Re-recording a magnetic sound track that's out of sync

[Leonard Goss]

Reel 4 of one of my super 8 features has the audio slightly ahead of the picture throughout it's length. Is it a feasible amateur job to lift the track and re-record it in sync or would it require specialist equipment to do that?

[Alan Rik]

There are many posts on this. Do a search on "Rerecording" and take a look.You should do a search using the Forum Archive as that will have many more results than this current one. Its fairly complex if you want to do it in one shot. You will need a way to keep your machine at a consistent speed. Or you can do "wild sync" which means you just record in small sections until the machine and audio file start to drift and then you go back and do it again. That is a pain for me and I never do it that way but others here have. Good luck!

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

In theory...yes.
Provided that you have these:
- The projector with VERY ACCURATE speed, doesn't have to be exactly 24.00 fps however. If it's 24.5 fps, that's fine - as long as it's ALWAYS 24.5 fps: this is the most important element.
- A digital recorder, or a laptop/pc/whatever that records digital audio.

The step should be like this.
1. Hook the projector to your recording device. Record the audio of that reel as a whole, from start to finish.
1.5 (optional) Take this chance to do some digital touch-up - normalizing/noise removal/eq work/whatever.
2. Measure the exact "offset" of the sync, so you'll know how much "delay" you'd need. Trim the start of the audio track to just the first of the actual frame + that "delay".
3. Cue-up the audio, start the projector in "record" mode, hit "play" of the audio at the very first picture frame and pray...

Or you may go even fancier way - using a camcorder instead.
1. Capture both audio and the picture at the same time. Using classic off-the-wall is fine.
2. Then use video editor program to re-sync it.
3. Export the synced video.
4. Cue-up and re-record.
The benefit of this approach is that you'll also have the visual guide during the re-record. And since the picture is only used as a reference/guide it doesn't matter if it's flickery/blurry/too dark/too bright, as long as the picture is still recognizable at least.

These explanation is grossly oversimplified, but hope you get the idea.

[Brian Fretwell]

I have done it by the wild sync short section method. Just make sure your projector can completely erase the original track as one time mine couldn't and there are light remains of the original.

[Leonard Goss]

Thank you all for your inputs and suggestions, I did try searching for "re-record" but it came up with nothing so I'll try other key words instead as suggested by Alan.

[Leonard Goss]

I like your camcorder method Nantawat, running the two pictures side by side seems a great idea to me, I might give that a try on an old reel first and see how I get on with it.

[Leonard Goss]

There are many posts on this. Do a search on "Rerecording" and take a look.You should do a search using the Forum Archive as that will have many more results than this current one. Its fairly complex if you want to do it in one shot. You will need a way to keep your machine at a consistent speed. Or you can do "wild sync" which means you just record in small sections until the machine and audio file start to drift and then you go back and do it again. That is a pain for me and I never do it that way but others here have. Good luck!

Many thanks Alan, I didn't think of searching on the Forum Archive and now that I have I have found many posts on this subject.

[Oliver Feld]

Leonard
I use the ELMO GS 800 for re-recordings.
It has a variable speed function which is very accurate.
You can turn the button if there will be a small difference (caused by missing frames on the DVD or the film itself) to move a little faster if You need it without stopping the machine and coming back in sync.
The results are amazing.

[Oliver Feld]

PS: this way You can get the sound directly from the source to Your film

[Leonard Goss]

Leonard
I use the ELMO GS 800 for re-recordings.
It has a variable speed function which is very accurate.
You can turn the button if there will be a small difference (caused by missing frames on the DVD or the film itself) to move a little faster if You need it without stopping the machine and coming back in sync.
The results are amazing.

Great idea Oliver, thank you for your input.

[Joe Taffis]

Leonard, Here in the U.S. there are a few folks that do it (re-syncing/re-recording) as a paid service, I don't know if there are any in the U.K.

[Leonard Goss]

Leonard, Here in the U.S. there are a few folks that do it (re-syncing/re-recording) as a paid service, I don't know if there are any in the U.K.

Many thanks Joe, I'll do some research on that. Best wishes.

[Maurizio Di Cintio]

I can do that if you can't find anyone in the UK. I am based in Italy and use quartz-synced GS 1200 and the same workflow described by Nantawat (working with off-the wall images loaded on an NLE software. Projector's speed is 100% consistent both during acquisition and final transfer. Once everything has been loaded on the computer, "lifting" the soundtrack and re-sync it takes a little time. Then you have to re-transfer it to the film. If interested, PM me. Cheers.
Maurizio