Comments on Dolby SR???

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Muckelroy

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I've heard it said by some engineers I've talked to, that Dolby SR sounds so noiseless, anechoic, and sonically similar to today's digital DAW's, that they'd much rather not mess with it, and just track to a DAW.

These same engineers said that if they ever use analog, they go for 30 IPS, +9 tape, and slam the hell outta the tape, b/c most of today's clients only use tape for that saturation effect.

On top of that, I've heard that SR, while it may be the most sonically accurate form of noise reduction on PAPER, is a bitch and a half to align the machine to.

Anyone here used Dolby SR before? Thoughts?

-callie-
 
Muckelroy said:
I've heard it said by some engineers I've talked to, that Dolby SR sounds so noiseless, anechoic, and sonically similar to today's digital DAW's, that they'd much rather not mess with it, and just track to a DAW.

These same engineers said that if they ever use analog, they go for 30 IPS, +9 tape, and slam the hell outta the tape, b/c most of today's clients only use tape for that saturation effect.

On top of that, I've heard that SR, while it may be the most sonically accurate form of noise reduction on PAPER, is a bitch and a half to align the machine to.

Anyone here used Dolby SR before? Thoughts?

-callie-

I don't mess with noise reduction myself. My friend Mitch Easter says he still pretty much mixes to 1/2" tape because his clients want to mix to analog and to them that means 1/2" tape and more often than not they want the levels hot. He personally, OTOH, is quite fond of a number of mix formats, not the least of which is 1/4" 2-track using Dolby SR, precisely because he can use conservative level practices and gets a really clean, musical sound.

Never heard him complain about setup, but it does require precision and the NR and recorder should probably be calibrated more often than most of us would care to pay someone else to do, so it's probably best used by those of us who maintain and calibrate our own machines (and those with big budgets).

FWIW, if you were interested in making recordings that will still be entirely playable 100 years from now, it would be hard to beat mixing to analog 1/4" 2-track recorded on an old fashioned non-back coated tape, recorded at conservative levels and using Dolby SR or Dolby A. The tape shouldn't be a problem, though having a functioning recorder just might be!

Cheers,

Otto
 
Muckelroy said:
Anyone here used Dolby SR before? Thoughts?

-callie-

Dolby SR sounds great for half-track mastering, which is the only stage I’ve ever had the opportunity to use it. IMO, it’s probably the most transparent NR I’ve used. In my experience it leaves the tape alone, sonically, just without any background hiss.

I prefer 15 ips for mastering, with or without NR, as the dynamics of the music dictate. Now I have external Dolby C available, which is really more akin to Dolby S and SR than it is to A or B. S/SR were built on features first pioneered with C.

One thing about NR today that’s different than before for many studios is that the machine you record to will be the only machine you play back on. This makes the hoary subject of calibration standards easy to deal with. Frequent calibration for tapes from other studios isn’t an issue for most home/project studios. In that regard it’s never been better.

:)
 
Beck said:
One thing about NR today that’s different than before for many studios is that the machine you record to will be the only machine you play back on. This makes the hoary subject of calibration standards easy to deal with. Frequent calibration for tapes from other studios isn’t an issue for most home/project studios. In that regard it’s never been better.

:)

Agreed. That's one of the reasons why there is usually no disadvantage to a home or project studio using IEC1 eq at 15 ips (assuming you have a calibration tape or don't mind using a table of values to compensate). If your tracking deck is also your playback deck on mixing, then you don't have to worry about a machine that doesn't have that EQ. Similarly, if you mix to it and then play it back for subsequent processing and mastering on the same machine, you're OK. And if you do send it elsewhere for mastering, many if not most places that can still deal with analog tape can deal with IEC1 eq.

Otto
 
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