Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1952)

238 FIG. 3: Level of mike and phono signals is controlled by this simple mixing box. FIG. 1: Transformer wired to 12" speaker adjusts FIG. 2: Panel in rear of recorder provides volume signals from recorder and projector amplifiers, control, phono or mixer input, output to 12" speaker. TIPS ON TAPE RECORDING The tools, the techniques and the triumphs of magnetic tape sound are discussed by an expert WILLIAM MESSNER, ACL "|N Hands Around The Clock, William Messner preI sents a suave and refreshing variation of the perennial dawn-to-dusk continuity theme. For in his version only a pair of hands (apparently belonging to a talented teen-aged youth) portray the morning-to-midnight activities being pictured." These words — lest any reader accuse me of immodesty — are those of Movie Makers editors. They are quoted from that magazine's review of Hands as an ACL Ten Best winner in 1950, and I cite them primarily to give you a capsule concept of the film's theme. But they serve also as an introduction to a second quote, excerpted from the review's conclusion: "Mr. Messner's musical score is pleasantly suitable, excellently recorded and accurately synchronized." WHAT AND HOW All of which brings me directly to my subject — sound recording on magnetic tape. For there are in Hands, besides the "pleasantly suitable musical score," a number of examples of sound recording techniques which other amateurs seem to have found interesting. The film opens, for example, with the main title double exposed over a mantel clock; on the sound track there is the pronounced rhythm of a clock ticking, with music faintly in the background. Shortly afterward an alarm clock goes off — and is stopped by the groping hand of the youth. And there is a record-playing sequence, a piano-playing sequence and so on through the film's development. Other amateurs have asked me how this or that sound effect was recorded, how it was synchronized with the film originally, and finally how it was kept in synchrony during repeated playbacks. I, in turn, have asked Movie Makers to let me discuss these points with you. So-o-o, if you're still tuned in on this broadcast, here we go . . . TOOLS OF THE TRADE Good sound recording, as with any other specialized technique, demands the use of good tools. And in the field of magnetic tape recorders the choice of tools is a wide one — perhaps too wide. In general, the best course is to select the finest quality recorder that you can afford — which is about what I did when I settled (after some shopping around) on a Brush Soundmirror. This unit operates at a l1^ inch-per-second tape speed, contains an input and output amplifier, a small built-in speaker, and has three separate motors — one forward, one reverse and one to drive the capstan. ADAPTING THE TOOLS However, as with so many of us, I was not wholly satisfied with this tool as it came to my hand. To begin with, I wanted to be able to use the high-fidelity 12 inch speaker of my optical sound projector for formal playbacks, reserving the small speaker of the recorder for such jobs as monitoring, etc. The projector amplifier, however, with which this 12 inch speaker was matched, naturally had a larger output than that of the recorder. My first move, therefore, was to install an output transformer on the back of the big speaker so that it might operate at the flip of a toggle switch in balance with either amplifier (see Fig. 1). The changes and additions made in the tape recorder are pictured in Fig. 2. On a panel installed at the recorder's rear there is first a toggle switch which determines which of the two speakers will receive the amplified signal from the recorder. Below this switch a standard twopoint socket was installed to accept the plug from the 12 inch speaker. Above the switch I installed a telephone plug socket to take care of an input line from either the record player alone or from a mixer handling both phono and mike signals. The mixer is pictured in Fig. 3. BALANCING VOLUMES A volume control also was added to this same panel to control the volume going directly into the recorder input and output amplifier. Because the volume going into the tape recorder from the rear is greater than the volume from the microphone in narrating — when the microphone is plugged in the front (or top) input socket — balance is