Sound Makes All The Difference

[Metryq]

It wasn't just dry. Imagine all sound having to go through a single 2-inch transistor-radio speaker, and you begin to get the idea. There was no stereo, no Dolby, no 5.0 / 7.0 Surround, no nothing. Just tinny-sounding lo-fi mono.

Any cringing complaints about sound quality come from the privileged perspective of home-theater stereo mixes with full-spectrum audio, none of which existed in broadcast television at the time the show was produced.

I don't have to "imagine" it. I was a kid at the time, and I was there to experience it. And while you're dressing me down for my "cringing complaints" as a spoiled kid from the privileged, "in stereo where available" age, you might re-read my post where I complimented the SFX used in "The Doomsday Machine"—all done on the same limited dynamic range broadcast system and delivered over the same tiny speakers.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I don't have to "imagine" it. I was a kid at the time, and I was there to experience it.

In my experience, if you've never had better ones, whatever speakers you're accustomed to will sound good to you. When all I had was a handheld "transistor radio," with just AM reception, that sounded great. That was music to me. When I saw ads for Hi Fi sets, I didn't know what the fuss was about.

Likewise, I never had a problem with the little mono TV speaker, until there was a loud buzzing sound because this old b&w set was turning to crap. And it went through an end of life phase, where the sound would cut out altogether, and you had to jostle the volume control to make the sound pop back on. That's when you really notice.

 

[publiusr]

It's been a while since I watched certain episodes. And I was just cringing at the metal-bucket-being-kicked-down-a-hallway sound effects of Nomad's bolt hitting…"The Doomsday Machine" hammering the Enterprise—deeper, actual explosion-like sound effects followed by a long rumble, like thunder rolling across the hills.

I think John Carpenter used a bit of that—in the burn-through title sequence and as MacCready, Nauls and Garry descended steps towards the end.

Maybe Round2 could hire Hofner to fix the 1/650 model

 

[Redfern]

I always thought Robby's "saxophone valve" clattering sounded a bit more like an adding machine when the lever is pulled. Not claiming that's how they achieved that sound effect, merely that it reminded me of that.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I wish we'd been consulted when TOS-R was redesigning the soundscape for 2006. Engine rumble as the Enterprise sailed by was a charmingly primitive touch, almost "early-segment weirdness."

The CBS Digital geniuses didn't understand that the rumble was supposed to be gone in later episodes. The feel of the series evolved, and that evolution was part of the show. What we now call retro-futurism got a little less retro, and that was cool. But no: You get a rumble! And you get a rumble! And you get a rumble!

I didn't mind them putting it into the new sound mix for the TOS-R version and the surround track. But keeping it in almost all of the episodes in the "original mono" mix is what pisses me off. And in some episodes, like "The Naked Time" and "Dagger of the Mind" it drowns out Kirk's log entries.

FYI: the engine rumble was used in only a relatively small number of episodes in the first season. It wasn't really introduced until "The Enemy Within" (airdate order - when these things would be locked down) and not until late into the episode. You can just make it out under the music at the start of act 3 but they used it in that weirdly placed orbit shot interrupting Kirk and Sulu's last conversation, probably because there was no music cue there. "Mudd's Women" is the first full episode use of the rumble. However, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" used the "warp" sound in the exterior shots. For every other episode prior to and after the rumble, music and Kirk's log were used as the sound backing.

The rumble was used fairly inconsistently ("Miri" and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" don't have it), being phased out entirely after "Court Martial." I can guess why it was dropped, since Roddenberry was all about the Enterprise not having rockets, and the "rumble" would more accurately be termed a "rocket" sound.

A sound effect we equate with the first season was used in only around 12 segments and not even in every shot of the Enterprise within those episodes. Yet for some reason, it was added to nearly every episode of the season's "mono" mix and other than "Amok Time," it's in every episode of the last two seasons - a time when it was never used.