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.

  1. Sync-shifting editing: this is where you record the sound onto the film, but have the film exactly 18 frames out-of-sync, so that the sound is recorded right next to the picture....you then edit your film as you want since you don't have to worry about the sound....it is next to the picture...but of course, out-of-sync technically for showing. When done editing, you now transfer the sound from your edited film back to the tape recorder, then you line the film up in the beginning and then re-record (transfer) the sound back onto the film, but this time correctly with the picture trailing behind by the normal 18 frames separation. This entails that the sound will be the fourth generation from the original recording, so use high quality tape and make sure your recordings are well done. This actually works quite well if done right...and best done using a GS-1200 for the sync-shifting part since it will be exactly the way it should be due to the projector's internal sync capability. But, it has been done on other projectors. What many do is record the original sound onto the balance stripe which isn't sync shifted, sort of serves as a protection copy of the sound.
  2. Wild sound sync edited double-system: In this method you can transfer the sound track from the film (after you have transferred it to the film) OR transfer it directly from your tape recordings (but you must maintain all the slate points on both tape and film until ready to edit)...the sound is transferred to either Super 8 Fullcoat (Super 8 film that is covered with magnetic recording material) or record it originally onto this using a reel-to-reel set up for it, OR transfer the sound to some scrap Super 8 sound film (doesn't matter if it has images on it or not....this film is intended to only hold the sound portion. Then using hopefully a double-system sync-block to edit the sound film and the picture film right next to each other. You edit both with splicing tape, right next to each other. On the sound film you have to remove the slate parts now (except the very first one which is used to line up the film and sound again later for transfer), and also remove the slat parts on the picture film. Using a sliding magnetic playback head or make a unit up yourself cannibalizing an old tape recorder....you will be able to find the slate marks on the sound film by listening for them.
  3. Your sound film will be identical in length to the picture film, frame for frame. You then use either a two-projector method (the sound film is in the master projector which has a once-per-frame switch in it to emit a pulse to the 'slave' projector, usually a GS-1200 which will project the picture film and stay in sync frame-per-frame with the 'master' projector so that the sound is transferred in sync). Or you can transfer the sound using a fullcoat recorder that is designed to do the same thing as the two projector method. OR lastly, the poor man's method, where you use two projectors, but one is at least variable speed, and you manually 'ride' sync while watching the picture....slowing it up or down every so slightly to maintain sync. This last method can be a real pain on a long film...but it can be done and has been done by many.

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
See Martin's WWW site at: Plattsburgh Photographic Services


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