4.2.2 16mm Magnetic (monophonic) (Motion Picture Sound Formats - release prints intended for projection)
Description
This article is from the rec.arts.movies.tech FAQ, by Scott E. Norwood snorwood@nyx.nyx.net with numerous contributions by others.
4.2.2 16mm Magnetic (monophonic) (Motion Picture Sound Formats - release prints intended for projection)
In an attempt to improve the sound quality for 16mm prints, magnetic
sound was developed in the early 1960's. This, like 8mm magnetic, used
a magnetic stripe which was placed in the same location as the optical
track (or slightly to the outer edge, if both types of tracks were to
be used on a single print). The problem with this system was that,
while it sounds quite good, few projectors are capable of reproducing
it. Thus, its use was pretty much reserved for television news (until
the late 1970's, when news film was replaced by videotape); news
cameras, such as the Auricon and the CP-16, were modified to record
magnetic sound directly onto pre-striped reversal stock. This film was
developed at TV stations, and was then run through a `magnetic offset
recorder,' which simultaneously played the soundtrack, and re-recorded
it 28 frames earlier, so that the film could be edited with the sound
in perfect sync. The film was again run through the offset recorder,
this time to re-advance the soundtrack 28 frames after the picture so
that it could be played back in sync on the station's film chain
machine. This was the solution to the sync problem common with super
8mm films with recorded-in-camera-sound.
By now (1998), 16mm magnetic is almost a dead format for new prints,
having been replaced with 35mm blowups of 16mm-originated material or
by double-system digital systems (usually with a DAT machine synched
to the movie projector).
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