SCREEN AFRICA EXCLUSIVE: As a precursor to the audio post-production feature that will appear in the January 2013 issue of the Screen Africa print magazine, audio specialist Greg Bester has compiled this fascinating article on the history of film sound.
Bester writes: The world started out in mono thanks to Thomas Edison, who first synced audio to film in 1895 to a film of his assistant, Fred Ott, sneezing after taking a pinch of snuff. Of course, almost 50 years later stereo sound emerged when Bell Labs started experimenting with the format in 1933.
A few years later in 1938 the “Academy Curve’ was developed by the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which was an equalisation curve which standardised the frequency response of theatre systems with an aim of reduced noise and distortion. This stayed the norm for the better part of 40 years.
Western Electric demonstrated the first multichannel stereo playback system that incorporated Left-Center-Right (LCR) control as early as 1940, but this was aimed primarily at the recording industry. Interestingly, stereo was adopted in film industry in the early 1950s, which was several years before stereo music started being produced commercially.
In 1940 came the biggest step forward in film sound with Walt Disney’s Fantasia. This animated film was aimed to be the revival blockbuster for Mickey Mouse, who had seen a decline in popularity in previous years, and was conceptualised as a magical animated spectacular set to the music of L’apprenti Sorcier (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) by Paul Dukas and conducted by Leopold Stokowski. There were many firsts that this production achieved, many of which we are familiar with and some which we still use on a daily basis. These firsts included: multi-track recording using synchronised optical recorders, overdubbing of additional orchestra parts, the click track, multi-channel surround sound, the pan pot, noise reduction, and the use of an oscilloscope to monitor recording levels. Remarkably, all of these innovations occurred before the invention of the VU meter, one of the longest standing audio innovations still in use, and they spawned a whole new term for its achievements, dubbed “Fantasound’.
Following Fantasia, multi-channel audio in cinema was the norm from as early as 1952. Throughout the 1950s in particular, many other multi-channel formats were experimented with, namely, Cinerama, the first wide screen format, which incorporated five channels behind the screen and three in the auditorium, fed by a 7-track head stack. Cinemascope came next in 1953 and the biblical epic The Robe debuted as the first film in this format. It used a 4-track, discrete magnetic format with an LCRS speaker configuration. In 1955 came the TODD-AO format which showcased Oklahoma as its debut film. It, like Cinemascope, used five speakers behind the screen and a mono surround.
The next giant leap forward was Dolby’s X-Curve (eXtended Curve), which specified a 3dB/oct roll-off above 2 kHz, replacing the Academy Curve. It also utilised Dolby type-A noise reduction and the first film to utilise this was, fittingly, A Quiet Revolution in 1972. Four years later Dolby premiered its Dolby Stereo technology and A Star Is Born was the first film presented in this format. Dolby Stereo was essentially a multi-channel stereo format that, at first glance, is similar to a five-channel surround setup but was matrixed from a stereo source.
Harking back to TODD-AO, the Dolby Baby Boom 70mm format was released in 1979 and incorporated three speakers behind the screen (LCR), a mono surround and two LFE channels that were crossed over at 200Hz. The first film released in Dolby Baby Boom was, of course, Lucasfilm’s Star Wars, a film which revolutionised film sound and effects and kicked off the Star Wars legacy. Dolby’s Split Surround 70mm format then followed in 1979, which was backwards compatible with the Baby Boom and is the precursor to what we know as 5.1 surround sound today. The first film to debut this format was Apocolypse Now and it was during this film that Walter Murch coined the term “Sound Designer’.
1983 brought the next innovation forward with the premiere of the THX (Thom Holm eXperiment) standard with Return of the Jedi. THX is defined as a “standard’ rather than a “format’ because it deals more with the frequency response and crossover of the system than the actual speaker configuration. Firstly, the low frequency response of the system is extended down to 40Hz. This was an octave lower than previous standards. The treble response of the system was also extended above 8 kHz. A THX certified system includes specified crossover points, approved components, specs for reverb time vs. volume, picture sharpness, noise limits and screen properties. Also, film houses were required to install a Kintek KT-9 subwoofer.
The following years throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s saw new formats emerge such as Dolby SR, a LCRS format with better noise reduction and extended dynamic range similar to Dolby Stereo but with “SR’-type noise reduction instead of type-A. Robocop was the first film to be released with Dolby SR. Dolby Digital (SR-D) then debuted in 1992 with Batman Returns in a 5.1 format with Dolby AC-3 data reduction. In 1993 came DTS (Digital Theater Systems), which premiered with Jurassic Park. This format syncs a CD-ROM with the film via timecode between the analogue soundtrack and the picture.1993 also saw the introduction of Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS), which debuted with the film Last Action Hero. SDDS supports 7.1 surround sound in that it has left, mid-left, centre, mid-right, right, left surround, right surround, and low frequency effects channels. SDDS uses the ATRAC data reduction codec originally engineered for the Sony Minidisc.
Lastly, Dolby EX and DTS ES were introduced which are essentially 6.1 formats that incorporate a rear centre channel.
Research for this article was sourced from Pro-Tools – For Video, Film & Multimedia by Ashley Shepherd; Wikipedia; and Jay Frigoletto of GearSlutz.
In the audio post-production feature in the January 2013 issue of the Screen Africa print magazine, Greg Bester will give a comprehensive overview of the industry and also put together three fantasy studio shopping lists to outline the costs involved in assembling the core components of three different levels of audio post-production studios.
