Because the MONO soundtrack is the original soundtrack and an award winning one at that.
When the artists made the MONO soundtrack they had to mix it from 3 separate elements (music, dialogue, effects, and each of those three elements probably had had several tracks to mix from, for example music is recorded onto 4 tracks or more routinely since the days of Stereo Lps) and each track had equalizers and others controls/modifiers that they went through during the mixing, each with its own individual setting for the sound intended, etc.
So to do a NEW multichannel soundtrack, EVEN if they had ALL the original elements available at their disposal (which in this case netty points out they don't, which further willchange the sound) they have to start again from scratch and it won't sound the same it'll be a different version, even if they tried to make it as close as posiible, imagine trying to mix let's say 16 tracks 25 years later by diferent people (or people who's hearing has aged 25 years), different equipment, engineers, tastes, etc. Not only that, the mood of the people, the knowlegde of the people is totally different, (you may think or react diifferently to something when youre 20 than when your 45 or 50, etc.) Hey, probably if they even did the mix the next day after they did the MONO mix it would be different
Don't believe it? Listen to Beatles MONO and STEREO mixes done at the same mixing sessions
Specially with sound, and mixing from several multitracks to mono or stereo, mixing is kind of a performance.
(Today's automatic/programmable sliders and controls might help reduce the differences but then, you could say the sound mixing is more mechanized
)
But then again if they are making a 5 directional channel soundstage now, they have to change it anyway!
So that's the reason you shouldd always include or make available the original soundtrack/mix in movies/CDs etc be it mono, stereo, 4 track, 6 track , etc.
otherwise it's a REMIX. not the original.
You could say the same about the image in a sense altho the image is more rigidly set in the negative if it's preserved well you basically have to make sure you extract the best replication from it. Of course with todays tools you can alter the "look" on the negative. Ideally one should always have a reference print or the cinematographer just improving on print derived artifacts like print grain, fuzziness or color dye errors.
With the original soundtrack mix, the same: just make sure the full frequencies of the track are there properly balanced without any added noise and distortions from the print duplicating process etc.
so the original mono or stereo soundtrack mix is like the original negative and a multichanel mix done for dvd is like a Lucasian SE
And since Netty has pointed out before, a mono soundtrack occuppies little space on a DVD, and IT IS the original version, it should BE included. Other mixes added should be like frosting on the cake
Oh and about the mono sound coming only from one speaker and nothing from the "sub", well if you know how, your receiver should be able to send you the mono sound to at least 2 speakers (left and right) like when you play stereo recordings as stereo (not pro-logiqued
). The ideal would be to configure it to send it into the 3 front speakers for wide deep sound
And if your receiver is set up correctly, if the mono soundtrack has any deep bass that merits it, it should be routed automatically to your "subs" or full range speakers if you have them , depending on your configuration, and you should hear everything as it should be. (See my post to DisneyFan 2000 last week for more bass management stuff
)
about mono vs stereo vs multichannel:
multichannel is superior to stereo superior to mono, ALL things being equal, cus that's the way we hear
But not always nescesarily a stereo version will sound better than a mono , etc etc
Some records sound better on mono than stereo cus the good MIX was done there.
Having the various mixes included in a DVD gives you the choice of hearing one or another and CHOOSING.
it's nice that Disney does Home theater enhanced REMIXES. As long as they include the
original MIX too.
Didn't they do that on Bambi?
