Separating S**it from Shinola

[Alex]

Separating S**it from Shinola, aka polishing a **** .

Have you considered making a computer file of all the sound and then syncing up on the computer?

[oldasdirt]

I thought of that.The only trouble is,there's sync and non sync on the same roll and no uniformity to what belongs with what.In one roll,for instance,there is about 1200 feet and 4 cassette tapes.It looks like to save space,someone spliced everything on a few reels.I have to sift through and find out what belongs with what and what doesn't belong at all.They don't want to transfer the entire amount of film to tape since not all of it belongs.If there was some way I could just see the film on a decent viewer and figure out what sound goes with it,I could only tranfer those rolls.

[oldasdirt]

Since I got no reply,except from Alex,thanks Alex,about flatbeds or an ESTEC.I thought I would post about the project I felt I needed such equipment on.Part of what I do from time to time is preserve old film projects for telecine transfer.So far I have a rather large collection,mostly 16mm newsfilm which I rescued from a dumpster.Got some valueable,including Batista in exile and Cival Rights marches from the early 60's,which includes footage of Dr.Martin Luther King,Jr. as well as the Apollo 1 disaster (burned out capsule and astronauts' funeral).Amongst this is stuff I don't need to transfer (reporter stand ups and such).The 16mm is easy as I have access to a Steenbeck.Yet I have some folks that want me to sort their super 8 footage for transfer and they're shot on a myriad of sync sound formats including Bell and Howell Filmosound,Syncronex,Optasound and even some regular 8mm sound on film (Fairchild).I'm lloking for a way to universlly sync what I need to and edit the stuff down to a manageable size as not everything warrants an expensive transfer.

[Nasher53]

Hi! I assume from the date, you already sorted your problem.
I've only dabbled a bit with super 8 into digital, but found that synch audio transferred wild often seemed to happily fall into synch with transferred super 8 footage. In one instance when it didn't, a 57 minute movie which over time had become some minutes shorter than its soundtrack, we were able to shrink the soundtrack ( or was it stretch the film?) quite easily on a standard pro editing programme.
Re the Estec, I had the misfortune to own the (as far as I know) only one ever in the UK!
After years of struggling to match up various super 8 synch systems, an all in one post production unit seemed like a great idea. I bought the Optasound ESTEC in mid 1977, but from the first day, could never make it work fully. The price is chiselled into my memory. £3,155.00.
To add insult to injury, I was refused assistance by the makers because it was a demonstration sample given to the UK company I'd bought it from, ( the Super 8 Centre) and should not have been sold in the first place! Which explains why the sellers couldn't sort the problems for me either, as Optasound wouldn't help them unless they paid them for the machine!
Basically the machine was a piece of crap! And the two firms involved were worse!
Most of the time the machine just wouldn't work. Problems with speed control, power supply, clutching, audio, the pulse editing system etc etc. When some parts of it did work briefly, the Muray viewer was lousy, so syncing up and even viewing was a real chore. The Super 8 Centre took it away a couple of times, only to return it still not working. I doubt they even bothered to take it out of the car!
I had Peter Lawson of Filmin Ltd. struggle with it...he designed the original perforated cassette tape system which Optasound ripped him off for.
The original Estec had 2 Optasound ( actually Peter Lawson's) perf cassette tape recorders built into it, rather than Super 8 fullcoat transports.
Then some guys from the UK space program had a go...(never heard of it? It's very small! )
Then my mate **** of Palace Acoustics struggled with it.
Eventually by 1980 I gave up and bought a Schmidt 6 plate. It was wonderful, and is still going to this day...it got overhauled last year. Lovely big bright picture, record and playback for stripe and fullcoat, easy to use, marvelous.
On one occasion we ran a dub with it, plus a fullcoat machine, plus a four track Teac plus a Xenon Elmo projector, all more or less in synch. Only problem was when someone turned the lighswitch on for the room, the whole lot would set off...in synch of course, well, more or less!
As for the ESTEC, I sold that off for scrap in the late 80's. It went to a private film gear museum. RIP!
Cheers, Nasher.

[Alex]

Thanks for sharing your experience.