The document provides a history of film sound, beginning with Thomas Edison's 1895 Kinetophone, the first attempt to synchronize sound and moving images. Before 1928, silent films were typically accompanied by live sound effects, music, and recordings. Early experiments in the 1920s recorded sound on discs played in tandem with films. In 1926, Vitaphone and Movietone introduced sound-on-film systems, with Vitaphone recording sound separately on phonograph records. The 1927 film The Jazz Singer was the first feature-length movie with spoken dialogue. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, surround sound and Foley techniques were developed to improve audio quality and realism, as movie attendance declined with the rise of television.

1. Film Sound History

2. The Kinetophone
• 1895 - Thomas Edison's
"Kinetophone" project
was the first attempt in
history to record sound
and moving image in
synchronisation.

3. The William Dickson Experimental Sound
Film

4. "The silent film was not silent. Before 1928
movies were customarily accompanied by
sound effects, live music, live singers,
speakers or actors, and phonograph
recordings or any combination of all of
them."
Harry Geduld

5. Early Film Sound Experiments
• 1921 - Photokinema
• Sound was recorded on a
disc similar to a
phonograph record,
played in tandem with the
movie.
• 1926 - Movietone
• One of the first sound-on
film systems, used in
newsreels
https://blog.dolby.com/2013/10/short-history-cinema-sound/

6. Eugene Lauste and Lee De
Forest
• 1926 - Lauste and DeForest
invented the ‘Vitaphone’
system to synchronise
sound to film. They made
their own film ‘Don Juan’ in
1926.
• The soundtrack was printed
separately on phonograph
records, played on a
turntable coupled to the
projector motor while the
film was being projected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitaphone

7. The Jazz Singer
• The Jazz Singer (1927)
was the first feature-
length movie with
spoken dialogue.
• To improve sound
reproduction the
projection was changed
from 16 to 24 frames per
second.

9. Speaker Systems
• 1929 Bell Telephone
Laboratories were working on a
new high efficiency cone-type
loudspeaker coupled to a large
throat horn, which extended
the low frequency range.
• It was found that high
frequencies demanded a
different design of
loudspeaker, which led to the
use of a small horn type unit for
frequencies above 3000Hz.
These were used in addition to
the standard sized speaker.

10. First Surround Sound
• 1934 - multiple speakers were
used in a demonstration of
surround sound for the first time
• Bell Telephone Laboratories
conducted an experiment to
record a full symphony
orchestra on to multitrack film
reproduced through three
loudspeaker systems
• This was used on Disney’s
‘Fantasia’ and became known
as ‘Fantasound’

11. The Art of Foley
• Jack Foley worked in radio
before joining Universal
Studios.
• He began to experiment with
the addition of recorded
sound to mimic the actions of
the characters on film
• This became known as ‘Foley’

12. The Threat of TV
1946-1955 - Movie attendance down 50%

13. 3D, Widescreen
• To compete with
television, film
companies came up with
more and more
gimmicks, including
multitrack sound

14. Cinerama - 7 audio channels

15. Dolby - The Gamechanger (1966)
The Academy Curve

16. Ray Dolby
Designed a noise
reduction circuit to
replace the ‘Academy
Curve’

17. Dolby Stereo - (1976)

18. George Lucas - THX
This was a quality assurance system, where cinemas
had to pass a test to ensure audio was high quality

19. Dolby SR (1986)
Dolby Digital (1992) 5.1 surround sound