8mm Forum: What Is A Kodak Sound Coating?

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Posted by Timothy Price (Member # 1832) on January 13, 2011, 07:56 AM:

Hey all-

What's a Kodak sound coating? I asked if a S8 film for sale was sound or silent and they said it had a Kodak Sound Coating.

Thanks!

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on January 13, 2011, 09:09 AM:

Though the vast majority of film is silent, there are several types of film that include a soundtrack.

16mm film may have either an optical or a magnetic soundtrack. In either case, the film will have sprocket holes along only one edge, and the soundtrack will be along the opposite edge.

Optical sound looks like a white waveform that is part of the film.

Magnetic sound looks like a solid brown stripe that has been glued to the surface of the film.

There is a third type of 16mm sound film called Full Coat, though it is used only by professional filmmakers. Unlike the first two formats, full coat 16mm film is a sound-only format, with no images on the film. It usually accompanies a reel of silent 16mm film. It looks like single-perforated 16mm film, except the surface will be solid brown instead of a series of image frames.

Super 8mm film shot after August 1973 may have a magnetic soundtrack. If so, there will be a brown stripe glued to the surface of the film on the edge opposite the sprocket holes.

In extremely rare cases, Regular 8mm film may have a magnetic soundtrack. If so, there will be a brown stripe glued to the surface of the film on the edge with the sprocket holes.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on January 13, 2011, 09:18 AM:

Timothy,

It sounds like that film had been sent to Kodak to be sound striped. Kodak referred to that process as Kodak Sonotrack Coating. I've done that with silent films so I could record a soundtrack. I also picked up this on eBay from a seller who had done the same thing:

This collector mixed his own music and sound effects and did a great job.

Doug

Posted by Timothy Price (Member # 1832) on January 13, 2011, 11:27 AM:

That's it!

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