Blown Away

[Eihtball]

I was watching "Blown Away" not too long ago and I noticed that the U2 songs in the movie sound a bit different from the way they sound on the album.

Notice how "With Or Without You" sounds in the film compared to "The Joshua Tree". I've noticed this is very common in movies...the song sounds different in tone than it does on the album. Big question is...why? Does it have something to do with the quality of the audio mixing? If so, what?

 

[Alidali12]

A lot of times artists will re-record songs for cinematic use. And often when they do this, they may vary it slightly from the orignal. The process of getting songs to use in major motion pictures, especially when using big bands like U2, requires a ton of money and becuase of this, instead taking a track from a cd and putting it to the film, artists will come in a record it again, which is why it sounds different.

 

[Eihtball]

In the case I posted above, that is obviously not a re-recorded version of the song done specially for the movie. It sounds identical to the album version (which, BTW, appears on the movie's soundtrack) in every way except that the tone seems different. It's gotta be some kind of an audio transfer difference...only question is, what kind exactly?

 

[flamitaz]

If its not re-recorded , especually for the movie soundtrack, then its a version the director, aor the music score composer felt more appropiate for the film. In any case there are programs that are out there, that can help you achieve this and tons more other effects. Take for example adobe audition. That program can do a lot of things like what was done with that song in the movie you mentioned. I have that program, but to tell you the truth there is way too many things to learn. I don't have experience with it. But it sounds like the versin in the film is just going faster. Compare times from the version in the film and the original one. I almost guarantee you its just sped up. Hope that helps.

 

[Eihtball]

I did compare times and it doesn't sound to me like the version in the film has been sped up at all. Sounds more to me like the pitch was adjusted or something. I'd really like to know how they did it exactly, or why.

 

[Eihtball]

OK, for anyone interested, I figured it out...exactly as I had suspected, it is in fact a pitch adjustment that makes the song sound different, not increased playing speed (and it's also not a re-recorded version).

I used a program called BestPractice on an MP3 of "With Or Without You" and all I did was increase the pitch by one semitone, and now I have a version that sounds more-or-less like the one in "Blown Away." I did the same thing to "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and achieved the same result.

Wonder why it was done, though? I sorta like my version better, but I wonder why sound editors do adjust the pitch? "Blown Away" isn't the only movie in which I've heard this done...another example is in "Heat" when Moby's "God Moving Over The Face Of Water" plays over the end credits.