Editing Fantasia (1940 film) (section)

==== Fantasound ====
{{main|Fantasound}}
The Disney brothers contacted [[David Sarnoff]] of RCA regarding the manufacture of a new system that would "create the illusion that the actual symphony orchestra is playing in the theater." Sarnoff backed out at first for financial reasons, but agreed in July 1939 to make the equipment so long as the Disneys could hold down the estimated $200,000 in costs (equivalent to about ${{inflation|US|.2|1939|r=1}}{{spaces}}million in {{inflation/year|US}}).{{sfn|Gabler|2006| pp=328–329}} Though it was not exactly known how to achieve their goal, engineers at Disney and RCA investigated many ideas and tests made with various equipment setups.{{sfn|Telotte|2008|pp=38–40}} The collaboration led to the development of Fantasound, a pioneering [[stereophonic sound|stereophonic]] [[surround sound]] system which innovated some processes widely used today, including simultaneous [[multitrack recording]], [[overdubbing]], and [[noise reduction]].{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}}

Fantasound, developed in part by Garity, employed two projectors running at the same time. With one containing the picture film with a mono soundtrack for backup purposes, the other ran a sound film that was mixed from the nine tracks recorded at the Academy to four: three of which contained the audio for the left, center, and right stage speakers respectively, while the fourth became a control track with amplitude and frequency tones that drove [[variable-gain amplifier]]s to control the volume of the three audio tracks.{{sfn|Telotte|2008|pp=38–40}} In addition were three "house" speakers placed on the left, right, and center of the auditorium that derived from the left and right stage channels which acted as [[surround channels]].{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}} As the original recording was captured at almost peak modulation to increase [[signal-to-noise ratio]], the control track was used to restore the dynamics to where Stokowski thought they should be. For this, a tone-operated gain-adjusting device was built to control the levels of each of the three audio tracks through the amplifiers.{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}}

The illusion of sound traveling across the speakers was achieved with a device named the "[[panning (audio)|pan pot]]", which directed the predetermined movement of each audio channel with the control track. Mixing of the soundtrack required six people to operate the various pan pots in real time, while Stokowski directed each level and pan change which was marked on his musical score. To monitor recording levels, Disney used [[oscilloscope]]s with color differentiation to minimize eye fatigue.<ref>{{cite web |title=FANTASOUND* |url=http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/sound/fantasound1.htm |work=The American Widescreen Museum |date=1998 |access-date=October 18, 2016 |archive-date=October 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015043609/http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/sound/fantasound1.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> To test recording equipment and speaker systems, Disney ordered eight [[electronic oscillator]]s from the newly established [[Hewlett-Packard]] company.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/timeline-history-of-hewlett-packard |title=Timeline: History of Hewlett-Packard |website=Fox News |date=February 9, 2005 |access-date=October 18, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220104034519/https://www.foxnews.com/story/timeline-history-of-hewlett-packard |archive-date=January 4, 2022 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=HP Virtual Museum: Model 200B audio oscillator, 1939 |url=http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/earlyinstruments/0008/index.html |work=[[Hewlett-Packard]] |date=2012 |access-date=October 18, 2016}}</ref> Between the individual takes, prints, and remakes, approximately three million feet of sound film was used in the production of ''Fantasia''.<ref name=popscience /><ref>It's perhaps a different measure, but Disney's technicians elsewhere wrote that the production "excluding release prints, required the use of five million feet of film!" (Garity, Wm. E. and Hawkins, J.N.A., "'Fantasound': A Technological Epoch." International Projectionist, August 1941, 16.</ref> Almost a fifth of the film's budget was spent on its recording techniques.{{sfn|Gelder|1990|pp=87–90}}