Tutorial
Audio formats for the General Public
In the beginning, there was mono: all the instruments, dialogues and sound effects were recorded on the same track and one sole speaker was sufficient. Then along came stereo, recorded on two tracks by two separate microphones, making it possible to reproduce a stereophonic effect with each of the two tracks feeding a speaker. Sound reproduction became coherent, with violins on the right and double bass on the left. For the cinema, stereo allows the speakers to divide the screen in two, in order that the sound be better able to follow the action taking place on the screenPushed along by this yearning to continually improve sound reproduction, engineers developed procedures and systems involving more and more separate sound tracks and speakers. Almost all these professional procedures of sound reproduction in the cinema today have an equivalent available to the general public. Here is a list of the audio formats available to the general public to date. Among other things, you’ll find the explanation of the much-talked about THX quality label…
