Compression and the Informatics of Film Sound Recording

The compressor, a commonplace element of contemporary sound recording, appeared in cinema as a tool for limiting the output volume of a sound signal. The device reduces the peak (or loudest) part of a sound signal, allowing an engineer to increase the overall sound level of a recording. In this talk, I explore how information, film style, and recording technology can be read together through the shared history of film sound and mid-20th-century cybernetic theory. Through a case study of RKO’s late-1930s musicals starring opera singer Lily Pons, I argue that the contemporary, familiar aesthetic use of this device is entangled with Hollywood’s adoption of compression in the late 1930s. I examine technical documents written by sound personnel through the lens of signal processing and cybernetic theories of information, positioning the compressor as a site for Hollywood audio engineers to experiment with different concepts of information.

Joel Sutherland is a PhD candidate and Hannah Holborn Gray Fellow at the University of Chicago. His dissertation, "Sound in Signal: The Emergence of Electronic Recording in the 20th Century," explores the assemblage of audio engineering techniques, following diverse histories of recording technologies to theorize a genealogy of sound grounded in electronic signal processing. His publications include a forthcoming chapter on 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould in Revisiting the Golden Era: Canadian Cinema of the 1980s and 90s (McGill-Queens University Press). Joel's current teaching covers film and moving-image history, popular music in cinema, and media theory.