Nov 15, 2013 22:04
10 yrs ago
French term
United States
bande de 35 millimètres
French to English
Tech/Engineering
Music
musical recordings done in 1950s
The context is the musical recording setting in Mali in the 1950s. The text is the recollections of a technician who worked in a studio. He talks about a 35 mm tape, but not in the sense that we think of it (width). He seems to be referring to length. Here is the sentence.
Pour l’enregistrement, on me remettait une bande de 35 millimètres pour une émission de 30 minutes, à raison de 3 millimètres par morceau. On faisait signe à l’artiste 30 secondes avant la fin afin qu’il s’arrête à temps.
I am having difficulty figuring out the relationship between 35 mm tape (which is normally a width?) and the 3 mm allotted per musical piece.
Here is my translation:
For the recording, they would give me a 35 mm tape for a 30-minute show, so there were 3 millimeters allotted per musical piece.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Pour l’enregistrement, on me remettait une bande de 35 millimètres pour une émission de 30 minutes, à raison de 3 millimètres par morceau. On faisait signe à l’artiste 30 secondes avant la fin afin qu’il s’arrête à temps.
I am having difficulty figuring out the relationship between 35 mm tape (which is normally a width?) and the 3 mm allotted per musical piece.
Here is my translation:
For the recording, they would give me a 35 mm tape for a 30-minute show, so there were 3 millimeters allotted per musical piece.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
Change log
Nov 15, 2013 22:30: writeaway changed "Field" from "Other" to "Tech/Engineering"
Discussion
As for the rest, sorry, I'm none the wiser :-(
This is Patricia the poster of the question. I can't tell you how much I appreciate everyone's time and thoughts. In the interest of clarifying these issues, I am going to post the entire quote. Note that this text was quoted in an article written by an anthropologist about African music. So the author of the article is quoting this text within his article:
"Les musiciens étaient enregistrés à raison d’un cachet de 1.500 ou 2.500 francs CFA toutes les trois minutes […] La durée de l’enregistrement était cochée sur un conducteur (3-4 mm). La régie fixe tout. Elle minute tout ce qui est à diffuser. La régie est produite par le chef de programme […] Pour l’enregistrement, on me remettait une bande de 35 millimètres pour une émission de 30 minutes, à raison de 3 millimètres par morceau. On faisait signe à l’artiste 30 secondes avant la fin afin qu’il s’arrête à temps […] Comme XXXX étai aveugle, c’était YYYYY [qui l’a fait découvrir par la radio] qui le tapotait sur l’épaule pour lui demander de s’arrêter […] "
If it's mm, it could be a typo/bad OCR for min.
"There is also a 35 mm width, but this variety is more similar to the motion picture stock of the same width. It is referred to by the recording and motion picture industries as "magfilm".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_tape_specifications
35 mm almost certainly IS the tape width — this would be the sort of 'mag stock' commonly used for recording film soundtracks, which were recorded magnetically from the late 40s onwards and only married onto the show print with an optical sound track at the very last minute. It is conceivable that film recorders might have been used for purely audio usage...
As for the 3 mm, I think this could be the thickness of the tape wound on the reel — though with the thick acetate stock of that time, 3 mm would hardly cover very much; though if we assume the 3 mm measurement equated to about 3 mins, that wouldn't be far off: at normal speed (24 fps) a 1,000' reel gives around 11 minutes duration, which is about 10" in diameter; so this 35 minute play-out reel might have been a rather hefty 3,000 ft one (2,000' is the commoner size). But of course, the thickness / time relationship is non-linear as the reel diameter changes: so 3mm near the outer edge might well be 3 mins, but nearer the centre might only be 30 secs!