Star Wars Original Trilogy Soundtrack History

1977, 1980, 1983 Original releases

"the LP masters were made using 1977/80/83 analog editing "technology" and the final master would be several generations removed from the original" Jay @ JWFan forum

"box set version of ANH, where many tracks that were not supposed to be alternates or anything actually were because Ford Thaxton didn't recreate all the performance edits like MM does." Jay @ JWFan forum

"there's no guarantee they even USED the original unedited takes and reconstructed anything back in '97; They might have simply used analog dubs of the final edits cues for everything!. In fact, IIRC, that is what they used!" Jay @ JWFan forum

digital and vinyl [remastered original analog LP masters]
"all the 2015 remasters did was spruce up those 77/80/83 edited analog masters" Jay @ JWFan forum
"the audio of which was 'transferred from the original LP masters using the highest resolution (up to 192kHz/24bit)'" Quppa @ JWFan forum

digital only [reissue of Sony's 2016 edition] + 3LP deluxe hologram/book edition for ANH [using Sony's 2016 remaster again]

CD (first time TESB full 2LP is available on CD) [Brand new Shawn Murphy remaster / "reconstruction"]
"Shawn Murphy to supervise fresh transfers of the original recording session elements, then someone reconstructed the OST programs from those transfers."
"This edition presumably began from scratch with a fresh digital transfer of the 77/80/83 unedited takes, which were then edited into the albums using proper modern digital editing technology."Jay @ JWFan forum
"So where the previous release was a remaster of the previous sound track releases, the team at Skywalker this time sourced and resampled every available piece of music on all six films" Faleel J.M. @ JWFan forum
"This is also the first time the prequel OSTs have been remastered ever, and this is actually those OSTs returning to being in print at all on CD since they've been officially OOP on CD since Jan 1 2017." Jay @ JWFan forum

"Mike M has said himself on podcasts he'd love to tackle the Star Wars scores all over again." Jay @ JWFan forum