to dolby or not to dolby?

lilcapn

New member
i've got an 8 track reel-to-reel, have yet to engage the Dolby (it's a tascam) but i think this is just me being superstitious -- the only associations i have with Dolby are how on my car stereo in highschool it would make all my punk rock records sound crappy and dull.

in the real world, should i be using this? i know i know "use what sounds best" but i'm just wondering what general opinions are on Dolby NR.

thanks!
 
A Tascam reel-to-reel 8-track with Dolby? What model? Is it an outboard box?

Personally, I'm more familar with dbx than Dolby in the recording context. I think it's fine.

Use of Dolby (most likely B or C) in playing back store-bought cassettes is sort of a different issue. If you take a cassette that wasn't recorded with Dolby, and play it back with Dolby, it should sound pretty dull. If you take a cassette that was recorded with Dolby, and play it back without Dolby, you create a significant boost in the upper midrange and high-end (or, to be more accurate, you fail to de-emphasize an emphasis that was put on when it was recorded). You might like that, if your cassette deck has poor high-end response, or you just like to goose the treble.
 
DOH!

doh! it's dbx - you're right. it's a tsr-8, and you can apply the NR to either tracks 1-4, 5-8, or all of them.

sorry!
 
TSR-8?

Well most people seem to dis dbx NR for multi-track reel recorders every chance they can get... But we're talking about the TSR-8... It's WAY too noisey without it and the dbx produces a nice low-end.
 
so...

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?

thanks!
 
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.
 
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