Sound and Image Synchronism - Text 3
One of the first requirements for a sound and image film shoot outdoors was a technological reversal: the shift from optical sound to magnetic sound. Magnetic tape, initially conceived for use in computers and then used by radio and cinema, made it possible to pass from the sound truck to the sound suitcase: an independent portable tape recorder, driven at first by a spring motor, and then by battery. In 1949 Jean Rouch began using a French recorder, the Acémaphone invented by Yves Sgubbi, while in 1953 Vittorio De Seta began making his films with a German device, the Maihak,[3] which was also used by Marcel Carrière for Les raquetteurs. But it was three Swiss manufacturers, Perfectone, Stellavox and Kudelski, with its famous Nagra, which took this technology to new heights in the 1950s. The lightweight magnetic tape sound recorder enabled filmmakers to record sound and images at the same time in hard to reach places. With sound film stock one had to wait for it to be developed, while magnetic tape offered the advantage of listening immediately to what one had just recorded, using the same device.
