Shouting sound in old movies

Hee-man · Post by **Hee-man** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:08 am

While watching some older movies, when the actors shout, the audio get mightily distorted. Some examples that come to mind are "The Producers" or "Caligula", although I'm sure it was pretty typcial. Any insight on how they got the sound? I'm assuming some combination of tube saturation (mics or preamps) and tape distortion, but I'm curious what caused the sound, and to what extent it was intentional.

darjama · Post by **darjama** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:14 am

I'm guessing that most of it comes from going to tape too hot, as well as possibly overdriving preamps (not necessarily tube though).

Kasey · Post by **Kasey** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:25 am

yea thats just overdriven tape mostly. another good example is the scene at the end of animal house, when he's giving his inspirational speech... and now thats going to be playing through my head all day. but yea any screaming part in most any old movie is like that. i've always thought it sounded neat too.

effector · Post by **effector** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:27 pm

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

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:32 pm

I've been sneaking that into things lately.

No official "work" things, of course.

GooberNumber9 · Post by **GooberNumber9** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 11:32 am

I consider the ultimate example of this to be the line "No Prisoners!!" in Lawrence of Arabia. Everything comes together at that point in the film, including the sound design, to create an amazing, chilling moment.

I just assumed it was tape saturation, but there's no reason why it couldn't be an overdriven mic, preamp, mixer, or who knows what. Probably a combination of all of the above.

Todd Wilcox

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 4:40 pm

Does fullcoat mag distort when you hit it hard? I'd assume it would but I don't know for sure.

jmiller · Post by **jmiller** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:15 am

Slightly OT, but worthwhile:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TEH_LIXIUkg

The audio skips a bit unfortunately, but it's worth watching. This video was an included featurette on the recent Dumbo DVD release.

bickle · Post by **bickle** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:37 am

I'd say it's probably just hot to tape - 1/4" Nagra tape recorders were the standard going I don't know how far back, and I've never heard of anybody using anything other than built-in pres on those. If I recall, they do have a limiter function - perhaps that's a factor, too...
Thing is, in my experience a production sound guy would avoid distortion whenever possible, leaving any creative distortion for post. If that's the case, who knows what they did...

Message Board

Shouting sound in old movies

Shouting sound in old movies

Who is online