mixdown DBX/Dolby??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bobby Darko
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Bobby Darko

Bobby Darko

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hey guys,
i'm looking for a nice cassette mixdown deck. I looked at all the brands, I guess there's enough of them! But my question concerns the NR. I record on a tascam 688 with DBX on all 8 tracks. Should I mixdown to a deck that has DBX too? Or can I just use a deck with Dolby HX or something? I'm not sure DBX to Dolby will benefit the sound?? Thanks guys...
 
Bobby Darko said:
hey guys,
i'm looking for a nice cassette mixdown deck. I looked at all the brands, I guess there's enough of them! But my question concerns the NR. I record on a tascam 688 with DBX on all 8 tracks. Should I mixdown to a deck that has DBX too? Or can I just use a deck with Dolby HX or something? I'm not sure DBX to Dolby will benefit the sound?? Thanks guys...
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Either will do. Dolby is all I have seen on Cassettes. DBX from your 688 is decoded by the time the audio leaves the machine and encoded in the cassette recording process.
 
Dolby and dbx both have advantages… I use them both.

I prefer Dolby C just a bit for stereo cassette.

Careful though… Dolby HX Pro is not noise reduction; it’s a dynamic bias system that changes bias level depending on the high frequency content of the music.

Your NR choices from Dolby in cassette are B, C and S.

:)
 
I'd agree with Beck, Dolby C offers about the best overall mastering quality in terms of reducing hiss, leaving dynamics intact and having a decent chance of decoding decently on other decks should the deck you're currently using die.

If you are going to master in analog however, I'd suggest 1/2 track stereo open reel @ 15 ips with no noise reduction for proper archival, otherwise, you're better off just mastering digitally to a good stand alone CDR deck or one of TASCAM's newer DVD based audio recorders.

Cheers! :)
 
Dolby on cassettes can be a minefield unless you know what you're doing. Dolby cassettes have a bad habit of not tracking correctly and the sound can be awful. C is worse than B for this. OTOH when set up right they work brilliantly.
Many home recordists I know used no cassette Dolby and just put up with the hiss.

Like Ghost says, might be better to master to reel to reel or a digital format.

Tim
 
I already have a 18 bit dcc recorder to go to digital (sort of a budget DAT type a thing). Mixdown to a reel would be the best off course, but I'm low on cash at the moment and those tapes ain't cheap. But I'm really starting to doubt a cassette deck now. Guess I'll just wait a bit...thanks guys!
 
Unless you have a specific reason to master to cassette from your 688, I'd avoid it in favor of burning to CDR, either via your PC soundcard or a stand-alone CD recorder.
 
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