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.
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.
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