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Going back to the Fox Grandeur process in the 30's, you can find mono optical. Wonder if there are any machines out there that could play this format?

As for mag, I'm sure there are examples of everything from 1 to 8 channels at least. There is a lot of dispute about 7-8. There is a big debate on rec.arts.movies.tech right now about 8-channel 70mm films. Some claim they exist, and some claim they don't. This is one of those topics that creates endless arguments. It's like the argument of Cinerama having 8 tracks of sound, but actually there were 7 with an operator manually switching one of the surround tracks to a rear speaker (on THIS IS CINERAMA).

The basis for modern 70mm sound is the classic Todd-AO setup, with 5 screen channels and 1 surround.

My friend from Lake Erie, Jeffry L. Johnson, usually pops in with these Dolby Mag formats...these are from one of his previous postings:

70MM COMPOSITE MAGNETIC

40 70mm 6 track (Conventional 6 Track, no NR, Mag Filters)
41 Dolby 70mm Wide (6 Track, A-Type NR, Widerange all 6 Channels)
42 Dolby 70mm Baby Boom (6 Track, A-Type NR, Baby Boom Channels 2 & 4)
43 Dolby 70mm Stereo Surround (6 Track, A-Type NR, Baby Boom/Stereo
Surround)
44 Dolby 70mm Wide (6 Track, SR NR, Widerange all 6 Channels)
45 Dolby 70mm Baby Boom (6 Track, SR NR, Baby Boom Channels 2 & 4)
46 Dolby 70mm Stereo Surround (6 Track, SR NR, Baby Boom/Stereo
Surround)

There is also now 70mm-DTS, which seems to be a very good system. That is the format that I would most like to see, but I doubt there will be any more than a handful of these, at most.

Dolby has stated 70mm-Dolby Digital is possible, but I'm not aware of any production plans. Any 70mm-Dolby digital presentation have been with 70mm film and 35mm Dolby Digital synched (Lion King at Radio City is one example...Disney did a few premeires this way.)

I always read that Fantasound (Disney's one-time setup for the original "Fantasia" road-show) was a 9-track system...or was it just 9 loudspeakers?

------------------
~Manny.

Some people can read "War and Peace" and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story while I, on the other hand, can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe.
Lex Luthor, "Superman: The Movie"

"Baby Boom" is just a nickname for Format 42. The two subwoofer channels are limited range "miniature" .1 channels, making it a 4.2 channel process. Funny joke about the movie "Baby Boom", although it had no 70mm prints (I think it was just plain Dolby A).

There is dispute about "Apocalypse Now" having a special sound format. The film was the first to publicly show the 70mm Format 43 process, which holds both 4.2 and 5.1 channel mixes on the same print ("Superman" was mixed for the process, but no Format 43 prints were publicly shown). Some point to ads for "Apocalypse Now" that claimed "8-channel quintaphonic sound" which alone is kind of odd in that quintaphonic really implies 5 channels. If it were 8 channels then it would be octophonic. Maybe SDDS would have been more successful if they had a whimsical octopus cartoon mascot. Hehe.

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Apocalypse Now was Format 43 Stereo Surround. This business about some other track arrangement was argued recently in news://rec.arts.movies.tech and is simply untrue.

Quoting from Larry Blake's R/EP article (later reprinted in his 1984 "Film Sound Today" compilation) about the A.N. sound mix:

Tom Scott was hired to scout and supervise the installations for the 70mm roadshow engagements. ... Scott also had a channel placement film to make sure that everything was where it should be. ... Such a test reel was especially important because tracks #2 and #4 contained low-frequency "boom" information below 200 Hz and, above 500 Hz, high-frequency information for the left and right surrounds.

That is the definition of Format 43 and the article specifically describes A.N. as the first film to use this format. I think it's about time this issue was put to rest.

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Then there was John Mosley's Quintaphonic Sound format for TOMMY (mid 70s) which produced a split surround. Both predate APOCALYPSE NOW.

Interestingly Quintaphonic Sound is a registered trademark of John Mosley's company -- have no idea how it would be used for any other system, especially for an 8 channel configuration.