Stereo sound generally went for that same, major desire of all postwar technology : to infuse you into its environment (aural, visual, tactile, surfacial, sculptural, mobile, etc.) through perceptual manipulation - but often with a ridiculously literal approach to executing effects, such as :
(a) panning the spoken dialogue across the screen as the characters move across the screen;
(b) alternating the direction of sound occurrences in line with shot/reverse-shot spatial conventions so that when the image cuts to a different perspective the sound simultaneously shifts and suddenly comes from a different point on the screen;
(c) creating ambient or environmental atmosphere sounds in artificial stereo which at times unintentionally make certain scenes appear hollow and cavernous due to the mismatching of on-screen true visual space; and
(d) suddenly cutting to a wider stereo mix and often louder surround-sound when musical numbers or manipulative sonic effects overtook the film.
(...)
As such, the early stereo soundtrack (which utilised what could be termed a `planar' approach to spatial mixing, exemplified by the above examples) would often draw attention to itself and break the textual form engineered by the more established production levels of the film. This inevitably went against the grain of many accepted critical modes (most of them unknowingly derived from a Bazanian model of naturalism - yes, Bazin, he who couldn't even handle wide-screen formats!) and thus didn't help push the topic of stereo filmsound into the main arena of critical enquiry, dismissed as it generally was as a hi-tech novelty for an audience attracted to fad technologies. (In hindsight, it is amazing that the poststructuralists didn't pick up on the `rupturing' effect of early stereo filmsound mixes, as they sonically blasted you out of the movie into the fractured and isolated confines of the theatre.) Whatever the reasons for this dismissal of stereo filmsound, the fact remains that it took a decade of experimentation before aural narratology in the cinema could be clearly discerned as having entered a new phase - that of stereo space, sonic detailing across the screen, and contrapuntal movement of sound with mobile camera perspectives (concepts we shall discuss in detail shortly).
https://www.philipbrophy.com/projects/chapters/architectsonicobject/chapter.htmlÄsthetisch betrachtet und spannender als nur Technik.
