recording sound

Oscar Godfrey · June 8, 2006

I am planning on making a short film using traditional techniques. No telecine or computers involved. So could anybody please suggest some ways of doing the sound.

Thank you,

Oscar.

Shawn Gallagher · June 8, 2006

So could anybody please suggest some ways of doing the sound.

Can you even find 16mm with sound strip or add sound to the film anymore? Mabye some post-production places can do it for $$$. If you were going to do it, mabye a reel to reel hooked up to the camera with a pulse cable. Look on ebay, they come up often.

My question is WHY? You can still get that old soundtrack hisss by recording sound first on analog equipment and then digitizing.

I am interested to see what others have to say about this topic as well.

Good Luck.

-Shawn

Freya Black · June 8, 2006

I am planning on making a short film using traditional techniques. No telecine or computers involved. So could anybody please suggest some ways of doing the sound.
Thank you,

Oscar.

Well if you have a camera with a crystal locked motor and a crystal locked audio recorder, then you would slate at the beginning of every take with dialogue or sync sound.

Then in post you would synchoronice the film and sound with a synchroniser. You would record the audio on fullcoat and line up the sound of the slate with the image of the slate so you have sybchronous sound, then the fullcoat would be used to make an optical soundtrack and eventually, from that and the film, a print.

love

Freya

Edited June 8, 2006 by Freya

Brian Drysdale · June 8, 2006

Can you even find 16mm with sound strip or add sound to the film anymore? Mabye some post-production places can do it for $$$.
-Shawn

On 16mm you'd go for optical sound on the print, rather than a mag sound, since so few places are set up for magnetic sound projection. The mag striped 16mm film was mostly used for shooting news.

The real quality drops comes when you go to optical sound on the 16mm print, before that the quality is pretty good on the 16mm full coat or sep mag.

You can use a DAT recorder to record the sound or use a Nagra which has a standard sync system. I suspect using the DAT might be easier, since so few places are now set up for 1/4". You may have to do some calling around to find a transfer to 16mm sep mag. For the final dubbing mix you may find that you have to transfer the 16mm tracks onto a more modern digital system, because they mightn't have enough 16mm machines to run all your tracks.

Oscar Godfrey · June 9, 2006

Thanks guys.

I know how i would edit and sync the sound. What i don't know is what format i would use for the sound. What did people use before computers? I will look into DAT. Even if the everything was digitized, i want to have the finished film on film for projection, so is an optical track on the film the only way to project with sound?

Thanks,

Oscar.

Brian Drysdale · June 9, 2006

Location sound used to be recorded on 1/4" tape, mostly on a Nagra, there were mono and stereo models, usually running at 7.5 inches per second. Stellavox also made a 1/4" recorder, but these weren't so common. From the 1970's these recorders had crystal sync, although the stereo Nagra could also have time code. Sync leads were mostly gone on professional productions by the late 1970s. DAT replaced 1/4" in the 1990s.

Nagras were superbly built pieces of equipment made in Switzerland that could withstand years of heavy professional use. They were either full track or two track in the case of the stereo model, so had an extremely good signal to noise ratio.

James Erd · June 9, 2006

Thanks guys.
I know how i would edit and sync the sound. What i don't know is what format i would use for the sound. What did people use before computers? I will look into DAT. Even if the everything was digitized, i want to have the finished film on film for projection, so is an optical track on the film the only way to project with sound?

Thanks,

Oscar.

There was a projector made by Siemens that is known as a Double 16. I have one. It runs the film on one side and full Mag on the other. It is Mono sound, but then so is the optical track on 16. I don't know of any thing else for 16 besides the optical and Double 16 projectors.

DATs are a good option as long as you get a decent one. I have heard that no more DATs will be produced since the manufacture of the transport mechanism has announced the end of production. So it sounds like DATs are going the way of the reel 2 reel decks. I think they will become extinct faster because they don't have the analog charm of R2R to generate a loyal following.

What ever you do don't get the Sony TCD-D7. These were replaced by the much more stable TCD-D8. I have a D7 in like new condition because it is sooooooo finicky I can't trust it to get the job done. So if you go the DAT route get a professional level deck but don't spend too much. Then again if you are doing your original recording on digital why not get a solid state recorder? All your loosing is the tape, and DAT tapes are prone to failure.

Oscar Godfrey · June 10, 2006

what is a solid state recorder?

Richardson Leao · June 11, 2006

hi,

i have just finished a little program and interface that receives through a parallel port of a laptop (running linux) the sync signal and start and stop the recording together with the 50Hz. discounting the laptop, the system costed about 5$. If you are interested on the idea please let me know.