Tron [Soundtrack]

Wendy Carlos | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 5, 2011)
• Original Release Date: July 9, 1982
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Walt Disney Records
• ASIN: B00005V8J7
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,811 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Been Too Long A Wait ... But Now It's Over, January 30, 2002

By 

RandyAU93 (Lithia Springs, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tron (Audio CD)

For reasons unbeknownst to us (but knownst to Disney), the soundtrack to their 1982 film "TRON" completely missed the digital revolution. You would think that a movie whose whole premise is digitally-grounded would have been an early adopter of compact disc technology. But it wasn't. I still have my old LP version of the soundtrack, but it certainly doesn't fit in my car's CD changer, and my tape of the soundtrack is old and over-used.

Well, just in time for the movie's 20th anniversary year, Walt Disney Records has finally brought the soundtrack to the CD format, and believe me, it was worth the wait.

The album has been completely remastered with the full assistance of the composer, Wendy Carlos. The CD's liner notes include a recent interview with Carlos, who details the creation of the unique digital/orchestral score that accompanies the on-screen computer animation. Being something of a novice when it comes to modern music composition, many of the terms sailed clear over my head, but she managed to provide more than enough context to make her descriptions make sense.

On to the tracks: All the tracks from the original LP soundtrack are here, arranged in an order reasonably consistent with the progress of the film. What makes this soundtrack so intriguing is not so much how it evokes memories of the film (which it certainly does) but how the merger of sythesized music with the work of a symphony orchestra came across so well. Considering the movie itself was a merger of traditional film techniques with cutting-edge (for the early 80s) computer animation, the fact that the soundtrack is similarly composed makes it that much more engrossing.

As owners of the original soundtrack might recall, 80s supergroup Journey prepared two tracks (one song, one instrumental) for use with the movie. Both tracks are in the movie, but there's nothing to call attention to them; check the arcade scenes in the film and you'll hear them. They do seem somewhat out of place, especially the anacronistically-named "90s Theme," but not so much that you'll skip them.

An added bonus on the CD is three previously unreleased tracks; Carlos mentions in her interview that they were intended for the original soundtrack, but were left out because of lack of space on both the LP and cassette formats. The first track is an early "draft" of one of the action themes, the second is a piece that was used in the film but not on the old album and the third is a simple single-instrument version of the "TRON" theme (being the last track on the disc, it's a welcome cool-down). The liner notes go into greater detail about how these tracks came to be.

The fact that this disc has never been available before is enough of a selling point. If you're on the fence, however, you would do well to pick up this exceptional compilation that was some twenty years in the making.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great soundtracks, December 9, 2002

By 

Steve "SF Lover" (North Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tron (Audio CD)

This is truly one of the great soundtracks. Composer Wendy Carlos explains on her Website (an excellent site, BTW) why some of the recordings (soundtrack and otherwise) of the early to mid-80's may not be able to be heard again. It could be the answer to the Dark Crystal, and Black Hole OSTs not being released on CD.

Wendy explains--
"--Ampex introduced another even higher output oxide, with a newly formulated binder as well, that exacted a deadly curse upon all who used it. Of course it wasn't realized at first, it took a few years. The new binder was no longer the stable, inert formulation it had been. The supplier of the new batches had inadvertently allowed many short molecules, much shorter than before, to dominate the mix. These are very hygroscopic molecules, which simply means they absorb water readily, right out of the air.

The water causes a change in the state of the binder -- it becomes a semi-liquid, and migrates from behind and in between the oxide particles, gluing them together and to the backing, up to the front oxide surface, where in its softened state it acts as a pretty effective glue, sticking to heads, guides, leader tape, fingers, rat hairs and floor sweeping... all the things you don't want attached to your magnetic tape surfaces, which ought be smooth, dry, clean, and slippery!"

Her TRON and Shining analog masters (on 3M tapes, who decided to use the same kind of oxide/binder formulation) were basically turning into strapping tape (she had digital mixes, "perfectly playable" according to her) but without these analog masters, it would be pretty hard to do new Dolby Surround mixes. Hence, the solution offered by one of the writers at EQ magazine; bake the tapes to dry them out, then back them up to new stock.

Wendy did, and since it is TRONs 20th anniversary, Disney decided to commission a new CD of the soundtrack. Thank God!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TRON Shines On CD...At Last!, February 13, 2002

By 

Luis M. Ramos "Soundtrack and Film Freak" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tron (Audio CD)

It has been years of waiting. And I must admit it was worth it. Wendy Carlos' TRON has finally seen the daylight on CD. This is such a marvelous piece of work. The recording is excellent. The liner notes by Carlos herself explaining the road to composing TRON and having it remastered for this new album are truly great.

All the music as heard on the original LP is here, plus the two songs Journey composed for the film. The bonus tracks are great, especially 'Break In', which tracks Flynn (Jeff Bridges) and friends sneaking into the ENCOM building. The only thing I truly regret is that a piece of music -I call it 'End Of Line', which is played when Dillinger (David Warner) enters his office and discovers, almost at the end of the movie, he's been exposed as the man who stole Flynn's video games -didn't make its appearance on this new edition. Too bad.

However, I am really pleased to have TRON on CD in my hands. There are no extra words to describe my feelings, but now I am playing it over and over in my player. TRON definitely lives!