Editing Fantasia (1940 film) (section)

==== Recording ====
Disney wanted to experiment in more sophisticated [[sound recording and reproduction]] techniques for ''Fantasia''. He said: "Music emerging from [[monaural|one speaker]] behind the screen sounds thin, tinkly and strainy. We wanted to reproduce such beautiful masterpieces&nbsp;... so that audiences would feel as though they were standing at the podium with Stokowski".<ref name=popscience>{{cite magazine |last=Boone |first=Andrew R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NicDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65 |title=Mickey Mouse Goes Classical |magazine=[[Popular Science]] |date=January 1941 |pages=65–67 |via=Google Books}}</ref> ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' was recorded in a three-hour session that began at midnight at the [[Culver Studios]] on January 9, 1938. The venue was chosen as the sound stage at the Disney studio at Hyperion Avenue was too small. Stokowski picked the 85 musicians himself, and felt they would be more alert by working at such a late hour. The session involved a single rehearsal.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=15–16}} Engineers at Disney collaborated with [[RCA Corporation]] that involved recording with multiple audio channels to allow any desired dynamic balance to be achieved upon playback.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=15–16}} The stage was altered acoustically with double plywood semi-circular partitions that separated the orchestra into five sections and acted as a baffle wall to increase [[reverberation]].{{sfn|Telotte|2008|pp=38–40}} Chief Disney sound engineer [[William Garity]] was "very disappointed" with the overall results and was unable to have a full complete rehearsal and record the orchestra in separate sections as scheduled, but Stokowski insisted the recording was satisfactory.<ref name=millimeter/>

[[File:Phila AcademyofMusicl03.JPG|thumb|right|With execption to ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'', the film's score was recorded at the Philadelphia Academy of Music.]]
On January 18, 1939, Stokowski signed an eighteen-month contract with Disney to conduct the remaining pieces with the Philadelphia Orchestra.<ref name=orchvsdisney93 /> The main recording sessions took place on April 6, 8, and 12, each three hours in length, at the [[Academy of Music (Philadelphia)|Academy of Music]], the orchestra's home which was chosen for its favourable acoustics.<ref name=popscience /><ref name=gazette1990>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZnghAAAAIBAJ&pg=984%2C3383149 |title=Restored ''Fantasia'' returns to screen |newspaper=[[The Daily Gazette]]|first=Ted |last=Duncombe |date=September 14, 1990 |access-date=February 7, 2011 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> The 90-piece orchestra included some students at the [[Curtis Institute of Music]], and each musician was paid a flat fee of $10 per hour with principal players receiving as much as $400.<ref name=TPI90>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-fantasia-1990/15692925/|title='Fantasia' and its Phila. connection|first=Lesley|last=Valdes|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=September 16, 1990|pages=1-D, 12-D|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=June 22, 2023}}</ref> ''Ave Maria'' features the [[Westminster Choir College]] under the supervision of [[Charles E. Henderson]], and college affiliate Julietta Novis as the soprano solo.<ref>{{cite web | title=Julietta Novis | website=BFI | url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4de5a2909dd5c | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930220326/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4de5a2909dd5c | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 30, 2017 | access-date=2021-02-05}}</ref> Disney commissioned American author [[Rachel Field]] to produce a set of original lyrics in English specifically for ''Fantasia'', of which just one verse is sung in the film.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=181}} The two sound effects heard in the film are used in ''Dance of the Hours''—a thump when an ostrich ballerina falls to the ground and the crash of the palace doors at the very end.{{sfn|Fernandez|2017}} Disney paid almost $18,000 towards the musician's wages, stage personnel, a music librarian, and the orchestra's manager.<ref name=orchvsdisney93>{{cite web|url=https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar_case?case=14741774668685946276|title=Philadelphia Orchestra Association v. Walt Disney Co., 821 F.Supp. 341 (1993)|via=[[Google Scholar]]|access-date=October 16, 2011}}</ref>

Disney and RCA decided to abandon the multi-channel setup used on ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' and devised a more sophisticated one for the Academy sessions.{{sfn|Telotte|2008|pp=38–40}} Thirty-three microphones were placed around the orchestra that captured the music onto eight [[sound-on-film|optical sound]] recording machines placed in the hall's basement, where engineers followed the music in real time and muted microphones when their assigned section was not playing.<ref name=WHYY16/> Each one represented an audio channel that focused on a different section of instruments: cellos and basses, violins, brass, violas, and woodwinds and tympani. The seventh channel was a combination of the first six while the eighth provided an overall sound of the orchestra at a distance.<ref name=popscience />{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}}<ref name=stokowchic1990>{{Cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-09-23-9003190601-story.html |title=Conductor's Sound Innovations Make The Most Of The Music |work=Chicago Tribune |first=Alan G. |last=Artner |date=September 23, 1990 |access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref> A ninth channel provided a [[click track]] function for the animators to time their drawings to the music.{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}}<ref name=fantasoundexperiences>{{Cite journal | last1 = Garity | first1 = William E. | last2 = Jones| first2 = Watson | title = Experiences in Road-Showing Walt Disney's ''Fantasia''| journal =[[Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers]]| volume = 39 | pages = 6–15 | location = United States | date = July 1942 | issue = 7 | doi = 10.5594/J09876 | url = https://archive.org/stream/journalofsociety39socirich#page/6/mode/2up }}</ref> The film stock had to be stored in a truck parked outside the Academy as the highly flammable material posed a fire risk for the wooden basement.<ref name=WHYY16/> When the finished recordings arrived at the studio, a meeting was held on July 14, 1939, to allow the artists working on each segment to listen to Stokowski's arrangements, and suggest alterations in the sound to work more effectively with their designs.{{sfn|Barrier|2008|p=146}} Some solo parts were subsequently re-recorded in California, but still under Stokowski's direction.<ref name=WHYY16>{{cite web|url=https://whyy.org/articles/modern-movie-sound-was-born-in-a-philadelphia-basement/|title=Modern movie sound was born in a Philadelphia basement|date=October 10, 2016|first=Elana|last=Gordon|publisher=WHYY|access-date=July 17, 2023}}</ref> In the 42 days it took to record, edit, and produce the final mix {{convert|483000|ft}} of film was used in the process.<ref name=popscience />