dolby

elly-d

elly-d

Member
hi,

i just finished recording my first song using my new(ish) fostex e16(e15). i say ish as its been at a shop for 6 months getting almost fixed and is now a e15. anyway i have quite alot of tape hiss on the mix and wanted to know how you guys would mix it. would you try to use the eq to take it away or the dolby nr on the tape machine and then add eq to taste?

cheers.
 
Use the Dolby. Noise reduction made these narrow track machines possible. Without it they may never have come into existence.

What type of music are you recording? What instruments?

:)
 
thanks. it is quite a lively indie rock song. drums, electric, acoustic, bass, and a triple track vocal and backing vocals. the sound is great without NR but has an audible hiss. with the NR it took out alot of the top end. i haven't tried adding with the desk yet, i will try it tomorrow but i imagine that will just bring the hiss back?
 
The NR works pretty well on the Fostex machines, but it can drift out of alignment over years or be badly aligned by a "tech." If you are losing high end it may need calibration.

You do know that you must use the NR for both recording and playback, right? (have to ask that ;)) It's an encode/decode system. A non-encoded tape will sound dull with the NR engaged on playback.

Also, many things can make the non-NR performance overly bright. This makes the Dolby recording comparatively dull when in fact it is closer to the right balance.

- If you record with Dolby but playback without it the sound will be too bright. Upon engaging the NR yours ears tell you you've lost high end, but that high end should not have been there.

- If your tape is under biased you will have an overly bright top end. For example using Quantegy 499 or RMGI SM900 on a machine calibrated for 456 or 911.

- If you push your levels too far into the red, high frequency response will be reduced.

Many other things affect noise and frequency response.

:)
 
cheers, i did record with dolby on. i am going to mixdown to my pc today i will post to say how it went. thanks.
 
elly-d said:
hi,

i just finished recording my first song using my new(ish) fostex e16(e15). i say ish as its been at a shop for 6 months getting almost fixed and is now a e15. anyway i have quite alot of tape hiss on the mix and wanted to know how you guys would mix it. would you try to use the eq to take it away or the dolby nr on the tape machine and then add eq to taste?

cheers.
Click to expand...

What is a Fostex E15?

The E16 has great sounding dolby if it is aligned correctly.
 
yep its an e16 with a dead track :)

thanks guys, how would i check if the dolby is correctly aligned? hopefully without taking it to a shop, as the closest is nearly 200 miles from me and i dont trust him anyway.

mixing didnt go too well, but i am sure i will get better. plus i dont own any outboard gear yet so i was just practicing levels and eq.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top