Multiple-Channel Recording

Multiple-channel recording is a device for achieving flexibility at the time of dubbing or re-recording orchestral music presented as such in the picture. If one could predict for the music and sound departments which portions of the orchestra would be seen from which angles in the final picture, or if the editing could be completed before the music was recorded, there would be less merit in multiple-channel recording. — The reverse is true: The music is recorded first, the musicians photographed later, synchronizing their movements to a play-back of record. Meanwhile, the pictorial treatment has taken partial shape in the minds of producer and director. Still later it takes final shape in the hands of the film editor. Sound and action are then placed in the hands of the sound department for dubbing, but it is then too late for more than an ineffectual raising and lowering of volume. The violins or the woodwinds can not be lifted above the surrounding sections to match a close-up of the picture. — The multiplicity of sound-tracks (recorded, of course, in advance of the photography) provides the dubbing mixer with the means of easily blending a final sound-track that will be wholly in keeping with the final edition of the picture. The application of this method to the recent production “100 Men and a Girl” is described. The use of “close-mix” tracks, separate vocal tracks, etc., in conjunction with multiple recording is also described.

Print ISSN

0097-5834

Published

1938-10

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J08468