Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: strange distortion/crackle/static on at end of reel 3 of The Young Victoria

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Posted by Michael Moore (Member # 3867) on 02-14-2010, 07:35 PM:

I just got done with reel three of the young victoria, and when the actors talked there was deep static, and distortion after everything they said. At the start of reel four, the static went away, and then reappeared for about a mini. What can cause this? a scratch on the soundtrack? My A-chain is perfect I just did it two weeks ago. The movie other wise sounds great. help

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 02-14-2010, 07:49 PM:

Are you running in optical or digital sound?

Optically, some nice cross-scratching across the soundtrack can make sounds like the ones you're hearing.

Posted by Michael Moore (Member # 3867) on 02-14-2010, 09:43 PM:

I'm in optical

I think I found the problem film guard saved the day!!! If I was only using it during the film!!!

I ran just reel three and four a few min ago. And I was running my film cleaner and film guard. As soon as I got to the same spot the cracks and pops and distortion was not there. I looked at the film cleaner pad and there was a black streak on the sound track side, for about 9 inches long and it went away a soon as the first two min of reel 4 went through. Before the streak there was no dirt at all on the pad up till that point. When reel 4 hit the streak fades out for about another 5 inches or so.

I think this was the problem and I am going to run the film again with the film cleaner tomorrow to see what happens.

mike

Posted by Michael Moore (Member # 3867) on 02-21-2010, 06:55 PM:

Ok

So I’m playing the movie now and as soon as the trailers started the crackles and distortion showed back up… After much troubleshooting I discovered if I push the flywheel on the sound head (speeds it up) the crackles go away. Could dirty bearings in the SH 1000 flywheel cause such a problem? As soon as the crackles and distortion shows up I go over the speed up the flywheel and the anomaly goes away…

HELP!!!

Mike

Posted by Michael Moore (Member # 3867) on 02-21-2010, 09:54 PM:

fly wheel yes!!! and the whole sound head. after the movie I fooled with the LED reader, and while a friend was in the theatre, I moved stuff around and tapped things. I found out that when I tapped lightly on the LED bracket, the static appeared with no movie running. I noticed there was a little bit of hard stuff on the rubber film roller (that everyone hates) and every time that hard stuff hit the sound drum static rang out of the right speaker. I unplugged the right side and sure enough the static went right away. I took the reader out to find that right ground was disconnected and was touching the sound head housing. I fixed it, and with tapping and running film the static and distortion went away...

WOW this sound head has been running for almost 5 years now and that wire just came lose, I noticed all the screws on the phoenix connector were a little lose.

I'm back in business.