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Edison's Kinetophone, Dickson experimental sound film
(Date not verified)
By 1913 Thomas Edison was able to play a recorded phonograph behind the screen of a projected film in very rough synch. He was out of the sound-film business by 1915. -
Tri-Ergon
The Tri-Ergon sound-on-film system was patented from 1919 on by German inventors Josef Engl (1893-1942), Hans Vogt (1890-1979), and Joseph Massolle (1889-1957). The Tri-Ergon system used a special form of microphone without mechanical moving parts (Katodophone) for sound pickup and a special electric discharge tube for variable density film recording. -
First condenser microphones
Edward C. Wente designed the forerunner to the Western Electric 394-W condenser mic which only became commercially available in 1926. While working for Western Electric, he and A.L. Thuras also devised a dynamic driver/receiver that allowed for amplification in theaters up to 5,000 seats. -
Variable area optical camera
Charles Hoxie, the great inventor at GE, shows off his new variable area camera which is to become the basis of RCA Photophone (source: Enticknap) -
Tri-Ergon
Three German inventors. Josef Engl, Hans Vogt, and announces the first lamp modulator for what would become the variable density sustem This was purchased by Fox in 1927, and when combined with improvements by Case and Sponable, became the Fox Movietone system used by their newsreel crews and features. -
DeForest Phonofilm
Lee DeForest was the inventor of the audion tube, which likely may have been derived from the German Tri Ergon system. 1919 marked the beginnings of the DeForest Phonofilm system, which was a variable density system, further developed by the Case Labs of Auburn NY. After years of legal trouble with Case and others DeForest left the business behind. -
Filming of Calvin Coolidge by Case and Sponable
With their new single system camera, Theodore Case and Earl Sponable filmed President Calvin Coolidge. This was made possible due to their invention of an AEO light. The Case Research sound system set many industry standards still used to this day, such as location of the sound 19.5 or 21 frames before the image it accompanies. -
RCA Photophone
Variable area (optical) sound on film system, later adopted by all the major studios. This system was invented by engineers from the Bell Laboratories, in particular XXXXX XXXXX.. The recording medium was film, and the camera that recorded this film using a light tube was electronically synched with the film cameras with a cable. A backup wax recording was often used for instant playback to check the recording.
The first film released with the -
Electrical amplification and playback
Electrical amplification an d playback changed sound recording significantly in this period, but was spearheaded by the music recording and radio industries (source: Enticknap) -
Vitaphone is incorporated
Sam Warner establishes Vitaphone, after skirmishes with his brother and other Warner executives that thought sound fillm ill-advised. The first time he brought Col. Levinson, of Western Electric to the studio he smuggled him in under a blanket. Vitaphone's system consisted of disc recordings which were later played in as close as possible to synch with films. -
Fox buys Case Lab patent
William Fox of Fox Film Corporation hired away Sponable and bought Theodore Case's patents. (see Fox also Fox Movietone 1928). -
Don Juan released, first feature length sound film
Warner Brothers' Don Juan was the first feature film that made extensive use of synch music and sound effects, and the first Vitaphone release. According to George Groves the sound effects were generally recorded live on the set. -
Fox Movietone News launched
Fox continued to use the same single system camera for their feature films until 1931 (after which switching to RCA photophone) but the Fox Movietone news continued to 1939 due to it's convenience for news gathering. In fact, like modern ENG newsgathering, it required only one soundman and one cameraman on crew, and all of the gear could be carted in the same characteristic news truck. -
Lindburgh returns from Paris
According to "Newsreel Man" by Charles Peden, Fox Movietone was so anxious to have their films of Lindburgh's return seen first that they chartered a train from Union Station to NYC in which they installed a working film lab.. The films were developed and cut in the time between DC and NYC and audiences in NYC were able to see the ceremonies 4 hours after they occured. Peden notes that there were already 50 film crews working for Fox around thw world as of 1932. -
Sam Warner dies
In "Okay for Sound!" (1941) it stated that were it not for studio boss Sam Warner pushing through the development of sound recording technology in the time right before the stock market crash, it would have been long delayed for lack of financlial factors. He died of a heart attack at age 40. -
The Jazz Singer released
Representing a push in effort by Sam Warner, who strongly believed in sound films, using the Vitaphone recorded disc system. This film was recorded by George Groves, who was one of the great figures of early sound. Up to fifty discs were recorded for one reel of film, then in an elaborate electrical synching system they were remixed together to run in synch with the film when played on the single release disc for the movie theaters. The Jazz Singer was the first feature film w/synch dialogue -
Major studios establish sound departments
Six months after release of the Jazz Singer, Paramount, United Artists, MGM, Universal and others signed with ERPI for licenses and recording equipment. The first sound engineers were generally telephone engineers (as with George Groves, here pictured with Fannie Brice) and inventors, and some from radio. -
ERPI consolidates licensing monopoly
Electrical Research Products Incorporated (ERPI) Western Electric's licensing division was early in dominating the theatrical market, Hollywood studios' committee formally adopts Western Electric sound-on-film audio system, which ERPI would manufacture and lease exclusively to US cinemas. ERPI quite astutely leased both disc and film sound equipment to allow for both technologies. The monopoly was dissolved in 1938 by the US government by consent decree. -
Lights of New York released
This was the first "all talkie" film, also a Warner Brothers Vitaphone disc film. -
The Viking
First technicolor feature film with sound -
Omni-directional dynamic mic
(Date unverified) In the later 1920's E.C. Wente and Thuras of Western Electric again launched a new microphone type, the omni-directional dynamic mic.(Western Electric 618-A) This mic later became the workhorse of the news media (Shure, etc) and would be familiar to most audiences as the handheld version used in man on the street or reporter interview mics. -
Blattnerphone magnetic system demonstrated
Magnetic sound historyGerman engineers at Ludwig Blattner Picture Corporation demonstrate the first magnetic recording system. -
Melodie der Welt released
Melodie der welt"Medolie der Welt " or "Melody of the World", one of the first sync sound documentary films was conceived as a symphony travelogue film, taking short sequences filmed around the world and contrasting customs. George Bernard Shaw here also makes an appearance talking about world peace and cooperation. -
Hitchcock introduces looping
In "Blackmail", the first feature talkie produced in Great Britain, Alfred Hitchcock makes use of overdubbing for possibly the first time in post production. -
Mitchell Cameras for sync sound
The Mitchell Camera Corportation developed several cameras for studio set as well as location work, One adaptation released as early as 1929, developed in conjunction with C.R. Hanna of Western Labs, had a sound recording attacment built in, The sound adaptor was for variable area (Photophone) recording but a separate Kerr cell adaptor could be switched in for variable density recording. -
ERPI/Bell Labs Light valve
(Date not verified)
Sometime in 1930 Bell released a more sensitive light valve and a newer, quieter recording system which gave them a big advantage over Vitaphone. Within the year Fox dropped their Case labs system for studio work, and Warned abandoned Vitaphone disc recording. (source: Hocheiser, Dawn of Sound). THE RIGHT TO LOVE (Paramount, 1930) was the first film released employing the new equipment. In November 1931, ERPI received an Academy award for noiseless recording. -
Bollywood talkie
March 14 Release of the first feature-length Indian talkie, "Alam Ara", directed in Hindustani by Ardeshir Irani (1886-1969)
Also the first Argentinian talkie "Munequitas Portenas," using the Vitaphone system and the first from Finland, "The Log-driver%u2019s Bride", directed by Erkki Karu. -
Matto Grosso, the Great Brazilian Wilderness
The first known field documentary made with synch sound, and ertainly the first ethnographic film that recorded the voices of indigenous peoples live and in synch. The film used an adapted Mitchell single system camera with a variable area sound adaptor, and a seperate Debrie-Parvo silent wind camera in the jungles of Brazil. -
Dynamic microphones and Cardiod microphones.
Western Electric 618 and 633 are introduced, later followed by the cardiod 639-B and RCA 77. -
Recording stereo
Alan Blumlein demonstrates method of recording stero sound to sync film -
BASF premiers magnetic tape recording at the Berlin Radio Fair
Fritz Pfleumer , Theo Volk and BASF chemist Friedrich Matthias were inventors of the Magnetophon K1 which appeared in August at the Berlin Radio Fair. This invention was pretty much snatched as booty at the end of WWII, then developed in the US with funding provided by Bing Crosby, who wanted to use it for radio broadcast, and others. (see Lo Brutto) However it was another 30 years before serious film sound was recorded on magnetic stock. -
Ultraviolet recording system, RCA
The newer system provided reproduction of sibillants and higher tones. -
Siemens directional mic
Rose-Marie, aka Indian Love Call was a Nelson Eddy/Jeanette McDonald mounties film that made use of a mic from Germany, which allowed the production mixer to mix the low volume level actor (McDonald) up to the level of the higher volume (Eddy), for the first time. -
Eastman fine grain sound recording film 1360
Kodak made a big improvement in the fidelity of variable area recording with the introduction of these finer grain nitrate films. -
Germans use Magnetophone audio in WWII
Magnetophone was used by the Germans as a propeganda tool, making fake broadcasts to confuse the allies, who were still uncgnizant of magnetic tape and instant editing. (source: Enticknap) -
Eastman fine grain sound recording film 1366
This nitrate base film improved the fidelity of variable density sound tracks. -
Fantasia uses Fantasound
First major use of stereo and multitrack sound effects with surrounding loudspeakers. This systemmade use of the "push-pull" double wave center track sound developed by RCA in 1938 -
WW II
Many of the engineers that created audio for film were recruited to work on war technology. John Hilliard states in his article on sound history "in my opinion the first 12 years if development in MPS techniques provided a technical base that has not been changed materially to this date" (1985) To be sure with all of the engineers away not much more was developed until the early 1950's. The one boon from WWII was the cooption of the magnetic tape recorder by Bing Crosby and AMPEX. -
First consumer magnetic recorders
Developed in the US after adaptation of the German Magnetophone (source: Enticknap) -
Rouch uses sound recorder in Mali
Jean Rouch, visiting his mentor Marcel Griaule in Mali, brings a magnetic sound recorder and records near sync sound of singing. for the film "Cimitiere dans la Falaise" (1950) -
Magnetic recording, first feature The Robe
According to George Groves, the first film recorded magnetically (not on optical film) was The Robe. Although it was possible to release the film as a three channel magnetic sound track print, they also released the film with an optical track in deference to the theaters that were generally equiped with optical sound projectors. -
Nagra-Kudelski III
The first Nagra recorder appears on a film set. Although the Nagra debuted in the US ten years earlier, much work was done to make the recorders run synch with film, which was finally achieved with the Nagra III. (a compact, 11-pound mono 3.75/7.5/15 ips reel-to-reel deck with neopilot sync). Nagra means "will record" in Polish. Stefan Kudelski was the very young inventor, born in Poland. -
Nagra IV-L
Monaural, featuring two microphone inputs and a built in audio limiter. -
Nagra 4.2 and Stereo IV-S
The 4.2 was similar to the IV-L, but added phantom power for microphones and built-in equalizers. The first stereo Nagra field recorder (pictured) was the IV-S, It had dual level pots, limiters, and equalizer presets. It was introduced in 1971. Originally it was available with a pilottone crystal, and then in 1984, with timecode capacity. With timecode support an IV-S became a Nagra IV-STC. -
Nagra IV-STC.
The addition of time code changed the job of the sound person somewhat, as she now needed to be always connected with the slate. This version of the Nagra kept a time code signal running, and so when the sound rolled, then the camera rolled, it saw the numbers racing on the slate and there was no need to record a clap of the slate. In post production the numbers from the time code on the auxilliary audio track were matched with the numbers on the slate frames, and wallah you have synch. -
DAT tape introduced
Sony lanches Digital Audio Tape DAT in a casette format, which became for a time common on features -
Exhibition formats compete
dolby Digital, DTS and SDDS compete as audio encoding systems in the cinema. -
Digital (hard drive) recorders: Aaton Cantar
As of 2009, the two most popular current location film recording devices are the Aaton Cantar and the Fostex PD6. Both machines record sound files and also generate time code that can be used to keep film and audio in synch.
