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Topic: What is "Ultra-sonic Sound"?
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David Pannell
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1072
From: Horsham, West Sussex, UK
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted July 27, 2005 02:02 PM
Hi James,
It 'sounds' (if you'll forgive the pun) more like an advertising ploy than anything else, trying to emulate, or even seem better than Hi-Fi, (or high fidelity sound).
Ultrasonics are, as I'm sure you are aware, the range of frequencies beyond the audible range of the human ear, and UHF - ultra high frequencies are in the range of 300-3000MHz!!
The word 'ultra' on its own signifies extreme or beyond, and therefore in the technical sense of the description would be utterly meaningless; but, with so called 'poetic licence' could convey a meaning of extremely good quality sound or a very wide frequency range!
Can't think of any other possible explanation.
Dave.
-------------------- Dave.
Valves and celluloid - a great combination! Early technology rules OK!
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted July 29, 2005 12:00 PM
I have a columbia cartoon, entitled, "Gerald Mc Boing Boing", which, of course, was a famous cartoon, and it has the "Ultra-sonic label." From what I can identify, it does seem to have a louder sound quality than most prints from the same era, slightly "crisper" , if I could use that term.
-------------------- "All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Jan Bister
Darth 8mm
Posts: 2629
From: Ohio, USA
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted July 29, 2005 03:00 PM
Hmm, I've been interested in that cartoon myself, but just missed an eBay auction for it. Care to write a review for it?
As for the Ultrasonic sound.... I have two theories. Either they simply recorded the sound very loud, actually overdriving the sound stripe during the loudest parts (but only by a few dB)... or they ran the sound through a compressor, somewhat like a Dolby C compander circuit, to make very soft passages louder and also increase the perceived volume of loud passages without actually altering their dB levels. (If you listen to music on the radio... you always listen to compressed audio, which to my ears is quite annoying as they compress it way too much. )
Note, I'm not talking about compression as in turning digital audio into MP3 files, but dynamic compression as in reducing (compressing) the dynamic range of an audio recording.
-------------------- Call me Phoenix. *dusts off the ashes*
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