Better Sound Quality for Original DBZ?

[LuckyCat]

Well, you heard it, so you know it exists. And it had to come from somewhere.

It came from somewhere, therefore it must have come from a ten year-old ex-Toei employee who stole recordings that Toei didn't have. No way could the audio have come from an old recording of the original broadcast, that's absurd!

The guy clearly doesn't want to share his source, so it doesn't matter. Let's just appreciate people sharing what they have.

[superrayman3]

I can't say the name of the person who gave me this sample but my sources tell me that I'm getting master audio from an ex-Toei employee. All we know is that she is a woman in her 30's currently residing in the United Kingdom.

I can confirm that this U.K. source is real. I've got a close contact who knows her personally. I wouldn't believe anything anyone here writes about knowing them because they don't. My contact has all episodes for DB, Z, and very soon DBGT from the Original Masters. I've heard some samples from DB episodes 44, 66, and 67, and some samples from DBZ of episodes 244, 245, and 246. They are very real and sound just like DBZ: BIG BOX. My contact also has Movie #6 remixed in Stereo which is also like BIG BOX and is superior to the rare cassette version.

[simtek34]

I can't say the name of the person who gave me this sample but my sources tell me that I'm getting master audio from an ex-Toei employee. All we know is that she is a woman in her 30's currently residing in the United Kingdom.

I can confirm that this U.K. source is real. I've got a close contact who knows her personally. I wouldn't believe anything anyone here writes about knowing them because they don't. My contact has all episodes for DB, Z, and very soon DBGT from the Original Masters. I've heard some samples from DB episodes 44, 66, and 67, and some samples from DBZ of episodes 244, 245, and 246. They are very real and sound just like DBZ: BIG BOX. My contact also has Movie #6 remixed in Stereo which is also like BIG BOX and is superior to the rare cassette version.

Once you guys get these, could you rip the audio for download so we can all enjoy it?

[superrayman3]

Once you guys get these, could you rip the audio for download so we can all enjoy it?

I can’t say on how it will be distributed (if it ever will), but the Original Master audio recordings do still exist, and it’s amazing to hear in person.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

I don't know about you guys, but one of the things I'm so proud of Kanzenshuu for is the general lack of unsubstantiated bullshit. If you'd stop spewing nonsense, I would consider it a personal favor.

[BluezaBladeNZ]

I’ve heard these samples superrayman3 provided and will also confirm that it’s real.

[Bianju]

I can't say the name of the person who gave me this sample but my sources tell me that I'm getting master audio from an ex-Toei employee. All we know is that she is a woman in her 30's currently residing in the United Kingdom.

I can confirm that this U.K. source is real. I've got a close contact who knows her personally. I wouldn't believe anything anyone here writes about knowing them because they don't. My contact has all episodes for DB, Z, and very soon DBGT from the Original Masters. I've heard some samples from DB episodes 44, 66, and 67, and some samples from DBZ of episodes 244, 245, and 246. They are very real and sound just like DBZ: BIG BOX. My contact also has Movie #6 remixed in Stereo which is also like BIG BOX and is superior to the rare cassette version.

I can also confirm that this UK source is real. superrayman3 has provided samples of his efforts to me and they definitely put the current releases to shame. Exciting stuff.

[Ajay]

That 'UK source' isn't real. It's a previously banned member of this forum who got their hands on the regular broadcast audio that many people have, and simply remastered it.

Yes, it sounds nice, but it's nothing you couldn't do, yourself. They're a 17 year old male who gets a kick out of lying to people. I suggest you pay them no mind.

That'll be all on that subject in here, though happy to discuss it in PMs. Thank you!

[dougo13]

Just watched a "making of" Witch Sally fan tape from 1989. They show a lot of Toei studios production of the show and what goes into making an episode. Not much on DBZ other than the wall of master audio tapes they show in one scene for a variety of series, including DBZ as well as a screening schedule for the staff. It's a rather fascinating look at production back in the day. Perhaps i can interest someone in getting it subbed...

[sangofe]

Just watched a "making of" Witch Sally fan tape from 1989. They show a lot of Toei studios production of the show and what goes into making an episode. Not much on DBZ other than the wall of master audio tapes they show in one scene for a variety of series, including DBZ as well as a screening schedule for the staff. It's a rather fascinating look at production back in the day. Perhaps i can interest someone in getting it subbed...

Send me the video and I'll poke some fansub friends about it.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

That 'UK source' isn't real.

I've found some samples of this “UK source” audio in the internet. This looks like Tokai source with fake frequency range above 11kHz. This artificial information adds harsh, jarring and nasty artifacting. It degrades the sound more than it improves it. I have no idea, who decided to “remaster” it like this. So - if somebody has it - it's fake, delete it

I believe I posted some quotes from the interview with the president of TAVAC, in which he said, what happened with the original 16/35 mm magnetic film masters. kei17 also told us about it before.

[dougo13]

I'm sorry to open an old thread but according to industry people on the cinemtography site, Optical audio is lower frequency than I thought:

http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=20550

So, probably somewhere between 4 and 6 kHz. Pretty LoFi! With a bit of tweaking, you can get it to sound like old time mono AM radio...but that's about it. That means even the broadcast audio from areas outside Tokyo that used the 12 kHz filter would be useful since the range is still double what you get from optical alone! Just something to think about...

PS

Is there a site that lists bad audio releases in all anime from all studios in Japan? Having a hard time finding info like that. Toei is well known but they can't be the only ones that tossed the master audio tapes for whatever reason. Also, what other Toei video releases have poor Japanese audio? Other than DB/Z/GT and Hokuto no Ken? I've heard Saint Seiya also suffered from this but I can't confirm it....

[DB1984]

All the other studios kept their original audio masters. I know this, because I skimmed through an episode from the official Japanese DVD release of Armored Trooper Votoms from Nippon Sunrise, and the audio was perfectly fine. Clear as a bell. Not only that, but the preview for the next episode was in its correct position, too.

Sorry if I repeated myself just now, but I'm just adding some info to this bumped thread.

[Robo4900]

I'm sorry to open an old thread but according to industry people on the cinemtography site, Optical audio is lower frequency than I thought:

http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=20550

So, probably somewhere between 4 and 6 kHz. Pretty LoFi! With a bit of tweaking, you can get it to sound like old time mono AM radio...but that's about it. That means even the broadcast audio from areas outside Tokyo that used the 12 kHz filter would be useful since the range is still double what you get from optical alone! Just something to think about...

Yep. Everyone's known that all along, really.
Problem is, people like Enigmo(AKA CNXToonami) try to discredit this all by saying it's terrible. But, if you're listening to Enigmo, you're probably doomed to be wrong about various such things anyway.

It is worth noting, however, that when it comes from an original airing, often even cleaned-up VHS fansub audio is better than the optical audio we have for Dragon Ball.

In any case though, the 12KHz broadcast audio does sound pretty nice, even on its own. The mind boggles at what a professional sound engineer could do with it. And remember, most fans who've obtained the broadcast audio only have it in some sort of lower-quality form(Lossy encodes, lower quality sources, etc.). So, I'm looking forward to seeing what'll happen when official hands finally do something with it.

Is there a site that lists bad audio releases in all anime from all studios in Japan? Having a hard time finding info like that. Toei is well known but they can't be the only ones that tossed the master audio tapes for whatever reason. Also, what other Toei video releases have poor Japanese audio? Other than DB/Z/GT and Hokuto no Ken? I've heard Saint Seiya also suffered from this but I can't confirm it....

I can't remember them all offhand, but apparently Fist Of The North Star(I can't remember its Japanese name) is one. Yeah, I think Saint Seiya is another. Dr. Slump is like this too.
I don't think there is a site that lists this stuff.

[dougo13]

Hokuto no Ken = Fist of the North Star

For Toei, I'd guess everything they produced prior to DBGT. That's a lot of series and episodes. For other studios? Who knows. And, you'd have to get the episodes from tapes that were hifi audio recordings as the mono linear track would be no better than the optical as far as sound quality. So, I think from 1983 or so but they had dual audio transmission in Japan from 1978. A monumental undertaking...

[Robo4900]

For Toei, I'd guess everything they produced prior to DBGT.

Well, possibly more, possibly less. GT's original audio masters do exist, but Toei just aren't using them.

[HakkaiBills93]

Hokuto no Ken = Fist of the North Star

For Toei, I'd guess everything they produced prior to DBGT. That's a lot of series and episodes. For other studios? Who knows. And, you'd have to get the episodes from tapes that were hifi audio recordings as the mono linear track would be no better than the optical as far as sound quality. So, I think from 1983 or so but they had dual audio transmission in Japan from 1978. A monumental undertaking...

yes saint seiya also suffered this even if toei officialy released VHS of them which don't seems to have broadcast audios so yes most Toei series have this issues , captain tsubasa also have this kind of issues even if some italian cut dvd have better audios for the japanese part (but is not uncut sadly)

[dougo13]

For Toei, I'd guess everything they produced prior to DBGT.

Well, possibly more, possibly less. GT's original audio masters do exist, but Toei just aren't using them.

Weren't they broadcast in stereo after the initial few were run in mono? I assume they have been capped in reruns by Japanese fans? But I guess access is limited...

[SuperCyan2]

Weren't they broadcast in stereo after the initial few were run in mono? I assume they have been capped in reruns by Japanese fans? But I guess access is limited...

It's relatively easy to get GT BA audio and higher quality video episodes than the Dragon Box from what I've seen. However, that may be upscales though they look better to me than the Dragon Box GT.

A compressed version of DBZ BA is also out there and gives a taste of what BA audio is like. When I played the Muffled audio vs the BA audio I was like.. damn, what a difference! Even the compressed BA compared to the Muffled doesn't sound anywhere near as bad.

[GamerSkull]

I have the Funimation Blu-rays for the Z portion of Dragon Ball and the japanese sound quality isn't too bad.

However, it's a damn shame that Toei seems to have lost the original air quality ones.