History of Cinema Sound

By nruyle
  • Electro-magnetic transmitter/ receiver (telephone) invented

    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
  • Mechanical Sound Recording

    Mechanical Sound Recording
    The phonautograph was the earliest known invention of a sound inscription device. Wiki
  • Stereo Sound

    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
  • Flat-disk Gramophone

    Flat-disk Gramophone
    Emile Berliner is granted a patent on a flat-disc gramophone, making the production of multiple copies practical. Wiki
  • Sync Sound/ Kinetophone

    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
  • Dickson Experimental Sound Film

    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
  • Magnetic Recording invented/ Telegraphone

    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
  • Audion tube

    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
  • Condenser Microphone

    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
  • Phonofilm

    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
  • Don Juan / Vitaphone

    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
  • Movietone News

    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
  • The Jazz Singer

    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
  • Academy Award for Sound added

    Academy Award for Sound added
  • Stereo Recording

    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
  • First Surround Sound

    First Surround Sound
  • Magnetophon- First Tape Recorder

    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
  • Directional Microphones

    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
  • Electrification completed in US

    Electrification completed in US
  • Fantasound

    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
  • Multi-track recorder/ player for music and film

    Multi-track recorder/ player for music and film
  • Electromechanical Reverb

    Electromechanical Reverb
    EMT (Germany) introduces the electromechanical reverberation plate. Wiki
  • NAGRA III

    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
  • Mixing Console

    Mixing Console
    Rupert Neve is credited with creating the modern mixing console. Wiki
  • Academy Award for Best Sound Editing added

    Academy Award for Best Sound Editing added
  • Ray Dolby starts Dolby Laboratories

    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
  • Electronic Music Recording

    Electronic Music Recording
    Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic music recording, is released. Wiki
  • Callan

    Callan
    The first Dolby encoded mono soundtrack. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071270/
  • Dolby Pro Logic

    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
  • Digital Recording

    Digital Recording
    In 1976, Soundstream made the first live digital recording of an orchestra using its prototype two-channel recorder. Wiki
  • Apple Computer

    Apple Computer
  • VHS

    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
  • Laserdisk

    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
  • THX

    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
  • Digital Audio Tape

    Digital Audio Tape
  • Digidesign Soundtools

    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
  • Digidesign Pro Tools

    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.
  • Dvd

    Dvd
    The DVD specification finalized for the DVD movie player and DVD-ROM computer applications in December 1995. Wiki