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Topic: Variable density and unusual VA soundtracks

Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 07-16-2000 01:15 PM

We show a lot of rep stuff, and frequently get prints with variable density and unilateral, single bilateral and RCA duplex area tracks. Sometimes the s/n is very low and there's a lot of ground noise (I recently had the re-release of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD with an RCA track on hi-magenta - the level was so low you could barely hear it with the volume full up, and yes we do have LED exciters).

Recently I've started playing some on Dolby format 02 (mono with noise reduction), and have found that it is quite effective, especially with the thin Western Electric VD tracks with the 1930s and unilateral VA tracks that do not have shuttered GNR. There is some HF loss, but to my mind not enough to be intrusive.

I gather that Dolby do not recommend this practice, and say that you should only use format 02 on 02-encoded prints. Has anyone else been doing this and if so, what have been their experiences with different types of mono optical track?

Leo

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-16-2000 02:15 PM

I used to build a DNR card that would replace the cat 22 for archival prints
The reason the level is so low is that it was also pushpull track
If you had switched to stereo it would have been loud and clear (out of the surrounds only)

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-16-2000 02:46 PM

Is this a new print of "Robin Hood"? I ran print #97003 last year and had no problems with the sound. If anything, I remember it being unusually loud. If I remember correctly, mine wasn't a print with a high-magenta track. I was running it on a pair of Centurys with conventional exciter lamps, slit lenses, and solar cells. This was one of the prints (done at Technicolor LA) made for the WB 75th festival.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 07-16-2000 03:30 PM

Dunno what lab actually made the print (of ROBIN HOOD) because the British Film Institute, who is distributing this re-release over here, did their usual trick of taking it out of the lab cans and putting it into their own (which are an impressively disgusting shade of purple), and doing likewise with the original leaders and tails.
Why a public arts organisation feels the need to waste taxpayers' money on purple plastic containers totally defeats me.

The track was a single bilateral RCA (i.e. neg to pos modulation), but had been printed on high-magenta. Rerecording it as a modern twin bilateral mono would have helped it a lot. If this print did come from a major restoration, I'm surprised they didn't do that.

What struck me most about the print was the extent to which the YCM registration varied from reel to reel. Some were very sharp, whilst others looked badly misregistered, as if one separation negative had shrunk a lot more than the others and no attempt had been made to correct the problem by optical step printing.

Leo

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-16-2000 04:15 PM

As far as I know, the new RH prints were not part of a "major restoration." The print that I had also had a lot of registration "issues" and was timed a bit too magenta for my taste. I do remember thinking that the sound quality really wasn't very good. I don't remember the RH track specifically, but I do know that many of the older titles in the WB 75th series (all new prints) had unusual tracks--they look almost like the negative of a conventional soundtrack would. I forget the technical term for it. Some of them ("Dial M for Murder" and others) sounded fine when played in mono (format 01, mono with Academy rolloff), but others like RH didn't sound so great.

I had the good fortune to see an original nitrate IB Tech print of RH in February; the difference in picture and sound quality from the reissue prints was absolutely stunning. The reissue prints look and sound godawful by comparison. I love nitrate and I love IB Technicolor even more.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 07-16-2000 05:37 PM

The new IB prints are stunning - the first one I saw was of Robert Harris' restoration of REAR WINDOW: saturation and contrast left any tripack print I've ever seen at the starting post.

I showed nitrate regularly when I worked at the National Film Theatre (8 years ago now) - sadly they lost their licence because fitting DTS and SDDS readers meant the fireproof spoolboxes had to be removed. A clean nitrate print without any shrinkage purred through the projector so quietly it wasn't true - the machine sounded as if it was running without any film in it.

We were only allowed to run 1,000ft reels at a time though (the spoolboxes were guaranteed to contain a fire from 1,000ft of nitrate but no more), and so you had to be quick rewinding and relacing in between changeovers.

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