At Chelsea Rialto Studios, our goal is to restore classic motion picture music from the best available elements, and then compile the cues into continuous symphonic scores with sustained ambience for the best possible listening experience that can be produced.

Our first commercial restoration, Max Steiner's THE FLAME AND THE ARROW, was produced for Brigham Young University and released through Screen Archives Entertainment in 1998. Since then, CR Studios has restored dozens of scores for Brigham Young and has co-produced directly with Screen Archives albums featuring scores under license from 20th Century-Fox, Richard Feiner and Co., and the Dimitri Tiomkin family archive. CR Studios has also produced restoration albums for Rhino Records, Percepto Records, RykoDisc and Monstrous Movie Music.

Most of the Max Steiner scores we have restored originated with acetate playback discs in the composer's archive held at the Harold Lee Library at Brigham Young University. These discs were, for the most part, recorded live on the sound stage for immediate playback at the original scoring sessions. James D'Arc of BYU initiated the BYU/FMA Soundtrack CD series and is responsible for assigning talent to every aspect of each project, including audio production, liner notes and layout. All BYU releases include full color souvenir booklets comprised of original publicity artwork, historical essays on both the film and the score, biographical information on the composer and technical notes on the album production. Both the DODGE CITY / OKLAHOMA KID album and the three-disc MAX STEINER: THE RKO YEARS album featured 72 page booklets.

More recent scores we've restored have originated on magnetic tape. Overall, mag masters provide an exponentially better aural experience, but they also have their own share of problems. As magnetic tape or 35mm mag netic film ages, the oxides can dry and flake, causing audio mottling and dropouts. Here again we have to find matching audio to replace that which has been lost to the ravages of time.

All audio processing for Chelsea Rialto Studios restorations is done on the Sound Forge Industrial Editing system. The master audio materials are digitized and then individual pieces of music, be they full cues or partial cues, are sequenced as they appear in the film. Audio anomalies such as pops, clicks and crackle are removed. Skips or major blemishes are replaced with matching bars of music whenever possible. Underlying surface noise is carefully analyzed and reduced to the extent that such reduction does not compromise the brightness, clarity or ambiance of the original recording.



Maintaining continuous ambience in the assembled recordings not only makes for a more rewarding listening experience in a musical sense, but sonically as well. It removes the jarring effect of whatever extraneous noise may remain in the original recording being dialed out to dead silence and then dialed back up again with the next cue, thereby constantly calling attention to the anomaly.



The Official Distributor for Chelsea Rialto Studios restorations is Screen Archives Entertainment in Linden, Virginia. Their website, www.screenarchives.com is the first and last stop in any quest for motion picture soundtrack CD's.

ABOUT OUR EXCLUSIVE BLU-RAY RELEASES

Our new program of exclusive blu-ray releases is comprised of rare original prints of classic films that have fallen into the public domain. All features are transferred in High Definition and are given the same careful restoration and processing that we afford our soundtrack releases.



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an Interview with CR Studios' Ray Faiola

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