What VST does the same thing as a Dolby 361?

LazerBeakShiek

Find Polaris..and Return
Still looking for software VST hardware replacements. One piece of gear I use is the old Dolby 361 encoder with the CAT22 cartridges. It is a variable multi band compressor that you mix back in with the original signal. They are awesome. What is the VST form of this treasure from the past?

Vocal stretch, Ozzy voice, vocal stressor, Lennon mod, etc. ring any bells?
 
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Zed, there are so many. That is why I am looking for VST forms of the gear I already have. That way I will be fluent in it.

REAfir will not even know what Im looking at.

I have gone through a bunch of the Roland sound cloud vst's and hoped to find a sampler like my VP9000. I could not. Nice patches and all but not a sampler like the VP. SO I grabbed Melodyne. Melodyne seems to have sampler qualities , but you do not play it with the keyboard. Rather play with it like building blocks on a graph. Melodyne does the same things like normalization in amplitude and pitch control, but on a completely different engine. Is it any better? I cannot say I havent figured it all out yet.

Type A is a VST possiblity for what I 'm looking for there. Is it a real emulation of the hardware or a theme VST?
 
There's no real demand for an obsolete noise reduction system in VST form. It's essentially a multiband compressor/expander, which you can do with other processors. The only hangup is that it transitions back to 1:1 ratio over a set level, but using some other MBC in parallel will get you much the same effect.
 
Unfortunately I would not know the settings for the 4 bands. That is the whole secret to the special Dolby places. Some bands are omitted for different cartridges. The one has the band 1-2 active then 3-4 open, and +12db on 4 for the Vocal stretch. Then Dolby's variable compression ratio based on loudness. What does that?
 
ReaFir seems to be a radical EQ. Not really the same as the Dolby encoding system as an effect.

The ReaXcomp ,the multiband in Parallel, is closer to what Im looking for.
 
Unfortunately I would not know the settings for the 4 bands. That is the whole secret to the special Dolby places. Some bands are omitted for different cartridges. The one has the band 1-2 active then 3-4 open, and +12db on 4 for the Vocal stretch. Then Dolby's variable compression ratio based on loudness. What does that?

Dolby A curve.png

Dolby A bands.png
 
ReaFir seems to be a radical EQ. Not really the same as the Dolby encoding system as an effect.

The ReaXcomp ,the multiband in Parallel, is closer to what Im looking for.

In ReaFIR there's an option to change it from an eq to a frequency sensitive compressor. It's in a drop down menu.
 
My 361 has a red button, all you do is press it.

By itself it sounds like a squashed telephone, but mixed back with the original sounds very nice.
 
Here's a "simulation" in Cubase. You could run the same thing in Reaper. It tells you not just the frequencies, but also the compression ratios and slopes for the filters.

Bright Idea

These types of tricks have been used for years. I remember people doing this with cassettes, record with Dolby, turn it off on playback to boost the top end. Then the Aphex Aural Exciter was the hot processor. It gave everything sparkle.

It looks like somebody also makes a plug in just like you want. Type A - Vintage Enhancer Plugin (VST, VST3, AU, AAX) - AudioThing
YouTube
 
That article was a great read. Yes, I am aware of the Type A VST, but is it a faithful recreatation. Or a mindless themed reboot?

I always like the Dolby 361 effect. The Aphex arual exciter and big bottom is not the same.
 
That article was a great read. Yes, I am aware of the Type A VST, but is it a faithful recreatation. Or a mindless themed reboot?

I always like the Dolby 361 effect. The Aphex arual exciter and big bottom is not the same.

Since they have a demo version on their website, why not download it and try it out. The technology isn't earthshattering or anything, so its probably more a matter of setting the parameters up and then designing an interface to mimic the old Dolby.
 
That article was a great read. Yes, I am aware of the Type A VST, but is it a faithful recreatation. Or a mindless themed reboot?

Uhe's Satin that I linked to earlier is definitely a faithful recreation as I use it for decoding old Dolby A tapes. I have the hardware too but I find Satin to be a good alternative.
 
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