lo.fi.love
Functionally obsessed.
Hey strangers, it's been a long time since I wrote here! I still keep tabs and I'm glad to see everyone's doing well.
I recently aligned my Tascam 48 for BASF PEM468, with 0VU @ 355 nW/m (0VU is +6 over 185). Previously it was aligned for 0VU @ 250 nW/m. It suits the music I'm working on, because the material I'm recording has a pretty narrow dynamic range and I don't need a whole lot of additional headroom.
Since I aligned my deck, dbx noise reduction seems to make virtually no difference on nearly everything I record with it. I mean, I'll do a test-take with dbx engaged and disengaged and when monitoring off the playback head the difference to my ear seems nil.
Could it be that dbx NR has a certain threshold for usefulness? As in, is there a certain point where dbx NR offers no real benefit most of the time? I'm asking this only because I'm sort of shocked that a +3dB change in operating level would lower the noise floor by so much, and because virtually every Tascam deck I know of is mated with dbx units.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or maybe some personal experience you can share?
Thanks!
Jeff
I recently aligned my Tascam 48 for BASF PEM468, with 0VU @ 355 nW/m (0VU is +6 over 185). Previously it was aligned for 0VU @ 250 nW/m. It suits the music I'm working on, because the material I'm recording has a pretty narrow dynamic range and I don't need a whole lot of additional headroom.
Since I aligned my deck, dbx noise reduction seems to make virtually no difference on nearly everything I record with it. I mean, I'll do a test-take with dbx engaged and disengaged and when monitoring off the playback head the difference to my ear seems nil.
Could it be that dbx NR has a certain threshold for usefulness? As in, is there a certain point where dbx NR offers no real benefit most of the time? I'm asking this only because I'm sort of shocked that a +3dB change in operating level would lower the noise floor by so much, and because virtually every Tascam deck I know of is mated with dbx units.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or maybe some personal experience you can share?
Thanks!
Jeff