Dolby A NR useage

  • Thread starter Thread starter Muckelroy
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Muckelroy

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Just food for thought -- probly WAY TOO COMPLICATED for my purposes, but hey, a tape-head can dream, can't he?

How could an Otari MX-5050 1/2" 8 track be rigged up with Dolby A noise reduction encoding/decoding?

After reading the user's manual to the Dolby 363 NR unit:

http://www.dolby.com/assets/pdf/tech_library/151_363_8.Manual.pdf

They make it pretty clear how to use it with a stereo tape recorder. Obviously this was very commonly done with master midown recorders.

It might be cool to have 4 of these bad boys, for 8 tracks of dolby A encode/decode. The only setback is wiring the play/record remote control for each NR unit, to each channel, based on whether that particular track is in record or repro/sync.

It said that there's a max of a 3ms delay in the remote rec/play switching of these units, so as long as the voltage somehow gets from the machine, to the NR units, on each track when you switch from play to record on the machine........it might work.......... hmmm.

While recording or monitoring the source, the NR unit would have to be set to "check tape,".................i dunno, somehow it would have to send the signal being sent to tape back to the console,

-callie-
 
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From mental recollection, Dolby A did not give an inordinate amount of broadband hiss reduction. In the order of 15 db is what I remember from the articles I have read. All this being in the mids and highs only.

Couple that with the specs of your Otari w/o NR in the mid to high 60's at best so, bring that all forward with the Dolby, we're realistically looking at a 80db S:N ratio which is clean but not silent. Is silence golden when it comes to electronics and music? Some find it eerily spooky to have anechoic recordings. I am among those who feel that way too about them. A bit of noise lets us know we are alive!

Failing a nice find on e-bay or elsewhere to score 4 of those units at a sharp price, you could be looking at a prohibitively expensive venture to hitch them up to your stable. :cool:

Calibration and set-up is also crucial to working with Dolby professional studio gear. Cabling may too need to be terminated in slightly tedious ways with barrier strip and spade lug connection on it's rear apron.

It's nice to dream, yes. :D

Cheers! :)
 
I can see how it's technically possible to wire up the rec/play function of the NR units to the Otari (given that such a triggering voltage can be generated FROM the Otari when it switches from repro/sync monitor to source monitoring.)

What gets me is that there's seemingly no automatic way to switch the NR units to "check tape" when you want to hear the unadulterated source signal while recording, or just monitoring the source. Unless there's a way that I couldn't find in the user manual.

I suppose that one could just not worry about it, and deal with a gnarly "decoded sounding" sound when monitoring the repro/sync while punching in. seeing as how it's annoying to have to punch in, and simultaneously switch the "check tape" switch........ok i'm done rambling.
 
OH just kidding.

The signal paths of the record function on the NR units DOES facilitate monitoring of the source signal, back to the post-tape side of the console, during recording. no problem. :)

Now to figure out how the crap the OTari can be wired to switch the NR units from play to rec. :confused:
 
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