The international photographer (Jan-Dec 1937)

36— OCTOBER, 1937 (Sound— Cont.) INTERNATIONAL Heady Playback Recordings Many advantages in instantaneous checkups during production bring wider use of improved quality discs ; one director uses it as a regular 4 dialogue insurance." Several studios have for some time used instantaneous playback disc recordings for synchronizing prescored sound with the action on the set. These recordings also are used as instantaneous tests of sound quality although only recently have results been good enough to give accurate quality tests. One director in a major studio uses instantaneous disc playback of all important dialogue and has found it valuable to experiment with minor changes in the dialogue as he goes along. While meddling with the script is frowned on in many studios, nevertheless in this particular case it has worked out as a very practical idea. During the last six months, however, instantaneous disc recording technique has been greatly refined. Better portable turntables, almost entirely free from "Wows"; better cutting heads and cutting styli have had a great deal to do with this improvement in volume and frequency range. But the most important advances have Film Tested... Laboratory and Sound Recording Equipment Art Reeves MOTION PICTURE EQUIPMENT Cable Address: ARTREEVES 7512 Santa Monica Blvd. • Hollywood, Calif., U.S.A. Q | Variable area recorders^ " PATENT NO. 193SSS4. OTHERS PENDING ALSO Dj E| ^^ 35 mm to 1 6 mm ^^ C REDUCTION SOUND PRINTER €jl 2 AND D 1 ^ SOUND EQUIPMENT ^1 9 * ^J Cable address CRSCO ^J > C. R. SKINNER MFG. Co. 3 J J 290 TURK STREET. PHONE OROWflV 6909 ^ ^ San Francisco. California U. S. A. j I OFF TO CHINA is Norman Alley, shown above with the new DeVry 35 mm. sound camera. Alley, with the Universal reel, Eric Mayell, 20th-Fox, and Earl Nelson and Joe Rucker of Paramount, are IATSE newsreel photographers who headed for the Sino-Japanese war center last month. Mayell landed on front pages throughout the world late in September, when an automobile in which he was riding with other photographers was bombed and machinegunned by a Japanese plane. At left above is the sound panel of the DeVry outfit. been in disc materials with cellulose nitrate coated discs nearlv replacing the older cellulose acetate aluminum coated discs. A wide variety of good discs now is available at low cost and one of the newest high quality discs uses a cellulose coated glass disc in a successful attempt to reduce the ground noise. The results to be expected from the newer 33 and 78 rpm lateral cut instantaneous recording channels are about as follows: Frequency response; flat to two decibels from 40 to 8,000 cycles. Volume range between ground noise and five per cent amplitude distortion, about 40 decibels over the spectrum. It must be understood that, due to the disc and cutter characteristics, predistortion of the frequency characteristic in the recording channel is necessary, which naturally necessitates conjugate equalization of the playback channel so that the combined overall frequency response becomes flat. While only hardy optimists contend that lateral cut recordings can give as good quality as good vertical cut, or "hill and dale" recordings, nevertheless modern lateral cut quality is nearly as good as average sound on film quality and the instantaneous playback feature is very worth while in the time it saves. Incidentally, many of the newer instantaneous recordings can be played back as many as fifty times, using a modern pick-up, without measurable loss of high frequency response and with only a small increase in ground noise. Virtually all of the high quality in