Not talking about the static, mainly the voices of people.
Examples:
https://youtu.be/yYAw79386WI?si=SKCkEeHFLn83ixCB (skip to 4:30)
And a final example of a modern recreation
In: Technology
Limited frequency bandwidth. Basically, a large part of the audible range is cut off, either so the audio can be transmitted more easily, or because of the imperfect analog storage medium that has degraded over time and lost a large part of that range.
ELI5: milk spoils after a while, or gets filtered to lose some of its nutrients.
Many people in the media spoke with the Transatlantic accent. The accent was embraced especially by members of the Northeastern upper class, as well as in schools for film, radio, and stage acting, with its overall use sharply declining after the Second World War. The Mid-Atlantic accent is not a native or regional accent; rather, according to voice and drama professor Dudley Knight, “its earliest advocates bragged that its chief quality was that no Americans actually spoke it unless educated to do so”.
In the UK, many recorded voices for radio, film and television would have ‘received pronunciation’ which was thought to be especially clear and authoritative – which is why it is often associated with the BBC.
You still hear it in places like announcements on the London Underground and with some presenters on Radio 4 and the World Service, but it is dying out.
Due to technology limitations, very low and very high-pitched sounds didn’t get recorded very well—or at all—before the 1950s. Part of what gives a voice its tone is those pitches.
Also, in the old days, many performers were trained to vocalize a certain way and to use a sort of nasal, posh accent which carried well and remained easy to understand in large venues or in lo-fi recordings. Presenters and narrators often used this “standard” public-speaking voice because it sounded authoritative.
Easier answer: The microphone and the way it was recorded. The mic that originally recorded the broadcast is what gives it that tinny sound. Microphones can have different frequencies and dynamics, some are super sensitive and some are crap. A five dollar microphone sounds much different than a $5000 microphone. A 1927 microphone sounds much different than a 2024 microphone. It also depends on how the sound was captured: was it on vinyl, a wax cylinder, a radio broadcast. All of those formats have their own dynamics and sound limitations. Hope this helps.
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