Quote Originally Posted by Worf101
Quite interesting that both of your epiphanies involved unusual circumstances. Direct to disk is an interesting footnote in audio history. As a man who's sweated in a recording studio or two in my time the idea of doing an entire album side, cold, one shot, no flubs is daunting to say the least. I also find it fascinating that you remember the birth of THX sound in the theatres. I remember only VOT and Sensurround... after that I stopped paying attention until my home theatre statred sounding better than half the movies I went to.

Da Worfster
Ah yes, Sensurround! Last time I looked up this stuff, I read that it was Cerwin Vega that created the special subwoofers for that process, and I think Terrence mentioned that the Sensurround track just activated some bass generating device that plunged the depths to about 10 Hz. Someone else mentioned that watching a movie in Sensurround made them sick because their insides were getting brutalized by the bass. The Chinese Theater in Hollywood apparently sustained some structural damage when they screened "Earthquake" in Sensurround. Heard that they had to suspend a net to keep ceiling fragments from falling onto the audience! Someone also once told me that for the Sensurround screening of "Midway" at the Chinese, they installed air raid sirens in the lobby that went off whenever a battle scene was starting up. Yes, remember when movie going was an event?

THX got hyped up in L.A. where I grew up because the first installation coincided with the premiere of "Return of the Jedi". Even though I saw quite a few films in 70mm, the first time I saw a THX presentation with a 70mm print, it was an eye-opener. One of the theaters I frequented while growing up used VOT screen speakers, and once I snuck a peek behind the screen. I saw those VOT giants propped up on platforms, but it surprised me how much open space there was behind the screen with untreated brick walls. The resulting incoherent reverberation was something that I just got used to over the years. THX, with the acoustic controls in the auditorium plus the required baffle wall built behind the screen speakers, was really the first time I ever went to a movie and understood all the dialog. I do credit them helping to raise the standard for movie theater sound. Nowadays, even rural multiplexes are built with acoustically treated auditoriums, irregardless of whether or not they participate in the THX program.