Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Fantasound

After watching Fantasia I had a lot of questions about Fantasound.  I turned to my friend Filmmaker and audiophile Michael Viers for some insight.  He runs a podcast called the Shame List Picture Show (if you haven’t listened you should check it out) and loves talking about how films sound.  I sent him over a few questions and he was gracious enough to take the time to answer them. I might have stumped him with a few questions but hope you enjoy this deep dive into the world of sound.

The technical stuff about Fantasound mostly went over my head.  But it sounded like two of the big revolutionary breakthroughs were PAN POT and TOGAD. Is there an easy way to explain what those are, and why they were important breakthroughs?

I’m not a real expert of how these two things work. PAN POT, also known as Panoramic Potentiometer, was a device that allowed for sound to open up from a monaural source (one speaker) to a three speaker system (left, right, center) which is how surround sound works. The center speaker is where dialogue and incidental sounds live (so when people complain about not hearing dialogue, they would benefit from a center channel). The left and right split up the rest of the sound (i.e. music) and is what creates the feeling of “movement”. PAN POT also splits the audio to the rear speakers to give a fully immersive audio experience.

TOGAD (Tone Operated Gain Adjusting Device) is a device used to open up the dynamic range of the audio (the difference between the highs and lows). Once again, I’m not an engineer and can’t really explain HOW it works, but it adds separation between the highs and lows. The drums will boom and the wood winds will whistle thus allowing the audio to sound more full.

Are there any other significant innovations with fantasound that you feel are important? 

Most definitely! Without Walt Disney and Fantasound, surround sound as we know it might not exist. Well, that’s a bit extreme as I’m sure SOMEONE would have figured it out, but it was his brilliant idea that pushed it forward. His big dream was for the “Flight of the Bumblebee” sequence and he wanted the sound of the bee to move around the room. 

What impressed you the most about the recording or playback of Fantasound? 

I guess what impressed me most was Disney’s forward thinking. He had a dream of “moving sound” and wanted to find a way to make it work. Sadly, it was too expensive and would be awhile before “surround sound” or “multi-channel audio” would catch on.

Fantasia is said to be the first movie released with Stereo Sound. Would it be fair to say that Fantasound was a form of surround sound since it involved multiple speakers placed in the theatre? 

Definitely. It featured a front right, front left, center, back right and back left audio track. What can be confusing though is the use of the term “stereo” which most people take as meaning left & right audio. Hell, I thought this for the longest time. Stereo, in it’s true form, is surround sound. The center and back channels are compressed down into the audio tracks (almost hidden) and can only be unlocked with the proper equipment and audio set-up, like a receiver and speakers. What’s so genius about this set-up is stereo sound will play just fine out of your TV speakers and soundbars but will have all these hidden elements when played on a proper set-up.

On it’s original release Fantasia flopped financially because of the expense of Fantasound.  Why did it take over 10 years for stereo sound to become feasible? 

From what I read it was very costly for theaters to get set-up to properly play Fantasound. Only two or three theaters did it. Mono sound, for all intents and purposes, was fine. However, when movie theaters got larger it was cutting the mustard and wasn’t filling the room, so sound engineers wanted to find a way to make surround sound doable.

Is the transfer to digital surround sound easier if the original tracks were made with a form of surround sound? 

For the most part, yes. If a film is encoded in Dolby Stereo Surround (which as I mentioned before is a hidden surround sound) then it’s a lot easier to take those tracks and make a dedicated 5.1 audio mix where each channel has its own dedicated sound, better dynamic range and better spatial qualities.

How do you think watching it now on Disney+ in digital 5.1 surround sound compares to how the audience experienced it in 1940? 

I think it’ll be very close. The audio has been cleaned up and there will be better movement of sound. I guess unless I could find a copy with an “original” audio track (or close to it) I couldn’t say for sure.

For me learning about this made me better appreciate the work that went into innovating early films.  Do you think today we take stereo sound for granted?

Most definitely. Like I said, it wasn’t until recently that I learned there stereo IS surround sound and I considered myself kind of an audio nut. I thought the progression went from mono, to stereo to surround sound when in reality it’s mono or surround sound. That’s it. You notice it a lot with disc reviewers too (which I made these same mistakes) who poopoo a release for only having stereo but in reality there’s more to the track than we thought. 

I’d like to thank Stephen Bjork, Vincent Pereria and the Criterion Collection for helping me learn about matrixed stereo. It’s written, clear as day in my Criterion edition of BLOW OUT that to access Dolby Surround I had to turn on a feature on my receiver called Pro Logic and both Mr. Bjork and Mr. Pereria helped fill in the blanks.