super 8 sound (need help please)

[bupkes]

I am just wondering if anyone out there knows how to record sound for super8 film. i know there are different ways, but what is the simpliest, most conventional way?? thanks

[chrust19]

Well, if you look in to Super 8 and the formats currently available you will discover that there is no convienient way to put sound to your super8 film. There are two baisic ways you can have sound with your film. (I'm assuming you know that sound film is no longer produced)
You can get a camera with crystal sync or for a pritty penny have it put into your camera, this allows your camera and tape recorder to run at the same time by sending a pulse to the tape recorder, this is just about fool proof.
Your other option would be to record sound and then try to sync it up later in post production, this is neither economical nor easy, because no matter what fps your camera says it's running at it will never run consistently at that speed, there are also some other issues that must be taken into account but that is the main one. Good Luck.
Christi

[Nigel]

A agree. There is no way to make it simple. You will need a crystal camera and a DAT or a crystal Nagra. Good Luck

[Hanthx]

Both Chrusty and Nigel are right, and most likely you will get the best results but...you do have two other options. One, you can find sound film on ebay, but it will be expired. (Just hope that it has been refrigerated) Or, you can lay down up to two magnetic tracks on your film for sound. Most companies charge about 18 cents a foot, and about 30 cents a foot for two tracks of sound. But this is used for POST production, laying down sound after it has been exposed. If Im wrong, and you can lay it down before film is exposed someone tell me. But I believe the results will not be as good as having a camera crystal sync-d, and capturing
sound with a DAT recorder or NAGRA. Cool.
Han

[#Pedro]

First, there IS magnetic stripped film on the market. In Germany I can easyly purchase stripped K40 sound film on 200 ft. daylight reels. But they only can be used in the new Beaulieu 200 ft. magazine. This way it?s possible to record live sound like in former days with the 50 ft. cardriges of Kodak.
Second, I think you are mixing up the professional crystal sync technologie with amateur sync systems.
When you work with a crystal sync camera, it will constantly run at the setted framerate. When you record the sound with a crystal synced recorder (dat/disc), too, you can apply the external soundtrack to commag in post production. To do so, you need a projector with a reed contact which gives one pulse per frame. This way, the projector will control the speed of your tape player, using a special sync controler. Or you use a GEBUHR CD-Player, which can be controled direcly from the Projector.
If there is no crystal synced sound recorder, you can record the pilot tone of the crystal synced camera (60 Hz in USA) to one track of the tape. Afterwards you?ll have to transfer the sound on a tape with notches which runs synchronized with the pilot tone tape. The noched tape can be edited together with the film, as the notches of each position in sound an picture are the same. To get it on the film soundtrack, the projector will control the tape machine with the notched tape.

If you go the way which don?t need expensive professional equipment, record 1 kHz pulses along with the soundtrack, using a stereo walkman recorder. The flash socket of the camera provides an internal contact, which closes once a frame. Connect a special sync-cable to the flash socket, which outputs tone pulses of 1 kHz a frame. Gebuhr sells one very cheap. Afterwards your projector will control a special tape player using this sync track or you control the speed of the projector using the sync track. For the second way I have all the plans and diagrams for a special controler box, which provides an external speed control for Bauer/Braun/Elmo projectors with DC motor.
Pedro

[Alex]

As I mentioned in another post, Super-VHS camera with XLR inputs offer the possiblity of excellent audio capture, and if you transfer your film to video, you can "lock the Audio and Video together in edit.

If the camera ran at a different rat than it was transferred to video at, your time to sync the two sources together will greatly increase.

I recently had a job where I was syncing a non-crystal Canon 16mm camera to a dat (an S-VHS would work the same way as a dat, however, it is already on tape, so syncing is that much easier.)

I've developed some syncing tricks in post-production that enabled the camera to double the time it stayed in sync....On average, the shots held sync for as little as 11 seconds, to as much as 45 seconds!