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Sound level in the Broadway Theatre
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The 70mm Newsletter
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Written
by: Wentworth D Fling, Cinerama,
Inc.,
December 10, 1952 |
Date:
04.04.2010 |
The
Broadway Theatre during "This is Cinerama". Image by Peter J.
Savasta, and borrowed from cineramahistory.com
Since the opening of
"This is
Cinerama" in the Broadway Theatre,
there has been a lot of discussion about whether the sound is too loud.
People have asked me about this from time to time and I have received an
occasional letter forwarded to me from the theater complaining about the
sound being too loud. Recently Mr. Thomas sent me several letters on the
same subject.
From the technical point of view, there is one outstanding fact that
influences the level at which the sound track for
"This is
Cinerama" should
be played. For satisfactory reproduction, a sound track cannot be played at
a lower level that at which the original performance was played when the
recording was made. That is to say, that if an orchestra plays forte when
the music should have been soft you cannot repair this damage by turning
down the volume control on reproduction. All the detail and realism goes out
of the music. It is completely artificial and dead. The reverse is almost
equally true, of course.
In stereophonic recording, with multiple microphones and multiple channels,
it is especially difficult to do any "fixing up" with respect to the
dynamics after the recording has been made.
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More
in 70mm reading:
in70mm.com's Cinerama page
Internet link:
Roland
Lataille's Cinerama Page
The Letter:
Cinerama, Inc.
December 10, 1952
Memo to record
Wentworth D Fling
Sound level in the Broadway Theatre
Messrs.:
Lowell Thomas
Hazard Reves
Dudley Roberts
Merian Cooper
Robert Bendick
William Latady
Walter Thompson
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Cinerama
sound mixing in Oyster Bay.
Nearly all the music which was scored at the
Tennis Court was "loud" in
character. Crescendos and effects were created by going from loud to louder to
loudest. In only a very few cases, notably the canoe ride through the trees
in Florida and the Venice canals, was there any so-called "soft" music. To
achieve any kind of satisfactory reproduction, we must create a sound level
in the theatre at least equivalent to the sound level of the original
performance when the recording was made. If we were to play back the
recording made of the 375 voices of the Mormon Choir at a low enough level
to satisfy those people who wrote in asking "why not soft music" or those
who felt that the music should have been "soothing", the effect would be far
less satisfactory than if we had recorded a quartet as the sound track for
Western Air.
The point I am trying to make is that we must differentiate between
criticism of the sound track because some people would have preferred a
different type of track (soft music - soothing) and criticism of the level
at which a loud track is played. It was my feeling all during the scoring at
Oyster Bay that the base dynamic level of the track was too high. Crescendos
and effects could only be achieved by increasing the level. Of course, the
character of the music in most cases required that it be loud. It was never
written to be played in a soft and soothing manner. This quarrel cannot be
taken up with the sound department.
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The
Broadway Theatre 21.08.2011. Image by Bert Jansen
We have from time to time experimented with lowering the level on certain
passages in the theatre. The immediate effect, and it is very obvious, is
that audience reaction drops way off. Some improvement might be accomplished
in a re-mix job. But if we drop the rerecorded level of certain passages in
order to achieve some relief from the continuous high level of the sound,
there is no question but that will completely lose all realism and
brilliance in these passages.
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The
Broadway Theatre 21.08.2011. Image by Bert Jansen
It is my opinion that unless we wish to re-score the whole picture, we
should level well enough alone, and just make certain that in the future we
recognize that there are different requirements in the recording of
stereophonic sound and that it is all important that the proper dynamics be
achieved in the original recording session. It goes without saying that this
must be fully recognized when the writing of the score is undertaken and
that many departures from present Hollywood techniques are required if the
full value of stereophonic sound is to be realized.
WDF:eml
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