what about sound...

[mtmbklyn]

Can anyone share ideas on cheap and easy ways to record sound as you are filming with no sound super 8/regular 8 film? What setup works best? Thanks to those who contribute!

[c_77]

Well, I am attempting to use some live music wild. By "wild" I mean without any sort of synchronization. I have a Hell and Bowell projector that has variable speed; and so does my stereo deck. Maybe I can get it kinda close. I brought in a Panasonic RQ-A200 walkman cassette recorder to the nightclub and just used it's built-in microphone! Believe it or not, the sound is not bad. This is one method that I cannot recommend because I have not fully tried it and it won't work well enough for most moviemakers. I do not have dialog where lip synchronization is crucial, just singing! But I watch some really old films from http://www.somethingweird.com that don't synch perfect either and i still enjoy them!
But I want to hear from others...
Later-Chris

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[rollemfilm]

how cheap? you can get a marantz pmd 201 for around $300.00. or a consumer mini disk for the same price. want to go cheaper. try the thrift stores for old cassette recorders. sometimes you get lucky and find one with manual volume control for $3.00. or you may find an old reel to reel at a yard sale for $5.00-$50.00. it's hard to find "cheap sync" though. the consumer mini disk or a borrowed camcorder is your cheapest sync options.

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[c_77]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by rollemfilm:
the consumer mini disk or a borrowed camcorder is your cheapest sync options.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I know this has been discussed many times, but exactly how can you sync using a minidisc, or the camcorder method? Please explain.
Thanx-Chris


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[Matt Pacini]

DO NOT USE ANY KIND OF ANALOG RECORDER FOR DIALOG RECORDING!!!
This will cost you literally hundreds of hours of extra work in editing, trying to fix sync problems.
So figure out how much your labor is worth per hour, then compare that to the $150-$200 you will pay for a Minidisk recorder, and do the math. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out, you're not saving money.

I love the sound of analog, so I'm not talking about that.
I used a Tascam porta One cassette recorder to record my dialog, and it took me many, many MONTHS to fix this out of sync audio!
Get a minidisc recorder.
If you can't afford it, take along a VCR, preferrably a VHS Hi-fi, although I got good audio on one shoot with a 8mm video VCR.

Remember, syncing does NOT mean that the camera and sound recorder are linked together somehow while you're shooting.

If both your camera and sound recorder are recording at the proper speed, they will be in sync when you marry the two together in editing.
(We won't even go into whether your camera is crystal sync or not).
But even if your camera isn't sync, still, the closer you can get, the better.

Matt Pacini


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[mattias]

> how can you sync using a minidisc

the minidisc has nothing to do with it, except it runs at a fixed and constant speed so you won't have to worry about that. the camera and the slate are the keys: the easiest and most expensive method to shoot sync is then to have the camera modified for crystal sync, and then just slate all the takes regular style. the second easiest and cheapest method is to run the camera wild and use head and tail slates to sync the audio by stretching it. i used the second method on my latest short (clips posted here in a few weeks i hope) and it worked great.

/matt

[Mr Blackstock]

although i am inexperienced with syncing, i would have suggested a quality analog tape-deck, preferably twin tape, a boom, and the right microphone, which i beleive should have the most money spent on it, and edit by using two sound systems while rolling the film, one to play, one to record. sound alright?

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[rollemfilm]

three ways to get perfect sync with analog: sony pro-walkman wmd6c, marantz pmd 430. both these recorders can be modified for perfect sync from the Film Group. any stereo recorder using, again the Film Group. if your camera has a flash output, you can use the digital to pilotone converter. wild sound: i have used un-modified sony walkman wmd-3 and have maintain sync for all or most of a roll of film. that is the better wild sound option.

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[c_77]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by rollemfilm:
wild sound: i have used un-modified sony walkman wmd-3 and have maintain sync for all or most of a roll of film. that is the better wild sound option.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Better than what?

So you have recorded wild and have had pretty good results...That's what I plan to do. I don't have one of those fancy Sony walkmans, maybe I really need a minidisk recorder. In a nutshell, how do you sync them up afterwords? With a computer? Do you put the film into the computer??!! What if you are doing live or documentary work and cannot use a slate board?
Thanx-Chris

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[This message has been edited by c_77 (edited September 28, 2001).]

[MovieStuff]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by c_77:
What if you are doing live or documentary work and cannot use a slate board?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can build you a circuit that will start and stop your record deck in synch with the camera and lay down slate tones automatically at the front and tail end of the audio track. Then, on the computer, you simply line up the leading edge of the first tone with the first frame of a given clip, then stretch the audio to fit the length and line up the end tone the same way. You could shoot as a "one man band" with a recorder in your pocket and no one would need to slate. It would all be automatic.

What kind of camera do you have?

Roger