The art of sound pictures (1930)

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SOUND TECHNIQUE 235 imposing the microphone current on the illumination current. These variations in the illumination or flashes of light are then photographed on the sound track of the film. In the projection, the sound track of the film is made to vary the intensities of light which fall upon the photo-electric cell. The cell then generates a strength of electric current, corresponding to the light variations. The tiny variable electric currents from the cell are then amplified sufficiently to operate the loud speaker diaphragm, and we have sound waves of the air once more corresponding very nearly to the sound waves originally set up by the vocal cords of the actors, or by the vibration of the musical instruments on the stage. The cycle is now complete. Of course, the reproduction of sound, as we have it today, has many faults and shortcomings. Chief among these is the difficulty in detecting and recording the individual qualities of the actors’ voices in such a way that the personality of their voices is preserved on the sound record. There are many technical reasons for this. Roughly, we may summarize these difficulties as follows: The human voice is very rich in overtones and difference tones, as they are called. The total sound quality of the voice, including these overtones and difference tones, is called timbre. The timbre of a voice is a subtle and very complex combination of sounds. The first sound recording apparatus was not sufficiently flexible or capable of sufficiently fine modulations to pick up the majority of the difference tones and overtones which give the characteristic timbre to the actor’s voice. This difficulty with the recording apparatus, and corresponding difficulties in the reproduction of sound, are