Sound Conundrum

I have discussed the timing of the Mickey Mouse short The Pointer, prod. M-27 aka. 2227, at length. Here is a memo from assistant director Jack Cutting (situated in Music Room B) to Dave Lurie in Short Cutting, 1/30/39, about changes in the effects track.

I would like to ask anyone to come forth, who knows why they would air-brush the train sound at Measure 494 etc. Did they add generic noise all the way through? Or did they produce fades up and down by air-brushing them straight on to the optical sound film? Anyone?

I really like the expression "Blooping Ink..."

< Click on it!

When revisiting The Pointer, do not forget to check out my little program I wrote that I called the Beatronome. It is a metronome specifically for animated film beats. It's free! I was hoping that some of you would use it to find the beat structures in other short films, and send them to me or add them as comments, so all can learn from this. For those of you who cannot run PC programs, here is a screen shot of the interface...

< Click on it!

At the Disney studios, music was recorded using a click track following beats, even for live-action scores and theme park music! On later (50's, 60's) production they could be found to be using 1/8th of a beat, like in 14 3/8th beat! Sometimes they would abandon it, and record in Wild Beat (W.B.). Other times they would go for a W.B., but start on say a 14 beat. For animation, though, it was usual to record in the whole beats that were standard in the late 30's...