[78-L] Speaking About Really Early Film Sound Technology -- Read This. Whoa!

[Michael Shoshani]

On Mon, 2010-06-21 at 21:58 -0700, Michael Biel wrote:

> I uploaded the videotape of the demonstration of the playback machine
> that Leah shot at the Schenectady Museum.  You can hear the entire track
> he played, not just excerpts. This is track two of the film recorded
> April 26, 1930.  Hearing extended music you can hear the extreme wow
> problem.  You can see the capstan which contacts the film only at the
> edges, especially when she zooms in. 

Yeah. That contraption does more harm than good, it seems. I'm glad they
have the basic idea, but....along with other faults that have been
discussed, the flanges of the film reels are warped, and you can hear
them scrape the edges of the film! 

And his talking about how the film needs to be flipped for alternate
tracks? ...No. Reversible mechanism. If a 16MM motion picture projector,
the kind that once graced every school classroom, can have a "reverse"
switch, so can this. Handle that film as little as possible. Have as few
adjustable parts as possible. 

Would it be so wrong (or impossible) to mount a dozen small photocells,
each with its own independent output, and pass the tracks over that
assembly *once*? Take the reading from every track at once straight into
digital, and digitally reverse the tracks that need it. Or, record two
passes, one in each direction.