How to sync 16mm outtake transfers to digital copies of the orginal audio

Question

Part of the Folkstreams archive, are large holdings of 16mm negative out-takes and original nagra-recorded, reel-to-reel audio.
In most cases the postive work-print and the 16mm mag transfers from the reel-to-reel audio, are in bad shape: cut into pieces, rolled together with rubber bands, decayed emulsion on the 16mm magnetic track, etc.
However the original negative and the original audio reel-to-reel are in good shape.
We are revisiting some of these older titles and are interested in making low resolution copies with time code that can be corollated to the 16-mm negative original. Stored on a hard drive, this would make viewing very easy. Filmmakers or scholars who wanted to revisit these subjects, could use them in new projects, and easily pull selected rolls for HD transfer.
We can get a fairy good picture transfer of the negative, using a film chain, with a converted Elmo projecter. We can also make wav and mpeg3 files of the audio tapes.
But how can these two be put into sync?
We could use Final Cut Pro, but I suspect that the sync will drift out every few seconds. Is there someone who has done this?

Answer 1

As long as the Nagra that's playing back the tapes to feed the conversion has a crystal or you've got a Pilotone device, you should be good. Don't know where you're located, but many labs that do telecine can feed the audio from the tape right to the transfer. Pricey!
(Hope you changed out the sprocket wheels on that Elmo. Negative sprocket holes are different than positive ones-- they're smaller and pitched differently so that they offer better registration in the gate. you can chew up a neg pretty quickly if you don't do that.