technology 40 years ago and the original album cover proudly said “Digital Recording” while the vinyl side labels mentioned the word “digital” twice, driving the point home.
Throughout scoring, 1” digital 32-track tape was the primary recording format. All takes, edits, and mixes for the film and soundtrack albums derived from it. Recorded to these tapes were digital edit code, a rough stereo mix, and the individual feeds for each section of the orchestra across the first 22 tracks. Tracks 28 through 30 recorded a live 3-track stereo Left-Center-Right (LCR) mix while track 32 recorded a 60Hz pilot tone for sync. The remaining tracks were left blank.
Running concurrently at the sessions were two analog back-up machines: the first was a 2” 24-track unit, which had the same music content as the digital 1” except for the stereo LCR mixes, which were recorded to a separate ½” machine. These live analog reels were recorded in case the digital recordings had problems and there’s a good chance these tapes were never used.
Yet another set of analog reels were created after scoring. As mentioned, the primary source for the film production was 32-track digital. Once the final performance edits were completed on digital tape (thus not incurring any generational loss inherent to analog) these were copied to analog tape in 1982 as protection. These ½” three-track stereo LCR safety reels, coming from digital and played through converters of the era, preserve the frequency response of the digital recordings and were used for the previous expanded album.
Readers may be wondering, “If there’s a digital recording why not stick with that and forget about all of these analog tapes?”. It’s a fair point, however the reality isn’t that simple. The 3M digital format is practically extinct. There are very few machines left in operation that can play the tapes properly without errors. Due to scarcity the transfer costs are also far more than analog tape.
On top of that, the tapes operate at a sampling rate that isn’t compatible with modern digital audio workstations, so a conversion to analog has to occur, meaning you’re still at the mercy of 40+ year old digital technology. Instead, by going with the fully analog tapes the score to Star Trek II could be re-edited, re-mixed and mastered in genuine hi-res audio for the very first time.
All of the ½” analog tapes have been newly transferred into hi-res 96kHz/24-bit digital. That higher rate doesn’t increase the frequency response of the digital-to-analog safety reels, but it does preserve the creative intentions of the editors and engineers. However, for the newly uncovered live analog tapes this new hi-res transfer captures a greater frequency response with better precision than any previous digital recording or transfer of the score. It’s these first-generation tapes that became the primary source for this new release.
Disc 1 of this collection presents the score in film order from the new hi-res transfers of the live ½” tapes. Disc 2 presents the original album from the ½” digital-to-analog safety reels, preserving work done in 1982. The additional music on disc 2 (apart from Craig Huxley’s “Genesis Project” which was sourced from the composer) is derived entirely from the ½” analog session tapes.
One of the advantages of having the full scoring sessions is that we can now document the recording of this score; above is a breakdown that shows the takes used for every cue on the album and the dates they were recorded. Titles here are from the legal cue sheet (and may differ with the final titles used on the album).
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If you want to add this new Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan expanded score to your own collection, you can head over to La-La Land Records’ official site now — where you can explore the entire track listing for the new 2-CD soundtrack set, and place an order for shipment today at a price of $29.98 USD.