TSR-8 and DBX

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dpholmes

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Question about noise reduction:

I have a TSR-8 which has DBX noise reduction onboard. If I record a track with the DBX on, does it have any impact on what hits the tape, or does it only filter the playback?
 
Listen for yourself. Record something with DBX and play it back without. It's not subtle.
 
I realize that there is noise upon playback, but I wasn't sure if the tracks were altered at all on the tape by having the dbx on during recording. I have never tried recording 1 take to two tracks, 1 with dbx, 1 without, hence the question.
 
I once owned a TSR-8 and I would not even think about recording without the DBX on. It was worth putting up with the slight artefacts of the DBX (slight change is bass tone) to get rid of the tape noise. By experimenting with how hard you can hit the tape you will find out what the DBX does, for example I used to hit the bass tracks to about +3 max as above that used to effect the tone too much, however I used to hit the drums tracks pretty hard.

Alan.
 
And when you’re recording bass frequencies such as kick drum or bass guitar turn the high EQ down on your mixing board for those channels. For example, if you have a 10k shelving EQ for the highs turn it all the way down. There’s absolutely nothing up there for bass tracks. It will reduce or eliminate and pumping and breathing artifacts, which are largely due to the high frequencies where tape hiss lives.

Dbx isn’t frequency dependent like Dolby, so when dbx expands to allow a signal through it opens up the entire frequency spectrum. You’ll hear tape hiss if the frequencies are all bass because there’s nothing there to mask the tape hiss on those tracks.
 
And when you’re recording bass frequencies such as kick drum or bass guitar turn the high EQ down on your mixing board for those channels. For example, if you have a 10k shelving EQ for the highs turn it all the way down. There’s absolutely nothing up there for bass tracks. It will reduce or eliminate and pumping and breathing artifacts, which are largely due to the high frequencies where tape hiss lives.

Dbx isn’t frequency dependent like Dolby, so when dbx expands to allow a signal through it opens up the entire frequency spectrum. You’ll hear tape hiss if the frequencies are all bass because there’s nothing there to mask the tape hiss on those tracks.


Tim B, I take it you meant "when you're playing back" the bass track.
 
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