Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Listen Up! Movie Sounds Blast You For Effect

Todd Camp Fort Worth Star-Telegram

While watching “Independence Day,” a friend leaned over during a particularly action-packed moment and mumbled something unintelligible.

“What?”

He repeated himself.

“What?!”

The friend took a deep breath and shouted: “Are movies getting louder these days, or is it just me?!”

He didn’t have to wait long for an answer. “Turn it up!” someone else shouted in response.

Well, maybe some people think not, but most people agree that today’s movies offer an ever-increasing, eardrum-damaging assault on the auditory senses. With the variety of explosions, gunfire, car chases, screams, songs and roars coming at moviegoers - enhanced by THX Digital Dolby SR SuperDuper HelpMeMyEarsAreBleeding Sensurround stereo sound - it’s no wonder movies are becoming more like rock concerts.

But are movies getting louder to keep up with technological advances, or are speaker manufacturers struggling to keep up with a seemingly endless string of boisterous Hollywood offerings?

The evolution from the silent movies of the ‘20s to today’s bone-rattling deafeners has been gradual, but most trend-watchers first began taking notice of the celluloid cacophony when the roars of Steven Spielberg’s dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park” could be heard in adjacent theaters.

But if this summer seems particularly loud - what with “ID4,” “Mission: Impossible,” “The Rock,” “Eraser” and “Chain Reaction” on movie screens - the increase in volume can be blamed largely on the season’s effects-oriented fare. Just about every summer hit has blown up something, whether it’s cars, helicopters, buildings, spaceships or entire cities. And explosions can get quite noisy.

Many moviegoers don’t seem to mind. In fact, some are willing to drive across town or to nearby cities to find the best aural experience.

“I like to see a film with lots of people in the audience, but I don’t want to hear them,” says Fort Worth geologist Kevin Schmidt, an avid film fan. Schmidt says seeing films in theaters that advertise top-of-theline sound systems was an important consideration when planning a night Sound, at the movies.

David Pitman says that although convenience and laziness often dictate visits to local theaters, the quest for perfect sound often takes him miles out of his way.

But the truth is, most film patrons have no idea what the names of different sound systems mean. If a film has more sound logos above the title in the movie listings, it should sound better, right?

Well, right, depending on what those sound logos are. That’s according to THX marketing manager Kim Yost.

“What we constantly try to encourage people to do is to clarify what those names mean to them when they see it in the paper,” Yost said. “We work with movie theater owners to build theaters that replicate films exactly as they were made and meant to be seen. We deal with the acoustics, the placement of equipment, and once we test it and it meets our specs, they can use the THX name.”

Contrary to popular belief, THX sound is applied to a theater and not a movie, so there’s no such thing as a THX film. Developed by director George Lucas in 1983, THX got its start with the debut of Lucas’ “Return of the Jedi.” The THX system considers all aspects of a theater’s audio and visual performance, combining acoustics, architecture and loudspeaker equipment for optimal sound and viewing.

For sound purists, Yost said that the THX system combined with digital sound, whether that’s Dolby Digital, DTS or SDDS, is the closest you’ll ever get to professional quality reproduction and presentation.

“You’ve got the best of both worlds,” she says. “With digital sound and THX, you’re getting exactly what the filmmaker had in mind.”

As for Hollywood’s current fascination with excessive volume, Yost says that improvements are opening new arenas of sound, but not all of them are deafening.

“Digital is actually wonderful with quiet sound, all the little details that make a movie experience real,” she says. “I’m sure filmmakers are taking advantage of what the sound formats provide. Digital sound helps them to deliver their story. Our role is to see to it that the moviegoer hears it.”

xxxx SOUNDS SURROUND IN A THEATER If you’ve ever tried to make sense of all those acronyms and sound logos in your local movie listings, you’ll find that the language of sound is Greek to just about everyone. Field engineer Steve Smith of the AMC theater chain helped us clear the techno-jargon haze:

Analog sound: Comparable to the quality of a cassette tape, this is the most basic sound system, read directly from the film. You have an optical soundtrack read by basically a light and a mirror. The limitations include a lot of background noise and very little separation between the channels.

Digital Stereo Surround Sound: Comparable to the quality of a CD. Incorporating either a CD-ROM or bits printed directly onto the film and then processed through a computer, this system has discrete channel separation with practically no “bleed” into other channels. In other words, if something blows up on the right side of the screen, the noise comes from the right speakers. You get higher highs, lower lows and much clearer and cleaner sound. The different digital sound systems include Dolby Digital, DTS and SDDS.

Dolby Stereo And Dolby SR: Noise-reduction systems developed in the late ‘70s to reduce hiss and to filter out noise for analog systems.

Dolby Digital: This six-channel system works by processing computer bits printed on the film. The channels include Left, Center, Right, Left Surround, Right Surround and Sub Woofer.

DTS (Digital Theater Systems): Virtually indistinguishable in quality from Dolby Digital, the only difference is that this six-channel system includes sound that is actually on a CD-ROM played on a 386 computer.

SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound): This is the best of the digital systems. Works the same as Dolby Digital, except it incorporates a 20-bit compression system as opposed to Dolby’s 16-bit. It also includes two additional channels, Left Extra and Right Extra, for even richer sound.

THX: Smith describes the THX system incorporating aspects of architecture, acoustics and equipment - in less-than-flattering terms. “Essentially you shell about $15 grand a year to have your auditoriums deemed ‘THX approved,”’ he says. THX decides if the entire listening experience is up to par, making sure the theater’s walls are thick enough, the air-conditioner doesn’t rumble too loudly, etc. But there’s no such thing as a THX sound system; the company “approves” other systems, lending its “THX” stamp of approval.