Customer Reviews

The Great Fantasy Adventure Album

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, I suppose that depends on the type of music you're testing your equipment for. However, go to almost any online discussion of audio equipment, particularly subwoofers, and you'll come across this disc. Sure, most of the other reviewers mention the sound effects in less than glowing terms. It remains though that this disc contains some of the crazy lowest signals one can buy on disc. The T rex footsteps shake the entire house despite being below my hearing range with my Martin Logan Descent sub. Incredible stuff. And the glass shattering sound effects in the Terminator theme can melt your tweeters too if turned up too loud. Don't take yourself too seriously for a few minutes and enjoy the noise!
Beyond that, musically this is one of the Cincinatti Pops' finest soundtrack collections. Perhaps the best. Almost all of their recordings are sonically of the highest quality (Copland: Music of America won a Grammy for best engineering), but all too often in recent years the releases have not met the standard of this album. Arrangers that don't begin to care what the composer's intent was or tacking on pre-fab endings are the worst offenders, but most of the selections here meet or exceed the quality of the original soundtracks. All around, a great soundtrack collection.

"Caution: Digital Sound Effects of high levels with intrasonic frequencies to 5 Hz. Please establish safe playback levels before playing tracks [3], [5], [19], [20], and [21]. Excessive playback levels could result in damage to equipment."

The above quote is found prominantly on the back cover and is a warning not to be taken lightly. The respective tracks are awesome and should be played, as well as listened to, with great care.

A 20-bit digital recording that is perfect for surround-sound systems, "The Great Fantasy Adventure Album" is a wonder for fans of the sci-fi/fantasy film genre. Highlighting some truly landmark films, the 1994 release showcases compositions from the legends of past and contemporary film scoring. Themes from the likes of Rosza, Williams, Horner, Herrmann, and Elfman are grandiosely featured here.

The best cuts are Goldsmith's "Total Recall: Main Title", "Conan the Barbarian: Anvil of Crom" (Poledouris), and Brad Fiedel's "Terminator: Theme".

Upon hearing this trio, chills will not just go up the spine but will permeate every ounce of one's body

I bought this album several years ago and continue to enjoy it to this day. The recording is professional and the orchestra is quite good. My only complaint is that I don't care for the stylistic changes effected by the arranger for some of the themes. The most notable example of this can be found in 'The Anvil of Crom' (theme from Conan the Barbarian) where the music is too fast, too crisp, and has a completely altered (and rather trite) ending that falls flat compared to Basil Poledouris' original composition for the film. But with that caveat aside, I would recommend this album to anyone who enjoys fantasy adventure music who doesn't have the $$$ to buy each and every soundtrack album separately.

WARNING: The sound effects tracks are UNBELIEVABLY LOUD. They will ruin your ears and your speakers. Proceed with caution if you choose to play them...

The Jurassic tracks and Terminator theme/Cybergenesis are subwoofer killers. Those warnings are for real.

I have a good number of Kunzel CDs, but this one could easily be called "Mark's Favorite Movie Themes." It doesn't matter that I have many of these repeated on other CDs; it saved me the trouble of having to burn my own 'faves' disc. It's good to see Basil Polodouris' "Conan" and "Red October" themes, he's often overlooked as a film composer, in my book, and regardless what one might think of the movie, the Conan score is still probably the best thing he's ever done. And the hard-to-find "Terminator" theme is hard NOT to listen to, with its highly unusual rythmic motif. I enjoy all the music selections, but having James Horner's sublime theme from "The Rocketeer" was well worth the price of the CD by itself. This is what a movie themes CD should be, and it helps that I happen to like Kunzel's choice of selections, for once. The sound effects that typically accompany these CDs are generally annoying, but I like the sonar segue into "Red October," and the T-Rex roar that precedes "Jurassic Park" is useful for scaring kids at Halloween.

was wanting to find this for a very long time 10 years thank you for having this and such a great price, plays great

This cd has some fine sonic pieces that are excellent for testing out the potential of your audio system: One might want to be very careful with less than optimal system components, esp. speakers and amp.

The Cincinnati Pops do an excellent job of faithfully reproducing movie soundtracks and this album is a perfect example. In fact after listening to this CD a few times, I tracked down some of the original soundtracks because I enjoyed the selections on here, such as the "El Cid" music and "Jurrasic Park." I also really enjoyed the music from "Henry V" "Robin Hood,"and "Hunt for Red October." The different tracks go together surprisingly well, like many of the pops other thematic CD's. While it might be helpful to have seen some of the movies the soundtracks come from, it is not crucial. The added soundeffects are a little gimmicky, but fairly short and on seperate tracks, so they can be skipped. If you enjoy movie soundtracks, this is a great investment.

No words can compare how remarkable this cd is. Combined with incredible sound quality, this cd will twist and turn you emotions with every single score. i can honestly say that this disc is the perfect relaxation and energizing thing ever.