8mm Forum: Lubricating Film

This is topic Lubricating Film - Poor Sound? in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on January 17, 2014, 10:45 PM:

I bought a film recently which had a sound track which I can only describe as sounding "woolly". I tried it on two different projectors but it sounded the same on each.

I cleaned the sound track area with a cloth soaked in Isopropyl Alcohol and tried the film again. This time there was a considerable improvement in the sound, still not perfect, but acceptable with use of the tone control.

Could perhaps lubrication by a previous owner affect the magnetic sound track from being "read" properly?

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on January 18, 2014, 11:36 AM:

Perhaps it's one of those mag tracks that hits the sound heads slightly off to the side, and you don't get the benefit of the full sound if the sounds heads aren't fully clean.

Or the film flows through the projector in just the right way to make contact with the sound heads not all it should be?

That's just guess-work on my part, but I do know that the mag stripe position can vary a lot. Some mag stripe will be right on the very edge of the film, and some will be much skinnier, and will be closer to the edge or closer to the sprocket, and perhaps, this might cause that lack-lustre sound?

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on January 18, 2014, 04:41 PM:

Now not 100% on this. Paste stripe is not quite flat it has a beveled surface. Laminated is flat.

I wonder if the sound heads are worn to paste stripe and the problem films are laminate?

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on January 19, 2014, 02:26 AM:

I'm not sure if you gentlemen have completely understood my original question. There is nothing wrong with my projectors.
The film sound improved after cleaning the sound track. The question was if lubrication by a previous owner could have affected the sound stripe from being "read" correctly.

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on January 19, 2014, 06:51 AM:

A couple of my films thinking back did have a similar problem years ago. I don't think they had been treated with any cleaner.

When I ran my fingers over the film (I always wear cotton gloves) you could see two lines where the magnetic stripe had rubbed off, I repeated this in the same spot and this time nothing came off. The image itself was clean.

When I cleaned them I use an ECCO cleaner I did have to keep moving the lint type cloth more than usual as it got dirty very fast plus the colour was similar to the stripe.

I can never recall a problem with too much cleaner/lubricant on my films. I used to use 2:22 and all the films I bought from DCR (Dave West) were treated and they were always OK.

How old are the prints that are causing trouble?

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on January 19, 2014, 08:57 AM:

The print is a double 400' issue by Mountain Films of "Two Tickets To Broadway" in black & white. Obviously, quite an old print.

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