Digitizing Super 8 film with sound capture

[Robert Mitchel]

I got a new Tascam recorder, it didn't solve the problem, so I am starting to look at the sound file itself, which I should have done previously. I am seeing that when I record the sound there are two bars that look like volume bars for L and R channels. One of the channels is consistently maxed out while the other varies according to the volume of the voice, assume only one valid channel since the output from the Elmo is monaural. When I listen to a playback, are the channels mixed together? I'm trying to export to my Mac now and see if I can listen to the channels separately. I have been recording in WAV format, appreciate if anyone can suggest a method to do QC of the sound by separating the channels on the computer. I will also play around with different output jacks but since most of my jacks are stereo it looks difficult to ensure I don't end up with one noisy channel.

[Gary Sayers]

Robert, I used a lead with a mono mini jack connected to the tascam and a din socket plug that connected to my Bolex projector's line out. Both bars on the tascam reacted to the sound. I'm not familiar with the elmo projector but are you definitely using the line out rather than the speaker output?

[Robert Mitchel]

Hi Gary-
I've been busy with other things and haven't logged in for a while. I had a lot of trouble using all the sound outputs since the plugs are mono 3.5mm and most plugs these days are stereo 3.5 mm. But when I did get a decent mono connection, and the best one was from the earphone output jack, the sound was often contaminated with noise, especially a loud deep humming. Not all the films have the noise equally, so I think this is due to the deterioration of my super 8 films, which date from the early 80's. So that is my reality, unfortunately. I am trying to make do with what I sound I have, thinking a bandpass noise filter might help. I tried attaching a segment of the sound from one of my films, but this forum apparently doesn't allow .wav format files. Towards the end of the clip the the sound fades away and there is no noise but no voices either. That occurs sometimes too, unfortunately. I'm looking into filtering the noise with some sort of bandpass sound filter. Any recommendations on this would be appreciated.

[Gary Sayers]

Robert, I've re-read this whole thread to see if I can figure out what's happening here. Now, after looking at everything again, I'm still not sure if you are using the projector's speaker output or the dedicated line output.

The photo of the 2 pin din plug that you posted a while back suggests you are connecting to the projector's speaker output. If this is the case, this is probably the source of your problems.

When I did my sound recordings on the tascam, I was connected with a lead that had a mini jack (plugged into the tascam) and a 5 pin din plug that connected to the projector's line out. I recorded from my Eumig and Bolex projectors and both gave great results.

Other than that, I'm at a loss to know what could be the problem.

[David Brown]

Robert, I recently went thru some of these audio problems with a Super8 projector.

You can post your "video capture" that might only contain sound to Youtube, or a wav file to Dropbox, Google Drive, or another location and just post the link here in the forum to alow others to hear your audio.

You might have already have done these things below. They are not difficult to do but might be time consuming.

Get Qtips and Isopropyll alcohol. Clean the audio tape head. Clean everything in the film path. It's surprising what can be done. The other issue of "hum" comes from a grounding and shielding problem with the wiring close to the tape head and even the audio output areas. Sounds like you have an RCA phono connector. I had and RCA and an earphone jack that were all connected together. More hum will come from the tape/input area, than the speaker out.

Last, clean the film. Specificly the audio track. Alcohol is not the best cleaner for film, but It can help. Dirtiest part of a film is at the head/begining of the reel. Get some samples from the middle if you can.

Good luck