An Epic Endeavor Mechanics, had to address a problem that pervaded The Robe’s soundtrack: an unwanted variation in pitch known as “wow.” The problem had been introduced into the only surviving protection master of the original four-track master, and was most likely the result of warped tape that created inconsistent contact as it passed over playback heads during the re-recording process. (Magnetic four-track sound was itself a major innovation at the time of The Robe’s release, and the film’s original sound mix was gone.) The wow was moderate to severe in more than 90 minutes of The Robe and was long considered uncorrectable, according to Polito. “I saw it as an opportunity to develop some ideas I had in this area,” he says. “I took my ideas to John Amuedo at Signal Inference, and he developed the software algorithms to remove the wow. Because of the The Robe and CinemaScope make a splashy Los Angeles debut at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. 60http://www.walterklassen.com