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Topic: Film sound - history and technical details

Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 10-20-2003 10:50 AM

Where besides the Cinema page on Dolby's website can I find any info on the history and technical details of the various sound formats? Dolby didn't have as much as I was hoping for on their site. Thanks.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 10-20-2003 10:59 AM

Here are some links:

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/motionpicture1.html

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/motionpicture.html

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/motionpicture3.html

http://www.mtsu.edu/~smpte/table.html

http://www.amps.net/newsletters/issue21/21_cine.htm

http://www.btinternet.com/~mawgrim/filmsound.htm

http://www.soundpractices.com/altec.html

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Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 10-20-2003 11:01 AM

You can find a film sound history table at the SMPTE site.

http://www.mtsu.edu/~smpte/table.html

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 10-21-2003 02:08 AM

Also the following books may be of use:

Scott Eyman, The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926-30 - more social than technological history but still quite detailed, including lots of information on how sound-on-disc worked.

Raymond Fielding (ed.), A Technological History of Motion Pictures and Television - an edited collection of SMP[T]E Journal articles covering key areas of technoloy, finishing in the mid-'60s, including a detailed, three-part paper on the history of film sound.

Barry Salt, Film Style and Technology - useful historical overview of what technologies came into and went out of use when (not just sound).

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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 07-15-2004 11:21 PM

I've been doing some research to try to answer a question I've had for a while, and I can't seem to find an answer. From Dolby's The Evolution of Film Sound, speaking of Dolby Stereo:

quote:
In the space allotted to the conventional mono optical soundtrack are two soundtracks that not only carry left and right information as in home stereo sound, but are also encoded with a third center-screen channel and-most notably-a fourth surround channel for ambient sound and special effects.

What did this "conventional mono optical soundtrack" look like? Was it one track, or two that were identical? I know that today, you can have a mono print whose tracks are identical throughout the entire film. But what about back in the day? I don't see why there would have been the need to have two tracks prior to the invention of stereo. Yet, if there was only one track, would such a print be playable on today's readers? (Unfortunately, I've never handled an old print.)

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Bill Mantz
Film Handler

Posts: 91
From: Plano, TX
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 07-16-2004 12:07 AM

I just handled a print of the Original Godzilla that had all it's original 1.33 screen format and had a mix of both dual mono sound tracks but on some of the old footage that was not updated for the reprint several years ago the sound track had a single mono optical sound track, so yes back before stereo they did have a single optical sound track.

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Ken Layton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1452
From: Olympia, Wash. USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 07-16-2004 12:27 AM

The long out-of-print 1959 version of "Audio Cyclopedia" by Howard M. Tremaine (Howard W. Sams Publishing) has an excellent film sound section with photographs of a bunch of the different optical sound formats up to the year 1959.

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Peter Mork
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 181
From: Newton, MA, USA
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 07-16-2004 12:46 AM

quote: Ken Lackner
Yet, if there was only one track, would such a print be playable on today's readers?

Yes, it is compatible. It has been a while since I've seen a single-strand variable area mono print like that, but as recently as ten years ago I recall a new Italian feature, whose title I'd have to look up, with that sort of mono track. Maybe in some backwater they still use it.

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Sam D. Chavez
Film God

Posts: 2153
From: Martinez, CA USA
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 07-16-2004 12:52 AM

There were any number of essentially compatible mono soundtrack formats prior to Dolby or other optical stereo.

One reason for the dual bilateral soundtrack prior to optical stereo was the principle that the more edges the soundtrack contains the less total distortion from printing imperfections,dirt and scratches, as the imperfections on one edge of soundtrack tend to get cancelled by the other edge(s).

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 07-16-2004 01:29 AM

Have a look at the thread 'What are the sound formats on 16mm film' in the film handlers' forum. At the bottom of page 2, and the top of page 3 are some examples of most of the main types of optical soundtracks that I posted a year or two ago. 16mm tracks are basically the same as 35mm ones, except that the film runs slower, so any of these tracks could be used on 35mm as well, and I have seen 35mm examples of almost all of them. The main ones not shown are the 'density squeeze track, and the various types of push-pull tracks, which I don't think were ever used on 16mm. They were only used to a very limited extent on 35mm, at least for release prints.

May I recommend one of the the BKSTS wallcharts, it's called 'Film Gauges and Sound Formats', or something very similar. They are available in the U.S., but are expensive, but you could probably find an example somewhere that you could have a look at.

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-16-2004 03:56 AM

"conventional mono optical soundtrack" is a poor term to reference something which had so many permutations.
There are some pictures for comparison at
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/sound/soundsamples.htm

It's easier to look at it developmentally starting from the unilateral variable area: it basically works by modulating how much light gets through, so you get that altering opaque area that looks like a wave. The subsequent bilateral & dual bilateral were improvements - basically, errors in the application of the track would be minimized in playback if that wave were printed on there several times. If you had a splotch on the wave, there would likely not be a splotch on the second copy which was its mirror or twin.

Not mentioned on that page are push-pull tracks, which apparently never went into use in exhibition.

It's interesting now to think that variable density tracks are actually sampled.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 07-16-2004 07:57 AM

BKSTS Wallcharts:

http://www.bksts.com/wall_chart.html

quote:
Titles in this Series

Film Gauges and Soundtracks
Widescreen and 3-D Film Formats
Motion Picture Colour Processes
Motion Picture Systems for Special Venues and Theme Parks
Video Tape and Recording Formats
Current Film Formats
SFX Chart 1 Photographic & Digital compositing
SFX Chart 2 Animation & Computer Imaging
SFX Chart 3 Special Effects (NEW)
Video Recording Techniques
How to order

http://www.bksts.com/wall_ch_pgs/fg.html

quote:
Illustration of film gauge and soundtrack chart

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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 07-16-2004 12:21 PM

A number of articles on this subject have appeared in Widescreen Review magazine.

A couple of books, both written by Tomlinson Holman, may also be of interest:

Sound For Film And Television and 5.1 Surround Sound: Up And Running. Both contain historical information that may be useful to you, though the focus is on theory and practice.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 07-16-2004 10:41 PM

If you can find it (doubtful) Larry Blake's Film Sound Today: An Anthology of Articles from Recording Engineer/Producer (1984) is a good history of Dolby Stereo optical and 70mm (before SR and digital except for that Fantasia experiment).

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 07-16-2004 11:13 PM

Robert Alexander, The Inventor of Stereo, is a biography of the engineer Alan Blumlein, who many believe to have been the first to have sucessfully demonstrated a stereo variable area system, in July 1935. The book contains a full account of his work (no to mention all his other audio engineering experiments, notably in microphone design).

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