Conan the Destroyer 2CD expanded score(remastered original!)

I browsed the net today seeking info on the rerecording of Conan the Destroyer and found a useful tip on a forum where someone spoke of a limited release (I checked it's 500 copies, so I guess it's almost sold out , but perhaps it may surface on ebay one day) by EliteSoundtracks.
I found this link the same forum

elitesoundtracks.com/new_releases/conan_the_destroyer_2cd_expanded_score_limited_500_basil_poledouris_P578.html

It consists in all tracks remastered including never before heard goodies, all being conducted by Basil Poledouris!

They sell also the rerecording by Nic Raine under the same title ( 2CD expanded score) but it must be a mistake, such different releases should'nt have exactly same titles.

elitesoundtracks.com/product.html/search=conan

Conan the Barbarian expanded score , remastered originals, 2CDs, etc is alos available from EliteSoundtracks:

elitesoundtracks.com/new_releases/conan_the_barbarian_2cd_expanded_score_limited_500_basil_poledouris_P621.html

edit: elite soundtracks state they "faithfully recorded and remastered" the original score, but this has yet to be verified, I have some doubts, even though they copyrighted their release, which should normally be some kind of guarantee.

i bought the album CONAN THE DESTROYER - 2CD EXPANDED SCORE.
I must warn everyone..don't buy it.
It's the same songs as in the original 1 cd soundtrack of the destroyer.
The other songs are ripped from the movie (sounds almost like VHS) with very bad sound quality.
Sometimes the creator of this "special bootleg edition" have mixed the original songs with
the VHS sound. The result is awful.
Go for Nic Raine's instead. It's really great.

The bad cd was called expanded score. Nic Raine's is called complete score.
That's all for now.

Another thing with this CD. The song "Valeria Remembered" is replaced by the song "Funeral Pyre" from the first one.
Maybe in the world of the maker of this expanded score, that song was in The destroyer.

Hassekongo, I'm sad to say this but you're obviously promoting the Nic Raine rerecordings which I do not like at all, they made me fall asleep.

Also, what you're saying doesn't seem to be entirely true. I say "may" because I didn't listen to the elitesoundtrack supposed "remaster" but I did listen to the MP3 bootleg "Complete motion picture score" from an unknown source.
Some titles may be the same since the list by elitesoundtracks is almost the same as the MP3 bootleg release, but with even more pieces. It's also possible that my MP3 version I downloaded could be a better sounding boot than the elitezsoundtrack one but something tells me both have the same source.
Compare both score back covers:

elitesoundtrack:
elitesoundtracks.com/new_releases/conan_the_destroyer_2cd_expanded_score_limited_500_basil_poledouris_P578.html

unknown MP3 release of probably similar source


Everything I will say now concerns the MP3 version I got:

In the MP3 boot, Valeria Remembered is absolutely not "Funeral Pyre". It's a much shorter alternate, with many differences and a different ending. without having heard the elitesoundtracks version, I can see on their back cover that they have 3 different versions of "Funeral Pyre" used for Destroyer:
-there are two "Valeria Remembered" , one on CD1 and the other on CD2, I guess one is the same as I have on the MP3 boot, the other is Funeral Pyre from the Barbarian either renamed or a similar alternate
-there is also "the Kiss" which is another alternate version of Funeral Pyre for Destroyer, you didn't even mention it, and it's not VHS ripped because you don't hear all of it in the movie, the " kiss" scene lasts for a total of 01mn19sec and the score is 3 minutes long with a different intro and other differences when comapred to the Varese version. So I'd say that in this precise case they had access to the original studio tapes.

The quality of the short Valeria Remembered on the other hand , could be VHS or DVD ripped because the sound is really bad and the piece is completely played in the movie, but it's also probable that the studio tapes were half-dead!

Underwater passage-Hall of Crystals is a very interesting piece: both pieces are played on the MP3 wiht no pause in between in fact it's one big piece. The probelm is that in the movie a big part when the cellos pay , right in the middle, is completely absent ( a minute or so) and it starts again with the harp part when Malak almost falls from the crystal tower. So in this case it is 100% sure the studio tapes were used and resampled.

Raising the Crypt door is an alternate version of Wheel of pain . You can you can hear in the Destroyer movie, the pieces are not the same, there are notable differences between the alternate (Destroyer) and the original from the Barbarian. The quality is really bad on that one, ultra grainy and probably taken from a vhs or dvd and the version on the MP3 boot is exactly the same length as what we hear in the movie : 2mn20sec.

there are also two unused pieces in the MP3 boot, and this is highly interesting because we don't hear it in the movie, ...ithey're "unused"!! They use bridging themes from the Barbarian but played differently in the Destroyer mood, probably rejected score because too similar to what we hear in the Barbarian.

I'd say that some of the alternates I didn't speak of ( Elite guards attack take 2 , Dueling Wizards take2 , and Riders of Taramis take2) could be VHS/DVD sourced because they're heard in the movie, but I didn't check if they were entirely in the movie too...

to conclude , we'll say that some pieces on the MP3 boot could be vhs/dvd sourced and cleaned, while some others like underwater passage-crystal halls, the kiss and the UNUSED pieces are obviously taken from never released sources, probably (stolen? bought for a certain price?) studio original tapes since the pieces are full. Still the quality isn't optimal but underwaterpassage-crystalhalls is enjoyable and while not digital quality sounding is quite ok apart from a bit of hum (not as much hum as on the tracks I suspect of being vhs dvd sourced though!).
Some trakcs are also taken from the Destroyer Varese release for evident purposes.

At least I'll have learned something, which is that studio tapes must have emerged somehow and were available even before intrada claimed they were the first ones to have found them (to work on a remastered version yet to be released).
How many things we learn when we look around and download !

As for your simplistic comparison "the boot is awful go for Nic Raine" ... I prefer a lo fi boot to listen in my headphones rather than a sleepy boring version by Raine and his pals.
I read on Intrada's forums and other sites that they'll be releasing remastered studio tapes of both Conan movies, and I'm very curious to hear that if ever they do release them!

If they don't we'll be stuck with both NicRaine reinterpretations and that would be a crime.
truth is, I'd like many other orchestras/conductors to play the score and be able to compare, for example it would be extremely interesting to hear the Rome Symphony & Santa Cecilia choir perform more than 30 years after the same scores, now that we have better recording technologies!