Movie Soundtracks – Bring the Movie to Life

In the early days of the silent movie there was no movie soundtracks as the theater hired a person to play a record at predetermined times in the movie at the instruction of cue cards. In many cases live music was used to create the movie soundtrack as the movie was playing in theater. If any special effects sounds were needed people were hired to create them on the spot as the movie was being shown.

The Early Soundtracks

True movie soundtracks did not come about until the dawning of the first "talkies" or movies that actually featured recordings of the actor's voices as an integral part of the movie. With the advent of the technology required to synchronize the voices of the actors with the movement of the images on the screen the popularity of the use of music as a part of the soundtrack began to rise.

Most of these early soundtracks featured music only and it was not until later on that songs with vocals were added to the movies to give them more zing. In many cases even back in the old days songs that appeared in the movies found their way into becoming a popular part of the music scene as radio stations took to playing them as a part of their playlists.

Modern Movies

Today's technology has created a high tech movie studio that uses multi –track audio equipment to record the entire soundtrack. The equipment used today must pass stringent requirements that allow the soundtrack to integrate seamlessly into the audio systems in a variety of different theaters. The recording and processing equipment used can adjust for timbre, bass management and spatial equality.

Thanks to new developments in surround sound, the soundtrack has to be created in several different formats to suit the large variety of theaters as not all of them have the latest surround sound equipment available. To cope with internal noises from air conditioners, fans, and miscellaneous equipment, the modern theater uses some very specialized equipment and the rooms themselves are designed to be as acoustically perfect as possible.

Beyond the Theater

Most modern movies bank on the fact that the music in their soundtrack is going to be very popular. In many cases they choose a mixture of music that is written specifically for the movie and current popular music. These soundtracks are often sold separately from the DVDs of the movies on CDs although they may also be given away as a gift to those who buy the DVD.

For those who wish to purchase movie soundtracks for download, there are web sites that will allow you to download the soundtrack you want directly in mp3 format for a small fee. Throughout much of the latter 20th century single artist soundtracks were very popular, more recently multi artist soundtracks have become far more popular and the most common music used is pop music as the movie industry tries to appeal to the younger crowd. Today no movie would be complete with a top quality movie soundtrack; it is as much a part of a good movie as the stars in the movie are.