The popular version of his “Shorinophone”, widely used for field and studio sound recording, was based on a mechanical reproduction of gramophone-like longitudinal grooves along the filmstrip.
The group working on this film included the painter, book illustrator and animator Mikhail Tsekhanovsky as well as talented inventor and engineer Evgeny Sholpo.
But the most outstanding participant in the project was Arseny Avraamov - composer, journalist, music theorist, inventor, one of the most adventurous people of his time, performance instigator, irreconcilable foe of the classical twelve tone system (based on well-tempered scale), promoter of the ultrachromatic “Welttonsystem”, developer of experimental musical instruments and tools, and author of the storied Symphony of Factory Sirens.
Each crew member immediately recognized in the new optical film sound process a means to effectively realize their long-standing ideas: Arseny Avraamov - to develop further his concept of ultrachromatic “Welttonsystem” and to explore the sonic qualities of new ornamental sound; Evgeny Sholpo – to develop his “performer-less” musical tools.
The next day they were already furiously at work on experiments in what they referred to variously as “ornamental”, "drawn," “paper”, “graphical”, “artificial” or "synthetic" sound.
At exactly the same time similar efforts were being undertaken in Germany by Rudolf Pfenninger in Munich and, c. 1931-32, by Oskar Fischinger in Berlin.
For instance, to record graphical representations of the simplest algebraic equations, to draw molecular orbits of some chemical elements.
[3] The next year, McLaren completed his most acclaimed work, his Academy Award-winning anti-war film Neighbours, which combined stop-motion pixilation with a graphical soundtrack.