SR//Mono: Does It Exist?

[Jim Cassedy]

Was there / is there such a thing as DolbySR™️ Mono?

Last night I ran a new 35mm print of a low budget horror film produced in 1973 and released
in 1974. The print was marked with tape as being in DolbySR. - -But a note stuffed in the top
of the film can from a projectionist at The New Beverly (Quenten Tarnantino's theater) said that
the print "sounded better in mono". A through visual inspection of the sound track confirmed
100% that it was a MONO track. During inspection I also recognized that this was a direct-to
-positive release film print (most likely made on a Cinevator 5) so there was no picture or
sound track negative leader print-through on the release print leaders through that might
have given me a clue to the correct sound format. Due to my very tight schedule, I didn't
have time to run a reel prior to the show, so I ran the show in MONO & it sounded OK to me.

After the show, I tried running the last reel, which runs only 6min again, but in SR, and it did
truly did sound like I'd expect a mono film played in SR to sound. Looking at the meters on
the CP650 and the Trinnov, there was a strong center channel presence, with the customary
bleed through into the surrounds & L-R screen channels of sounds that didn't belong there.
So, I"m sure that this print is just mislabeled by the distributor as SR instead of MONO. I
would have liked to have run another reel, but it was already well after midnight, and I
can't do it today because the print is being picked up & being shipped to the NY MOMA,
where it plays in a couple of days.

- - but getting back to my original question, is there / was there, anything ever done in
Mono+SR? Also, I should also point out that both the original movie, and the restoration,
were done on a tight budget. . so it's highly unlikely that a psuedo-stereo SR remix was
made from the original 1974 MONO release sound track.

[Sascha Roll]

35mm prints of Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS (the ones Made Düring the restoration from the 2000s) were indeed Mono, encoded in Dolby SR. Other than that, I have never encountered another case of "Mono-SR".

Well, with those Cinevator optical Soundtracks... Never heard one that sounded decent anyway.

[Robert Harrison]

Let's not forget good old Woody Allen. I ran some of his movies in SR Mono. Once there was a note in the can which stated specifically that he preferred mono but wanted the extra fidelity of SR encoding. Prior to SR, there were occasionally A-type mono soundtracks. "The Year of Living Dangerously" with Mel Gibson comes to mind.

Does anyone recall those so-called SR/A soundtracks, which supposedly could play with whatever noise reduction you had? That had to have been a compromise.

[Martin Heilmann]

Hello dear friends! I know for sure that ne „new“ struck prints from the 2000‘s of „Dial M for murder“ are also Mono SR. I played a print several years ago and tested it detailed.

Greetings from Duisburg/Germany ?

[Randy Stankey]

Let's not forget good old Woody Allen.

I was going to say the same thing.

I remember running a couple of Wood-man's movies. I remember them being in mono. I also remember being told that Allen wanted his movies to be in mono, too.

At first, we played them in mono but, with prints being moved from house to house all the time, it got too unwieldy to remember to change the settings every time. Instead, we just let them go in SR. It never seemed to make a difference, really.

I did make an "A/B Test," one time to see if one setting was better than another. There wasn't much difference, if any. Like you say, the SR noise reduction seemed to sound a little bit better but that could have just been confirmation bias on my part.

I also ran the "Restored Version" of Metropolis on 35mm. in the mid-2000's. It was in mono but played in Dolby Stereo just fine. Again, if there was a difference, I would have chalked it up to confirmation bias, as well.

[Sam Chavez]

The main difference between Dolby Mono SR and playing in Dolby Stere SR is an academy filter that engages in Mono. Mainly rolls off above 7 Khz. Cat 150 cards will play either format just fine if the A chain is correctly aligned.

[Jim Cassedy]

Thanks Sam ! tonight I"m running a 35mm print of Stallone's COBRA (1986) in good ol'
ULTRA-STEREO / Dolby A I think I've played just about every sound format here except
for Vitaphone, and 35mm mag sound. (Which we have the ability to do- - they just haven't
booked any 35mag titles, if there are any still out there. The last two 35magnetic prints
I ran about a decade ago were 4 track prints of MARY POPPINS & OKLAHOMA!
- - both in IB Tech

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Thanks Sam ! tonight I"m running a 35mm print of Stallone's COBRA (1986) in good ol'
ULTRA-STEREO / Dolby A I think I've played just about every sound format here except
for Vitaphone, and 35mm mag sound. (Which we have the ability to do- - they just haven't
booked any 35mag titles, if there are any still out there. The last two 35magnetic prints
I ran about a decade ago were 4 track prints of MARY POPPINS & OKLAHOMA!
- - both in IB Tech

Jim, be aware that "Cobra" might have some serious problems with the optical track...it has severe clipping due to excessive bass. I strongly advise you check the track for optical clash (where the tracks overlap, with no fine blank line between them) and do a test run of at least the intense action scenes.

You may have to try (as I did in the past) lowering the optical input levels slightly and/or reducing the level (or disabling) your subs. Bottom line is it's gonna (as Joe Redifer would say) sound like ass.

In the unlikely event they send a restruck print with a corrected track (I haven't heard of any) you MIGHT luck out. But be prepared. Maybe a dvd/BluRay backup might be a good idea.

As for 35mm mag, only one other title springs to mind: Bab's "Yentle" (I hope I spelled that right) was done in 35mm four track.

[Steve Guttag]

Sam, I believe your memory is fading a bit. The academy filter, logic wise, is mutually exclusive with any form of NR...A or SR. On the CP200, format 02 has the NR and the Filter Buss selected (the filters are in the CAT109) to remove the filters. The stereo/mono choice will affect, depending on the processor, the 2:4 decoding and the output level control. The CP50 block diagram will highlight this even more as a single switch (three pole) selects NR on the two cards (two of the poles) and the CAT109 Meter/Filter on the 3rd pole of the switch.

And yes, Woody Allen was famous for Dolby-Mono on his movies.

For processors where don't have a dedicated ability to select Dolby Mono (CP55/CP65 come to mind), you run them Dolby Stereo and turn off the amplifiers for the other channels to avoid any miss-tracking/bleedthrough (I don't know of anyone that did that as they would get left off). One could also roll their own format on those processors too, if the Aux was still available...I know I never made a dedicated format on them.

[Sam Chavez]

No question my memory is fading on a number of issues. But I knew you'd be along to correct me.

[Jim Cassedy]

<edited>
. . be aware that "Cobra" might have some serious problems with the optical track...

Thanks for the head's up, Tony, but by the time I read your message last night, I was already
packing up the print after the show. My booth monitoring here is pretty useless other than
for determining that some sort of sound is coming out of the auditorium speakers. I did step
into the auditorium for abt 2min during the 1st reel to get a general level & QC check and
didn't notice anything off-sounding - - but there really isn't alotta action happening during
the first few min of reel one.

<edited>
- - - and do a test run of at least the intense action scenes.

My tight schedule here rarely allows me the luxury of doing test runs, although if
I really have some concerns about a print I'll manage to squeeze in running a reel or
two either before or after the theater opens. To give you an idea of how busy I was last
night, there was a couple of guys doing a live intro on stage before the film. They told
me their trivia chat would take 8-10minutes. Once they got on stage & I had the lights
& microphones set, I ran up two flights upstairs to do a quick QC/volume check & get
the end credit point of off an upcoming DCP show, so that I wouldn't have to stay late
or come in real early today to do it. . . and I manged to do the QC & get back.in the
main booth with 2min to spare.

Speaking of sound-tracks. . the optical track on COBRA was neither
DOLBY or ULTRASTEREO . . . it was something called EAGLE STEREO
CobraClip.jpg
The COBRA print itself came from the HFC/Warner Bros archive, and was on 1985
vintage EASTMANCOLOR LPP acetate print stock, processed by Technicolor, and
the color was actually very good for its' age with little neglegible fading.

[Steve Guttag]

Most film after 1982 (the crossover year) did well on the fading department. Cobra was also 70mm Ultra Stereo. It is indeed notorious for sound issues. If Clint Koch is around still, he would likely recall more about what titles had Ultra Stereo and where some of issues were. I know I had a T-shirt once that listed the Ultra-Stereo releases. Aside from Cobra, it was a list of B or C grade movies (slasher ones, as I recall).

[Ryan Gallagher]

"Near Dark" (1987) was also an UltraStereo title. Encountered recently.

Speaking of squirrely sound. We had the roadshow version of Princess Bride with Carry Elwes Q&A, and the DCP booked was 2ch STEREO. In digging apparently it's original was 4-Track DolbyStereo title. The recent blu-rays are remastered 5.1 audio.

I could swear i've shown the DCP before in 5.1. The distribution was not booked through our normal channels but it was still a deluxe DCP in the end. I feel like something got left on the table audio wise for our 3 sold out shows unfortunately. 2.0 might have been a "choice" for venue compatibility or closer to the original than the 5.1 remaster is. It was also very quite... we ran it at 8.3 where as the blu-ray was solid at 7.0.

[Steve Guttag]

The DCP was likely source from the video world...that is where a lot of 2.0 stuff comes. For this reason, I always try to have a DCP 2.0 format (will do a pro-logic decode) available for our theatres that run classic titles. Their source was probably the Lt/Rt tracks. That has the problem that if you play out of left and right only, the phantom center is really bad in cinemas (the speakers are too far apart)...it will tend to sound quieter too.

[Ryan Gallagher]

For this reason, I always try to have a DCP 2.0 format (will do a pro-logic decode) available for our theatres that run classic titles.

That was gonna be my follow up question. Our AP20 is not currently configured with a 2.0 preset, but it sounds like it would be worth having one?

Should a similar effort be made for 1.0 films, rather than playing them exclusively using the center channel?