Optical sound

Edge of a 35 mm film print showing four types of soundtrack. The stereo optical sound strip is located on the right, with waveforms for left and right channels.
To the far left is the SDDS digital track (blue area to the left of the sprocket holes), then the Dolby Digital (grey area between the sprocket holes labelled with the Dolby "Double-D" logo in the middle), and to the right of the analog optical sound is the DTS time code (the dashed line to the far right.)
A transparent program disc imprinted with concentric optical sound tracks, used for the Optigan musical organ

Optical sound is a means of storing sound recordings on transparent film. Originally developed for military purposes, the technology first saw widespread use in the 1920s as a sound-on-film format for motion pictures. Optical sound eventually superseded all other sound film technologies until the advent of digital sound became the standard in cinema projection booths. Optical sound has also been used for multitrack recording and for creating effects in some musical synthesizers.


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