Sound in Film

When you stand in the stereo showroom, or when you move your speakers around the family room, how do you know when the sound sounds right? When THX creator Tomlinson Holman designs crossover circuitry or specifies speaker type and placement, how does he know when he has it right? Discussing the home THX system, Holman stresses the importance of making films sound in the home just as they do on the dubbing stage or in the theater.

As sound technology becomes increasingly microminiaturized--moving first from theater to home and now to multimedia computer workstation- -it is tempting to speculate about future developments. Will CD-ROM- equipped computers need center speakers if they are to be used for talking books or voice-illustrated encyclopedias? Will they have built- in subwoofers next year, so as to provide the bass response needed for certain styles of music? Will they feature FM connections to surround speakers, so that video games will feel truly wrap-around? We live in exciting times, which only become more fascinating when we apply to them the logic systematically applied to past developments in sound: in order to succeed, each new sound technology must satisfy the needs created by the other sound practices to which potential consumers are accustomed.  


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_film