Watching old movies or broadcasts always sound the same. Everyone has a very muffled and nasal sound to them. What caused microphones to produce such a uniformly weird sound?
In: Technology
Don’t forget there’s another reason. Reproduction at the time came via CRT TVs which rather than the modern integrated soundbars or high end 5.1 systems, actually came with weedy singular paper cones. These cones had poor slow response times, were tiny and generally incapable of producing low frequencies. As such, replaying a varied high-range soundtrack would be unlistenable on a period TV.
To combat this, low frequencies were reduced and engineers tried to funnel sound through the frequencies that CRT speakers could produce clearly. With the advent of decent reproduction, these now sound hideous and date recordings badly.
The recording technology used at the time such as vacuum tube preamplifiers and tape recorders would introduce analogue warmth. The effect of this are, amongst other things, diminished high frequencies. Engineers at the time would apply boosts to the high frequencies to compensate for the loss.
I’m no audio engineer, but I assume it’s similar to dynamic range in cameras. Older tech, whether the microphones themselves or the recording side of things, couldn’t accurately capture the full range of a voice (or anything else for that matter). Add on to that that there was likely a lot of noise in the system, especially in situations where you’re pumping a big signal to broadcast the speech live (as in live to a ton of people, not live to air in a studio), and that’s going to make things even worse.
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Are you referring to the trans Atlantic accent?
If so it was a cultural phenomenon in the 30s-40s because it sounded like the way rich higher classes spoke so it became popular in media
One factor is the recording media, which in combination with microphones can dramatically roll off frequencies at the top or bottom.
Older recordings were on film, tape, or vinyl, which introduced their own artifacts like compression and graininess.
You end up with a reproduction that is missing much of the nuance in human speech, like chest resonance and sibilance, so you get that nasally quality.
It was also a factor in how broadcasters spoke, as someone speaking normally would not be as well understood.
It is not the microphones, but the recording medium and time. It is compressed and also deteriorates over the years. If you were in the control room hearing it live, it likely sounded great. Well maintained and stored film prints with audio tracks sound terrific still.
Part of it is that people had a special accent called transatlantic. It’s the accent you hear commonly in old tv shows and media
In terms of EQ, the sound captured has way louder highs than mids or lows, resulting in high-pitched tinny voices.
People talked through their noses back in the day until mouths were invented in 1956 by Sir Edwin D. Mouth.
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