8mm Forum: 16mm Magnetic sound

This is topic 16mm Magnetic sound in forum 16mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on February 20, 2018, 03:26 PM:

I read a lot about this, is there many films with magnetic sound on 16mm or this a specialist thing?

Posted by Clyde Miles (Member # 4032) on February 20, 2018, 03:35 PM:

tom, ive only ever come across airline prints with mag stripe. the optical being english and the mag usually spanish or italian. but im sure others will know more on here.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on February 20, 2018, 04:22 PM:

cheers Clyde [Wink]

Posted by Mark Mander (Member # 340) on February 20, 2018, 04:36 PM:

Clyde sums it up there,normally another language on the magnetic stripe,Mark

Posted by Clinton Hunt (Member # 2072) on February 20, 2018, 08:32 PM:

I know from Facebook Film Groups that there were lots of music films/clips that played on a ... I guess you can call it ... a Video Jukebox.Was it Scopitone?

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on February 21, 2018, 02:33 AM:

I have a few on 16mm magnetic, including a British sound version of a foreign animated TV show, and a full length "Goldfinger".

Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on February 21, 2018, 07:17 AM:

I've read that some TV programmes were magnetic. I think I've only ever seen one Magnetic 16mm film offered.

Posted by Luigi Castellitto (Member # 3759) on February 21, 2018, 01:39 PM:

The films from Scopitone were always magnetic, I don't remember if the same 16mm films from similar jukebox are also magnetic, but I suppose so. These are some examples of magnetic on 16mm, but something else is also found, as mentioned also the bi-language, witht optical and magnetic films.
I must say that the quality of the magnetic in 16mm is very good, the stripe is wide.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on February 21, 2018, 01:49 PM:

I wish I could remember what Adrian Winchester said about Scopitone and others in his demonstration and talk at the Big Screen Scene Revival last year.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on February 21, 2018, 02:45 PM:

I've got some Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band titles, each on 100ft optical 16mm.
The picture is reversed and the sound is slightly out of sync on a 16mm projector.
I believe the equipment was called "Cinevox".

Posted by David Guest (Member # 2791) on February 21, 2018, 05:12 PM:

I have abour 80 juke box musicals all good tunes

Posted by Luigi Castellitto (Member # 3759) on February 22, 2018, 03:50 AM:

David, you mean the magnetic 16mm from the jukeboxes?

Posted by Buck Bito (Member # 2676) on February 24, 2018, 01:32 PM:

I have never seen a feature release with mag stripe sound (aka CoMag, Commag, Composite Magnetic), but we work with a lot of camera original newsfilm using this system as well as the occasional post-striped camera original film where the mag stripes and the sound (typically narration) were added following editing.

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on February 24, 2018, 06:57 PM:

Regarding the world of 16mm 'film jukeboxes', only Scopitone films were magnetic sound. Soundies in the 1940s and Cinebox - which was in use around the same time as Scopitone players in the 1960s - were both optical.

I only have one magnetic print that isn't a Scopitone and that's a film about a company in the fashion business. As Robert mentions, there is some magnetic TV material in circulation but it's extremely rare - I can only recall two instances I've come across. I think it's possible that in at least some such cases, there's just one magnetic 'married' print combining visual and audio, maybe as a sort of check print. There may not even be any optical prints, depending on the distribution needs.

There are of course 16mm projectors with recording capability, so there are non-professional magnetic prints that are the 16mm equivalent of filmmakers adding sound to 8mm films.

[ February 25, 2018, 11:57 PM: Message edited by: Adrian Winchester ]

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on February 25, 2018, 02:54 AM:

I have a 16mm magnetic 10 minute "AC-Delco News" made in 1956. It's a very amateurish production which is for staff information. Obviously a one-off and much cheaper to produce. Film it yourself - have a striped - record commentary. Then it's ready to show.

AC-Delco made/make vehicle parts and tools.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on February 25, 2018, 03:36 AM:

They certainjy were, up until a few years ago the company i work for wwre AC Delco dealers along side our Vauxhall Franchise. I have a few 8mm training films from them that were buried in boxes at work with some opel training films. They were almost embarrasing to watch.

Posted by Luigi Castellitto (Member # 3759) on February 25, 2018, 07:50 PM:

Adrian, thank you for discover me that the "rivals" of Scopitone, also Italian Cinebox, were opticians. I thought they were magnetic too!
Then came the Cinedisco (perhaps it was already mentioned), which to avoid the deterioration of the film proposed this futuristic method:
https://sites.google.com/site/ilcinemasonoro/home/011__

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