Last Updated 00/06/21 1200PST
Super 8mm Sound Recording/Synchronizing Methods
by Martin W. Baumgarten © 2000
You can record sound onto the film's stripe with many many different projectors. Although only the GS-1200 is fully equiped for double-system sound (sound recorded onto a tape recorder using a separate track for pulses). As I may've explained before (I write so many letters it's hard to keep track!), you can record the sound onto a tape recorder separately using either crystal sync (in which both camera and tape recorder are modified for crystal and so is the projector; this method requires no pulse wires, or you can use pulse sync; in which a pulse track is recorded using either a pilot-tone sync method or a pulse-sync generator that emits a pulse every time the camera advances one frame...often connected to the flash sync terminal....OR you can record "wild", in which you use a good accurately running camera, and a good tape recorder....and keep your lip sync scenes under 30 seconds for extreme accuracy, and do your best on longer scenes.
With the "wild" method, no connecting wires are needed unless you have a start/stop socket on the camera designed to start and stop the tape recorder (such as on the Beaulieu 4008 series cameras etc). Most methodology is similar to double-system except you don't have or use the expensive resolvers, pulse generators and assorted hardware. If done carefully it works very well! It does take a bit of practive to get it right, and it helps if you have a variable speed tape recorder or projector...so you can "ride" the sync a bit should it begin to drift, by either speeding up or slowing down the tape recorder or projector just a tiny bit....preferably a variable speed tape recorder as it's easier on this end to do.
Well, the slate image and sound is intended only to help you find you starting sync points. Remember that the sound will still be 18 frames ahead of the picture when you transfer it to the film, there's no way around that except a sync-shift method...I'll explain that later. The recording head in the projector is physically 18 frames ahead of the picture for various reasons...so the sound will never be next to the corresponding picture.
Anyhow, when you get ready to transfer the sound to the film, you line up the starting frame in the projector gate, the frame where the slate is closed thus where it made the sound. Then you line up that part with the sound clap in the tape recorder....a bit tricky but you can find it and then pause it right on the mark. Use the preview and review keys to inch the tape back and forth until it's right on the head. Often the image of that start frame is X'd with a permanent marker to make it easier to see. You inch the film around, or do it manually if your projector has no inching method, until that frame is in the gate. Then you zero out the projector's frame counter....then run the projector back to 9980....this is to allow the projector to come up to speed, and then when the frame counter hits 0000, you release the pause switch on the tape recorder. If your projector doesn't have a frame counter, or the sync keeps slipping on you...just try starting them together at the same time...and see how that works...it takes a moment for the projector to come up to speed accuracy, but the tape recorder will come up to speed almost instantly since its capstan is direct driven, and the projector's capstan turns when film is passing between it and the pinch roller...thus the reason for using the method I just outlined.
You will have to try this a few times to see how quick you have to release the tape recorder etc...and see how the sync holds...if the sound is ahead of the picture, you need to start the tape a moment or so later, and vice-versa if the sound is behind the picture. A variable speed tape recorder will allow you to speed up or slow down the sound to "ride" the sync and or catch up to the picture. Years ago folks used reel-to-reel tape recorders and just used an index finger gently rubbing on the supply reel to slow it down ever so slightly.
Editing: You will of course have to cut out the slate scenes, and pay attention to where the sound is as well...in this respect that part of it is very similar to editing single-system sound. If you want more precision you can use the sync shift method (better done using a top end projector like a GS-1200), or edit the sound double-system. This will be more involved...but I'll outline them for you below.
Hopefully this answers your questions.....get a book out of the library on professional filmmaking....the techniques for double-system are the same regardless of the film-gauge used. The only exceptions are the Super 8 unique amateur techniques outlined above. You have to use trial and error and practice to see how things best work with your equipment.....remember...you have the sound on the tape...you can record it over again if you mess up...several times if need be.
Martin W. Baumgarten