Quad optical audio track S8 projector

[Bill Hauss]

Excuse the small picture, I had to screenshot it until it was small enough to upload

[Bill Hauss]

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.

Never seen duals like that!
I have monos though...

[Kenneth Horan]

This is just an optical reduction of a 16mm or 35mm Mauer multi-variable area bilateral track. It is mono.

[Winbert Hutahaean]

So regardless, it is a mono track, does it mean at that time there was a technology to scan that super tiny optical track (0.2mm)? If so, there is still possibility to make 4 tracks sound on 8mm then (no matter that poor sound quality), isn'it?

Please experts.. clarify this for me.

[Ed Gordon]

So regardless, it is a mono track, does it mean at that time there was a technology to scan that super tiny optical track (0.2mm)? If so, there is still possibility to make 4 tracks sound on 8mm then (no matter that poor sound quality), isn'it?

Please experts.. clarify this for me.

I believe the "4 tracks" are read as one track mono. I think the answer to your question about it being possible to have Super 8 multi-track optical sound is yes it is possible.

[Bill Hauss]

So regardless, it is a mono track, does it mean at that time there was a technology to scan that super tiny optical track (0.2mm)? If so, there is still possibility to make 4 tracks sound on 8mm then (no matter that poor sound quality), isn'it?

Please experts.. clarify this for me.

I don't know what you mean by "if it's possible".. A simple overscan will do and yes you can grab the track from that scan..

[Winbert Hutahaean]

I don't know what you mean by "if it's possible".. A simple overscan will do and yes you can grab the track from that scan..

I am talking screening it with projector. An optical projector will have a bulb with lens to focus on that track. Since this is very small so the lens has to be really sensitive to be able reading the all 4 tracks (0.2mm). If that is really the case, I am quite surprised with the availability of such lens knowing the technology in 1970s was not as advance as today.

[Steve Lee]

Hi Winbert,
Basically no. Even on a 35mm optical stereo track, an oscilloscope was need to be able to align the stereo cell on the soundhead. As this was basically two solar cells glued together onto a plate.
With all four of these tracks on the super 8 print measuring the width of one of the tracks on 35mm. It would have been impossible to have produced a quad solar cell at this scale, let alone align it.
It was a great shame that we did not have super 8 optical Stereo, using a similar set up as on the image from Douglas. Instead of having the two tracks bilingual, to have them as a stereo pair. This would have been a easy way of producing stereo on super 8. And a cheap way of producing stereo prints.

[Dominique De Bast]

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.

I know only such copies with an English sound on the main track, and French sound on the other one (like on the picture. No idea if that exists in other languages. Those prints were used in Air France planes. It seems that none of the projectors used by the company ended on the amateur market (it is supposed they were all destroyed). The films, however, are available. Only the sound in English can be read by the optical sound projectors. There is a rumour saying that the Air France projectors were Beaulieu, but who knows?

[Osi Osgood]

There were japanese optical sound prints with the two tracks, japanese and English language. There is the now famous scan of a super 8 optical feature print of Star Trek 4, the Voyage Home, with the two tracks showing. No doubt, the smaller the optical track, the more noise involved, even with the slightest bit of dust on the track

[Dominique De Bast]

Interesting, Osi. Maybe they had also home movie projectors capable of reading both tracks?

[Osi Osgood]

We'll, just as that lovely video shows, ( thanks Doug ), the projector/player must have had the ability to switch from side to side, but it's hard enough to find even an existing airline projection system, much less this kind of player. At least, by the late 80's, Japanese optical sound prints had gotten rid of the Japanese subtitles, and just language tracks, making them far more marketable outside of Japan. From what I understand, while the UK and the US finished around 1988, Japan continued to produce super 8 optical, as it has been stated that "The Hunt For Red October."

[Bill Hauss]

We'll, just as that lovely video shows, ( thanks Doug ), the projector/player must have had the ability to switch from side to side, but it's hard enough to find even an existing airline projection system, much less this kind of player. At least, by the late 80's, Japanese optical sound prints had gotten rid of the Japanese subtitles, and just language tracks, making them far more marketable outside of Japan. From what I understand, while the UK and the US finished around 1988, Japan continued to produce super 8 optical, as it has been stated that "The Hunt For Red October."

This one has Japanese subtitles and English audio

[Dominique De Bast]

We'll, just as that lovely video shows, ( thanks Doug ), the projector/player must have had the ability to switch from side to side, but it's hard enough to find even an existing airline

I'm not sure the sound of that video is taken from a projecor and not a software. If anyone knows anything about such a projector still available, that woukd be very interesting.

[Winbert Hutahaean]

Hi Winbert, Basically no. Even on a 35mm optical stereo track, an oscilloscope was need to be able to align the stereo cell on the soundhead. As this was basically two solar cells glued together onto a plate.
With all four of these tracks on the super 8 print measuring the width of one of the tracks on 35mm. It would have been impossible to have produced a quad solar cell at this scale, let alone align it.

So reading your explanation above, these 4 optical tracks cannot be read with any technology availabe, even with today's?

if so... would that be these 4 tracks on this super 8mm print is just simply a reduce positive print from 35mm positive or negative. Giving this fact, they are not readable that's why an accompanying cassette was provided.

Your thought?