what's that cassete noise reduction trick again?

[creature.of.habit]

hi everyone.

i remember reading something about, recording with the noise reduction on, and playing back with it off...is this remotely it (the big "trick")?

sounds logical...i'm not bothering with the NR in my 244, but i want to try to mixdown/whack some final mixdowns to my teac A640 deck that has dolby in it.

just wanted to make sure i'm doing this right..

thanks!

[A.David.MacKinnon]

This all depends on the type of NR. If you record with DBX on and playback with it off you get loud/compressed/shiity sound. If you do this with certain types of Dolby NR you get a boost in the high end. I've heard of people using the dolby trick in tracking -Elton John used it on his piano - but not for a whole mix.
Then again, give it a shot and see what happens.

[creature.of.habit]

Dave,

yeah the NR on my deck is dolby, no problem there. i'm just trying to aproach this on a theoretical side first.

that's the way i find the most logical i guess.

the other option, recording with it off, and turning it on, on playback, would only yield a weird form of compression..is this correct to assume?

[Ken]

...and it would sound duller as well because it's clamping down on the high end.

Obviously, you can do a Poor Man's Dolby by recording things really bright and then bringin' down the high end on playback.

[puls]

Back in my cassette colleting days I remember I liked recording w/ dolby B on, but not playing back w/ it. Dolby c I liked to record and playback with it, I thought it improved the clarity & dynamics. When it comes to DBX though, I always recorded & played back on my 424 w/ dbx on. I thought it make a significant difference.

hope that helps

jwp

[creature.of.habit]

...and it would sound duller as well because it's clamping down on the high end.

makes sense..thanks Ken.

[creature.of.habit]

Back in my cassette colleting days I remember I liked recording w/ dolby B on, but not playing back w/ it. Dolby c I liked to record and playback with it, I thought it improved the clarity & dynamics. When it comes to DBX though, I always recorded & played back on my 424 w/ dbx on. I thought it make a significant difference.

hope that helps

jwp

it does jwp, thanks. thing is i can't escape the DBX decoding on the 244...i can escape the encoding i think by going through the aux ins or something, but the decoding happens at a later stage..it's fine, i don't dislike what i'm hearing there. sounds very good to me. my 22-2 is wrecked for now, so i thought, well i have a great old deck there, with dolby, might as well try to get some saturation out of it and use that old trick.

[Mason]

I am a huge fan of the "DBX Trick" with my 424 (record with DBX on, playback with it off).

For someone without outboard gear, it's a great way to impart a compressed 60s-ish (to my ears) sound to home recordings. My recording partner describes the treble as "God-like." I call it the noise enhancer.

On the strength of recordings using this method (hear them at www.myspace.com/thelevitations), we've snagged jobs making recordings that will be released on independent labels in the next year. It's a good trick!

[creature.of.habit]

very cool sounds Mason, i see what you're saying! PMed you some questions, hope that's ok.