Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1930-1949)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Jan., 1930] ACOUSTIC CONTROL OF RECORDING 87 is to satisfactorily create the illusion of reality when listened to binaurally. This apparent increase in incidental noises and reverberation may easily be heard by completely stopping up one ear and listening with the other only. It is easier to detect this effect in a room where the incidental noises are fairly loud and where the amount of damping is frequently less than in the normal living room. Before starting the discussion of the third part of the problem, namely, the control of the acoustics in the set and the position of the pickup device in order to best make use of the available knowledge, it might be interesting to point out some of the conclusions which were drawn from the foregoing brief analysis and which led to the method of pickup and acoustic control to be described. One of the most important requirements for obtaining the illusion of reality is that the sound shall appear to come from the visible source on the screen. Since it is possible to create the illusion of depth or distance in both the visual and audible parts of the talking picture, it is necessary that the amount by which the voice appears to move forward and backward in the set should correspond with the amount the image actually moves. This amount by which the voice appears to move forward and backward in the set depends upon the amount of reverberation present and upon the relative distance of the microphone from the foreground and background action. In general, the more reverberation present, or the further the microphone from the source of sound, the greater is the apparent distance of the voice from the near foreground. It has also been found by experience that if the conditions have been made correct to obtain this illusion, the voice or sound also appears to follow the picture across the screen. Before discussing the design of the acoustics of the set itself, it is necessary to consider the acoustics of the space in which the set is built. Where outdoor sets are used or on "location," very little acoustic trouble is experienced — the natural conditions of the outdoors being satisfactory for recording. In this connection it should be remembered that most outdoor scenes are not free from reflection as the majority of them contain buildings or other acoustically hard objects. If, therefore, an outdoor scene is being imitated in an indoor studio, this fact should be taken into account. In the case of indoor sets, it has been found desirable that the studio