Quad optical audio track S8 projector

[Bill Hauss]

Just came into possession of a Japanese S8 release that has 4 optical audio tracks and I want a projector that I can use to record the tracks.
Thanks in advance

[Winbert Hutahaean]

I am curios to know what do you mean has 4 optical audio track. AFAIK the S8 film can only have max 2 audio track, left and right. Could you elaborate please.

[Ricky Daniels]

4x Optical tracks!? I’ve only ever seen quad-bilateral (mono) optical on 16mm and 35mm optical prints to date!

DIY Optical sound recording isn’t a thing for the domestic market!

I think you’d best post some images of exactly what you’ve acquired for further inspection by us seasoned members to comment upon, and hopefully help you.

Best
Rick

[Bill Hauss]

Dunno if they're all mono but there are definitely 4 tracks...
Also came which a cassette which I digitized and posted on Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/tape_20250120/Flac24.flac

[Ed Gordon]

Bill, that is a known format for optical tracks.

Source: https://www.endpointaudio.com/optical-sound-detail

I did not find a sample on 8 or S8 film. So you are looking for a projector that will play this sound track?

There is a discussion of optical sound on our old forum:

https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-b...c;f=1;t=007127

[Bill Hauss]

So you are looking for a projector that will play this sound track?

Ideally
I can use the cassette audio recording to screen it for now tho.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Very interesting! I've seen a Super 8mm two track optical sound print with the same audio configuration as main/balance mag stripe tracks. I haven't yet come across the projector that can play back the dual format.

[Winbert Hutahaean]

Dunno if they're all mono but there are definitely 4 tracks...
Also came which a cassette which I digitized and posted on Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/tape_20250120/Flac24.flac

Amazing... the 8mm film itself is already tiny .. and that the space for the optical track which I believe takes 1/10 (one-tenth) of the space

(ps: I enlarged the above picture and make it to exact 5cm/50mm for easing to measure it, and that tiny optical space takes around 0.5 cm/5mm so one-tenth).

If the actual width of film is 8mm therefore using math it 8mm x 0.1 = 0.8mm and then divided by 4 track = 0.2mm!! per track

What sort of light at that time that can go through a super tiny lens?

Aren't we looking at 16mm film in that picture?

[Ricky Daniels]

Okay Bill,

Your image is a little soft and low definition but I’d say that’s a Super 8mm reduction taken from a 16mm Negative that itself had the 4x MONO Bi-lateral tracks present, they all look very similar, but the image resolution kind of blurs the finer details in the track modulations required to identify any minor differences in those 4x tracks (I strongly suspect there aren’t any btw).

Also, any Super 8 Optical projector should reproduce that track, and if as suspected it’s 4x MONO bilateral the sound reproduced would be MONO… kinda like a Variable Density full width optical track would.

Dougs fine example is a dual Mono language print most likely intended for Airline use.

Best,
Rick

[Ken Finch]

I agree with Ricky. It is a multi bilateral variable area mono track, reduced from the negative of the original. The idea behind them was to reduce noise level produced by the clear part of the track.

[Osi Osgood]

This is really fascinating! The amount of precision and fine tuning needed to be able to play back, individually, each track separately, must have been great! No doubt, unless one of these projectors is in some form of museum, I don't see finding one of these specific projectors being a reality, UNLESS, you could contact that super 8 business in Japan, related recently through Joachim's video, and see if, perchance, he might actually have on one these actual projector in possession. 😀

[Ed Gordon]

...
Also, any Super 8 Optical projector should reproduce that track, and if as suspected it’s 4x MONO bilateral the sound reproduced would be MONO… kinda like a Variable Density full width optical track would...

I agree with you Ricky. I would suggest that Bill should find someone on this forum who has a S8 projector with optical sound reader to verify that before investing in a hard to find machine. Using USPS Media mail to send the print would not cost much.

When I was a kid I built an optical sound reader with a solar cell hooked up to a tape player. The result was poor quality, but still intelligible. Analog tech was elegant in it's simplicity.

[Ricky Daniels]

Osi, That’s not quite it!

The 4x tracks are scanned as ONE and all contribute to the reproduced sound, and in theory this configuration (as opposed to the regular style single Bilateral track shown in Dougs posted image) produces less background noise… in theory!

Each of the 4x tracks being scanned individually is not a ‘thing’.

[Osi Osgood]

OK, thanks for clearing that up. I don't know everything.😏 Could this somehow, be a stereo sound track? If not, why four monos, one next to each other? Just curious. Fascinating!!!

[Bill Hauss]

Aren't we looking at 16mm film in that picture?

Super 8

At this point I'm going to use some software that can create tracks from an overscan as opposed to trying to find something that probably isn't in existence