History of Cinema Sound

Timeline created by nruyle

Timeline Text view

Event Date:	Event Title:	Event Description:
01/01/1854	Electro-magnetic transmitter/ receiver (telephone) invented	An early version of the telephone was invented around 1860 by Antonio Meucci who called it teletrofono (telectrophone). Wiki
03/25/1857	Mechanical Sound Recording	The phonautograph was the earliest known invention of a sound inscription device. Wiki
01/01/1881	Stereo Sound	Clement Ader, using carbon microphones and armature headphones, accidentally produces a stereo effect when listeners outside the hall monitor adjacent telephone lines linked to stage mikes at the Paris Opera. Wiki
01/01/1887	Flat-disk Gramophone	Emile Berliner is granted a patent on a flat-disc gramophone, making the production of multiple copies practical. Wiki
07/01/1893	Sync Sound/ Kinetophone	The first "talking movie" is demonstrated by Edison using his Kinetophone process, a cylinder player mechanically synchronized to a film projector. Wiki
01/01/1895	Dickson Experimental Sound Film	The Dickson Experimental Sound Film is a film made by William Dickson in late 1894 or early 1895. It is the first known film with live-recorded sound and appears to be the first example of a motion picture made for the Kinetophone, the proto-sound-film system developed by Dickson and Thomas Edison. Wiki
01/01/1898	Magnetic Recording invented/ Telegraphone	The magnetic recording was demonstrated in principle as early as 1898 by Valdemar Poulsen in his Telegraphone. Magnetic wire recording, and its successor, magnetic tape recording, involve the use of a magnetizable medium which moves past a recording head. Wiki
01/01/1905	Audion tube	Originally, the Audion triode was used to detect and amplify signals in early radios, but its sensitivity and versatility made it a critical component in amplifiers for voice and music. Wiki
01/01/1917	Condenser Microphone	of Bell Telephone Laboratories publishes a paper in Physical Review describing a "uniformly sensitive instrument for the absolute measurement of sound intensity" -- the condenser microphone. Wiki
04/15/1923	Phonofilm	In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back into sound waves when the movie was projected. Wiki
08/06/1926	Don Juan / Vitaphone	Don Juan (1926) is a Warner Brothers film, directed by Alan Crosland. It was the first feature-length film with synchronized Vitaphone sound effects and musical soundtrack, though it has no spoken dialogue. The production, which premiered in New York City on August 6, 1926, stars John Barrymore as the hand-kissing womanizer (the number of kisses in the film set a record). Wiki
05/20/1927	Movietone News	Movietone News known in the U.S. as Fox Movietone News, produced cinema, sound newsreels from 1928-1963 in the U.S. and from 1929-1979 in the UK (for much of that time as British Movietone News). Wiki
10/06/1927	The Jazz Singer	The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, the movie stars Al Jolson, who performs six songs. Directed by Alan Crosland, it is based on a play by Samson Raphaelson. Wiki
01/01/1930	Academy Award for Sound added	Wiki
03/01/1932	Stereo Recording	Several stereophonic test recordings, using two microphones connected to two styli cutting two separate grooves on the same wax disc, were made with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra at Philadelphia's Academy of Music in March 1932. Wiki
04/01/1934	First Surround Sound	modernmechanix.com
01/01/1935	Magnetophon- First Tape Recorder	Magnetophon was the brand or model name of the pioneering reel-to-reel tape recorder developed by engineers of the German electronics company AEG in the 1930s, based on the magnetic tape invention by Fritz Pfleumer. AEG created the world's first practical tape recorder, the K1, first demonstrated in Germany in 1935. Wiki
01/01/1938	Directional Microphones	Benjamin B. Bauer of Shure Bros. engineers a single microphone element to produce a cardioid pickup pattern, called the Unidyne, Model 55. This later becomes the basis for the well known SM57 and SM58 microphones. Wiki
01/01/1940	Electrification completed in US	Wiki
11/13/1940	Fantasound	Fantasound was an early stereophonic sound process developed by sound engineer William E. Garity and sound mixer John N.A. Hawkins for the Walt Disney studio in 1938-1940 for the motion picture Fantasia, making Fantasia the first commercial film with multichannel sound. It led to the development of what is today known as surround sound. Wiki
01/01/1953	Multi-track recorder/ player for music and film	Wiki
01/01/1954	Electromechanical Reverb	EMT (Germany) introduces the electromechanical reverberation plate. Wiki
01/01/1958	NAGRA III	Stefan Kudelski introduces the Nagra III battery-operated transistorized field tape recorder, which with its "Neo-Pilot" sync system becomes the de facto standard of the film industry. Wiki
01/01/1961	Mixing Console	Rupert Neve is credited with creating the modern mixing console. Wiki
01/01/1963	Academy Award for Best Sound Editing added	Wiki
05/01/1965	Ray Dolby starts Dolby Laboratories	Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (Dolby Labs) (NYSE: DLB) is a USA-based company specializing in audio noise reduction and audio encoding/compression. Wiki
01/01/1967	Electronic Music Recording	Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic music recording, is released. Wiki
01/01/1974	Callan	The first Dolby encoded mono soundtrack. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071270/
01/01/1976	Dolby Pro Logic	Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. Dolby Surround Stereo was originally developed by Dolby Laboratories in 1976 for analog cinema sound systems. Wiki
01/01/1976	Digital Recording	In 1976, Soundstream made the first live digital recording of an orchestra using its prototype two-channel recorder. Wiki
04/01/1976	Apple Computer	Wiki
09/01/1976	VHS	The Video Home System[1], better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard developed by Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC) and launched in September 1976 Wiki
12/15/1978	Laserdisk	The Laserdisc (LD) is an obsolete home video disk format, and was the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially marketed as Discovision in 1978, the technology was licensed and sold as Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Videodisc, Laservision, Disco-Vision, DiscoVision, and MCA DiscoVision until Pioneer Electronics purchased the majority stake in the format and marketed LaserDisc in the mid to late 1980s. Wiki
01/01/1983	THX	THX is a trade name of a high-fidelity sound reproduction standard for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, and car audio systems. THX stands for Tomlinson Holman's eXperiment. THX was developed by Tomlinson Holman at George Lucas's company Lucasfilm in 1983 to ensure that the soundtrack for the third Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi, would be accurately reproduced. Wiki
01/01/1987	Digital Audio Tape	Wiki
01/01/1989	Digidesign Soundtools	Digidesign launches the first digital audio workstation system, Sound Tools, for the Apple Macintosh. The company refers to it as "the first tapeless recording studio". Wiki
01/01/1991	Digidesign Pro Tools	Digidesign releases the first Pro Tools multitrack system, marking a significant advance in digital audio. This integrated software and hardware system (digital audio workstation) is among the most popular for audio production for television, music, and film.
12/01/1995	Dvd	The DVD specification finalized for the DVD movie player and DVD-ROM computer applications in December 1995. Wiki