Re: so...
lilcapn said:
within a song, if i've already recorded SOME tracks without it (drums), if i start adding things (acoustic guitar, vocals) and recording them WITH it, is it going to make the drums sound all crapified?
If you can keep the with-dbx tracks and without-dbx tracks on different "banks" (one on tracks 1-4 and the other on tracks 5-8), you're fine. Otherwise, no.
The basic rule is simple: if you record a track
with dbx, always play it back
with dbx. If you record a track
without dbx, always play it back
without dbx.
At the risk of being overly specific:
If you have (say) recorded drums on tracks 5, 6 and 7 without dbx, and you haven't recorded anything else, you
can use dbx when you record
acoustic guitar and vocals on tracks 1-4 ... just turn the dbx on tracks 1-4 and leave it off on tracks 5-8, and keep it that way as you record and mixdown that song.
If, on the other hand, you have (say) recorded drums on tracks 4, 5 and 6 without dbx, you're going to want to keep on recording without dbx. If you're really gung-ho about it, you
could --with all dbx turned off -- "bounce" track 4 to track 7, then turn the dbx on on tracks 1-4 and record additional parts on that "bank."
And another, only marginally relevant, note: mismatching dbx on record and playback sounds really bad ("mismatching" meaning recording with dbx, the playing back without, or vice versa). Mismatching Dolby (at least B and C) is less terrible, though it does some wacky things to the frequency response. I guess that's why Dolby is used on released tapes quite a bit, since you never quite know
what some crazy kid who buys a tape at the local Wal-Mart might do with it.