Digital sound for film?

[ewanuno]

you could do this without having any special equipment apart from a computer.

these days there are many digital vinyl timecode systems available for djs.

the timecode wav files are available for download. from the website of serato scratch.
and there are a few free programs available,
mixxx, which is multiplatform.
and xwax which only runs on linux.

just download the timecode image, and record it onto the sound stripe.

then load your soundtrack into xwax and start the projector.

these systems are verry acurate for syncing music played from a computer to a the signal from a timecode vinyl or cd. so accurate that you can use them to scratch.

i havent tried it yet though because i don't have any sound films.

but i have tried playing recording the timecode onto audio tapes which worked well.

[rweilert]

Thanks for all your ideas and most interesting links. Read a lot, learned a lot

Although I think Gebuhr has the right idea with its line of devices, the idea to play back from a CD seems a bit outdated to me. There should be a way to play directly from a netbook or notebook computer. The player is rather expensive if you consider what you pay for a netbook today... And if you have a computer involved in the process, it should be able to do most of the work, so all those little gimmiks would (almost) become obsolete.

As I wrote, I'm looking for a way of synchronising sound AFTER cutting the film. I did not intend to film plus record original soundtracks. Just the good ol' way of filming, cutting and then adding some noise and music and maybe comments.

I liked the idea to telecine the film and make a soundtrack for it at the computer, but it would involve the step of taking the film into video first. Here is what I thought of in the first instance:

When I finish cutting, I take my special audio program and make one empty audio track about as long as my film is (or the program is just told how long the show is going to be or whatever). After setting the film to the startframe, I set the program to 00:00:00. Now, every frame the projector goes forward and backward is counted and translated into a position on the soundtrack.

When I start the projector, the program will continue to count the frames and tell me where I am in the track. I see the pictures from the projector and decide to add a piece of music "here" or some sound "here". Playing backward, the counter will count down. So on the computer, I will always see where I am. Of course, you would need a marker function and stuff like fades and tracks and so on...

When I'm finished, I can mix a stereo or even 5.1 soundtrack of my work, combining all the tracks into one. The program will then just act as a player: Set the projector to the startframe, the program to 00:00:00, and let it play back as soon as you start the projector.

This was my original idea, but as I said, I also like the idea of taking a video of the ready-made film first and then synchronising this. The only point that remains is counting the frames and synchronising the playback via software... :roll: There are some basic ideas, but I still need a way of accessing the sound interface, and this is something I haven't done for at least 20 years :?

Regards

Rolf

[rweilert]

And this is a good one! Our son who is in the music field (drummer, studio work) could help me with it:

the timecode wav files are available for download. from the website of serato scratch.
just download the timecode image, and record it onto the sound stripe.

This sounds really easy. The only thing is that it needs a magnetic soundtrack. If you don't mind striping the film and recording the soundtrack to it, this should be the solution..

Thanks for that tip, too.

Rolf

[BK]

If you have a quartz locked projector that runs at a precise speed ( say 25FPS ) all you need is a diy electronic device of some sort to trigger your sound file on your netbook to play at a exact point at the start of the film during projection, theorectically it should stay in sync right. This is after you telecined the film and synced up and mixed your music, effects, etc with your video editing program, I wouldn't imagine the audio file would drift on the netbook and everything would stay in sync. You wouldn't need timecode. Am I talking bull or would it work?

Bill

[ewanuno]

now i think more deeply about this i have to admit i forgot one important thing,
all timecode vinyl systems use stereo.

although the left and right signals are diferent, the programs only work properly when both are present. so without rewriting the program, its not going to work with a mono sound track.
somebody with sufficient knolwedge could re- write the programs though since xwax is open source. (not me unfortunatly)

at this point however anybody with sufficint skills could create a patch for pd (puredata.org) or max or vvvv that used a sensor on the shutter blade, to syncronise the playback of an audio file. which would be much better because it wouldn't require a sound stripe.

hopefully one day, i'll get stuck on a desert island with only a copy of pd and a laptop. then i'll get arround to learning it.

[Davideo]

Is there a digital version of the old Nagra machines often used for 16 and 35?