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Some old "Super 8" 8mm handheld movie cameras recorded audio magnetically on the side of the film, which is weird because the film itself is not magnetic at all

Some old "Super 8" 8mm handheld movie cameras recorded audio magnetically on the side of the film, which is weird because the film itself is not magnetic at all. There's just a thin magnetic strip running along the edge. I've seen it on recordings from the 1970s, but it probably dates to the 1960s.

gwbas1c 5y ago
Theatrical "Stereo" in the 1960s and 1970s was handled via a magnetic strip. I believe it was 4-channel, 3 in the front and one in the rear.
- aardvark179 5y ago
  That sounds like you might be thinking of the earliest form of surround sound, as was used for 2001 and some other films. This was developed to become Dolby Stereo in the late 70s, and Dolby Pro Logic for home cinema in the 80s.
  - gwbas1c 5y ago
    You're confusing magnetic tracks and optical tracks. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Stereo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Stereo
- dylan604 5y ago
  There was also stereo optical recordings but it was typically mono. You could hold the film up to a light source and see the inverse of the waveform. There was one place in town that I was aware of that had a stereo optical on their telecine unit. It wasn't that hi-fi though.
  - gwbas1c 5y ago
    See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Stereo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Stereo > The optical soundtrack on a Dolby Stereo encoded 35 mm film carries not only left and right tracks for stereophonic sound, but also—through a matrix decoding system (Dolby Motion Picture matrix or Dolby MP[1]) similar to that developed for "quadraphonic" or "quad" sound in the 1970s—a third center channel, and a fourth surround channel for speakers on the sides and rear of the theater for ambient sound and special effects. This yielded a total of four sound channels, as in the 4-track magnetic system, in the track space formerly allocated for one mono optical channel. Dolby also incorporated its A-Type noise reduction into the Dolby Stereo system.

gwbas1c 5y ago

Theatrical "Stereo" in the 1960s and 1970s was handled via a magnetic strip. I believe it was 4-channel, 3 in the front and one in the rear.

aardvark179 5y ago
That sounds like you might be thinking of the earliest form of surround sound, as was used for 2001 and some other films. This was developed to become Dolby Stereo in the late 70s, and Dolby Pro Logic for home cinema in the 80s.
- gwbas1c 5y ago
  You're confusing magnetic tracks and optical tracks. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Stereo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Stereo
dylan604 5y ago
There was also stereo optical recordings but it was typically mono. You could hold the film up to a light source and see the inverse of the waveform. There was one place in town that I was aware of that had a stereo optical on their telecine unit. It wasn't that hi-fi though.
- gwbas1c 5y ago
  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Stereo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Stereo > The optical soundtrack on a Dolby Stereo encoded 35 mm film carries not only left and right tracks for stereophonic sound, but also—through a matrix decoding system (Dolby Motion Picture matrix or Dolby MP[1]) similar to that developed for "quadraphonic" or "quad" sound in the 1970s—a third center channel, and a fourth surround channel for speakers on the sides and rear of the theater for ambient sound and special effects. This yielded a total of four sound channels, as in the 4-track magnetic system, in the track space formerly allocated for one mono optical channel. Dolby also incorporated its A-Type noise reduction into the Dolby Stereo system.