What color sound strip did Derann use grey or brown

[Jim Schrader]

The brown one is a walton print on acetate, the other is from another print company on poly both the same title both say walton at the end did Derann buy out waltons prints of Tom & Jerry's an release them on poly?

[Phil Moors]

Jim,

I am sure that Derann used both. I understand from other posts on this website that they also had a hell of a bad time with the grey adhering to the film, also the sound reproduction was considered poor. I am sure other members will have more to say about the problems of the grey stripe. Happy Screenings.

[Maurice Leakey]

I do believe that Derann did issue some ex Walton Tom & Jerry titles in their later years.

[Rob Young]

Yes, Derann did re-print some Walton Tom & Jerry.

With regard to the Derann sound stripe, the original was sort of light brown / orange, like the one in Jim's second picture (early 90's). They changed to the darker grey around the late 90's, like the stripe in Jim's first picture.

Neither were perfect like Kodak pre-stripe, but I always found that the earlier light brown stripe was the most consistent. It seemed to have less "bumps" in it! Although several reels would still have to be returned due to the width of the stripe narrowing to nearly nothing or disappearing altogether for small sections.

The later darker stripe could give much better fidelity, but it certainly seemed a lot more prone to being bumpy / lumpy! Perhaps it was prone to drying faster and so harder to keep a consistent mix? The result was much more "drop out" on higher frequencies.

All that said I have some fantastic sounding prints on both types of stripe (as well as some not so great sounding!) so us collectors still have our eternal thanks to the Derann team for continuing to make these prints againts the odds.

[Brian Fretwell]

From what Ged had posted on Facebook, if the liquid oxide wasn't used very quickly it would go lumpy. I assume the worst prints were those done at the end of a run through the striping machine before changing the paste.

I don't know if they changed the stripe mix from brown to grey of if it was a change of suppliers, the original was Zonal a well known manufacturer of reel to reel tape under the name Racal Zonal.

[Jim Schrader]

ok did derann put dates on their leaders? the acetate walton print has a date of 10-23-80 the same print of derann has no date

[Osi Osgood]

Was the darker stripe more of a "chrome" stripe, over the standard brown stripe, much like the different audio cassette tapes?