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Author Topic: Analogue Optical track Clive Carmock Film Handler Posts: 24 From: Morden, Surrey, UK Registered: Dec 2004 posted 06-27-2005 03:53 PM                     Can anyone tell me of the two optical tracks on a 35mm stereo print, which is the left & which is the right channel? I thought I knew the answer, and a fellow UK collector also agreed with me that the one closest to the picture is the left channel. However someone has now suggested that that is the right channel. I searched Film-Tech for the definitive answer but can't find it using any of the search terms I have tried. Any help appreciated. Regards Clive  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 06-27-2005 03:57 PM                     The one closest to the picture is the left. On the otherhand, you drive on the wrong side of the road over there, so it would not suprise me to find the tracks backwards...  |  IP: Logged Clive Carmock Film Handler Posts: 24 From: Morden, Surrey, UK Registered: Dec 2004 posted 06-27-2005 04:07 PM                     I kind of asked for that one didn't I? Thanks Mitchell - turns out that we were right all along then. Regards Clive  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 06-27-2005 04:15 PM                     quote: Mitchell Dvoskin it would not suprise me to find the tracks backwards With stereo sound on 16mm mag the tracks actually do tend to be reversed; it tends to be left on centre traack and right on edge track in Europe, and vica versa in America, but this is not univrsal.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-27-2005 04:54 PM                     When dealing with Kinoton projectors with stereo solar cells...one must remember that Green is Left and Red is right since they are backwards scan (not reverse scan). They put the light source on the right and the cell on the left...still a slit lens system though. Note that with the red readers...they now have the LED on the left and the cell/preamp board on the right...still backwards from the rest of the machines! As for 16mm magnetic....how much of that do you actually see/run? The AFI just ran one for their Silverdocs festival and it was marvelous. The picture looked really good and the sound was quite smooth. It was mono so no need to scan the "balance" track.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 06-27-2005 06:56 PM                        I don't quite follow you here. What do you mean by backwards instead of reverse? All the components are "backwards" or "flipped" when you look at them because the film path is "folded" over to the right, but the location of the components relative to the film is more or less the same as in other projectors. Or is that what you meant?  |  IP: Logged Ken Jacquart Film Handler Posts: 82 From: San Francisco, CA, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 06-27-2005 09:01 PM                        Red, Left, Port Green, Right, Starboard If you drive a boat, you know what i mean. It's an easy way to remember. (At least for the normal color convention)  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 06-28-2005 07:04 AM                     quote: Steve Guttag As for 16mm magnetic....how much of that do you actually see/run? I used to run quite a lot of 16mm sepmag, but you don't see it much now, sadly; it can sound very good. Most of it was mono, but I've run stereo a few times. A year or so ago I even had to run four channel matrix stereo with 'A' type Dolby NR. I had to ask here how to set up a CP-65 and MPU-1 to run that. I've never heard SR on 16mm though. Mono on 16mm mag is usually centre track here, I believe that edge track is more common over there, so it seems to be that the normal mono track position is used for left, and the other one for right. I haven't run much mag stripe sound on 16mm, but even so, I've seen all sorts of odd formats; Full track is the most common, half track stripe over an optical track to give bi-lingual prints, I've seen airline prints done this way when they used 16mm, and edge stripe, the same width as balance, on 2R perf stock. Even on full width stripe you can get several track configurations. Inner and outer half-track heads were used to record separate music, dialogue and effects tracks. Somebody even made a centre third track head, so you could end up with all three components recorded as three side by side tracks on a single stripe, and play them back with a full width head. This sort of thing never seemed to work very well, and I've not seen it done since the '70s. Advanced home movie makers used to do it sometimes. I do still have full sets of heads for my B+H machines (666 and 609) though, so I can play back anything that I might come across. I shouldn't have said that, should I? Somebody will now turn up with some weird type of track that I've never seen before. At least the full width stripe on 16mm gave a nice wide track, unlike 35mm. There are even Super-8 prints with matrixed four channel tracks on them, Lt on the main stripe, and Rt on the balance.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 06-28-2005 07:11 AM                        Standard SMPTE 203-2003 specifies 2-channel track identification: quote: Channel 2 shall be recorded in the record nearest the outer edge of the film... Track usage The two tracks specified in this standard may be used for either related stereophonic material or unrelated material such as two languages. When used for two-channel stereophonic program material, track one shall be used for the left (as viewed from the auditorium) loudspeaker channel. Track two shall be used for the right loudspeaker channel.  |  IP: Logged David Graham Rose Expert Film Handler Posts: 187 From: Cambridge, UK Registered: Sep 2002 posted 06-30-2005 02:26 PM                     Greetings Dear Chaps from a thundery Cambridge As long as your 35mm film reproduction device, or projector if you will, has not been modified, and the emulsion side of the film is facing the lamp (and not the lens), then for a Dolby Stereo, optical reproduction, variable area, duo bi-lateral track, the Right Total track is the one facing the operator. Left total then faces the edge closest to the Digital Theatre Systems timecode and the picture frame. This is explained in all Dolby instructional manualettes, as the way to correctly verify as to whether or not one as correctly wired the output of the solar cell, or indeed in these advanced days of reverse scan, the pre-amplifier. With many thanks to all of you who warmly greeted me and entertained me most generously this week on your stands at the Cinema Exposition in Amsterdam, I wish you all a safe journey home and a rather large thank you. My cocoa awaits, steaming as we speak. David  |  IP: Logged

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