Why is the sound quality better on older films?

Why:

When I watch a modern film on the TV I often struggle to catch the words. When I watch an old cowboy film (circa 1950's) I can hear every word. Hubby watches an awful lot of old cowboy films & they're all crystal clear.

We can't understand why the oldies have the better sound - it doesn't make sense!

Re: Why is the sound quality better on older films?

Carol I'm glad you brought this subject up, I thought we were losing it and it was only us. I haven't a clue what's going on with the modern films but the wife and me struggle to hear what they are saying, whereas we have no bother hearing every word of the older ones, baffling isn't it.

Re: Why is the sound quality better on older films?

Carol, the reason is money. The older films (Not just the cowboy ones) had the sound recorded on a seperate system in a studio with no background noise. If any background noise was required e.g. the sound of a herd of cows mooing or horses galloping then they added these to the sound track and the relative levels of speech and background sound were adjusted so that the viewer could hear the actor (actress) clearly. This all took a dozen or more sound engineers and quite a lot of time.

Now, with modern films, (to save money) they record the dialogue AND the background at the same time, this makes it difficult to get a good balance but what the heck it saves a lot of money and the producer / directors justify it by saying that it's more 'natural' (What ever that means )

The modern producer /directors can also get away with this shabby money saving trick because most of the cinema audiences today don't want thought provoking dialogue they just want huge spectacular special effects, plenty of bad language, violence, and grunting sex scenes.

It's the world we live in but don't let anyone try to tell you the old films were not as good as the modern ones

Re: Why is the sound quality better on older films?

I have the same problem too! Gets very frustrating.

Re: Why is the sound quality better on older films?

Carol I no longer go to the cinema because my lip reading skills are not very good and that is the only way I can grasp what is being said.

When I used to watch modern DVDs with my son on the TV I spent my time asking what people were saying.

I thought maybe it was because people don't speak so clearly they all mumble these days

Re: Why is the sound quality better on older films?

I am not entirely convinced by the natural recording argument because a lot of a film is shot in a studio where background noise is not an issue even if it isn't overdubbed later.

Personally I don't care, I always download the English subtitles as well. I haven't been to a cinema in decades (except one visit in Malaysia to see a 3D film)

Re: Why is the sound quality better on older films?

It's not just films though, even documentaries are hosted by mumblers such as Dan Cruikshank, and the accompaniament of loud "mood" music completely ruins it for me.

Re: Why is the sound quality better on older films?

You reminded me of an occasion many years ago. I don't watch many films but one night I watched this film, which had me as usual on the edge of my chair trying to catch everything they were saying. Right at the end of the film, we were coming towards the punch line that would tell me who did it. I held my breath, leaned forward to make sure I didn't miss anything and guess what?!! I couldn't make it out !! What a waste of 2.5 hours !! . My son had come in halfway through the film, he says he could hear the punch line, but thought he was hilarious by not telling me the outcome ! Charming !!!

Re: Why is the sound quality better on older films?

I'm not a fan of the Harry Potter films, I fell asleep at the cinema, when watching the first one. Not keen on films which seem to have been shot in the dark !!

However, when they came on tv, I thought I'd give them another go, in case I was missing something. I have started to watch the beginning of a couple of them, but had to turn off on each occasion, as most of the time I haven't a clue what they are saying and the strain of it was too much!

Re: Why is the sound quality better on older films?

I suggest it´s the lack of high frequencies lost as our hearing gets older. Programmes are made by young people with good hearing, so would be unaware of any problem. Older films were more ¨theatrical¨ with actors who ¨projected¨ their voices, so were a lot clearer.