Noise Reduction (poll)

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 2:32 am

What kind, if any, do you use?

decocco · Post by **decocco** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 7:21 am

No NR for me. I generally record at 30 ips. But even at 15 ips, no NR.

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 7:41 am

none for me right now, but i want to get an SR frame for the A80.

john

ofajen · Post by **ofajen** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:22 am

I used NR on my Nak cassette for a year or so, back in the early '80s, and then quit. I used dBx NR on my Otari 4-track for a bit back around 1985. Nothing since and no desire to mess with it. Hiss is how I know how loud to turn it up.

I pretty much record and mix at 15 ips. IEC1 on the Otari 8 track helps a tad. I'm actually going to look at the possibility of modding my extra set of cards for my 3M M-23 1/4" machine to use the Ampex Mastering Equalization curve at 15 ips. That should net about 4 dB in hiss reduction compared to NAB.

Cheers,

Otto

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:50 pm

I used to like using an outboard prosumer dolby unit on some tracks of my old tascam 80-8. I think it was dolby b? The deck came with an 8 channel DBX unit which sounded awful. I have since heard that a lot of hiphop and R&B guys LIKE the sound of DBX compared to dolby. I always thought it took the edge off of things too much and made them sound plastic.
At the time I was mixing demos for punk bands I would mixdown to a Tascam 122 cassette with dolby C, always!
Since I was doing mostly punk stuff with lots of consistent volume I almost never needed NR except for the odd song that had a quiet intro.
I wish I had hung on to the DBX unit. I cant help but think it couldbe modded or salvaged for something useful. 8 DBX VCAs in it!

gpiccolini · Post by **gpiccolini** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:46 am

I don?t use NR in my Telefunken M15. But recently I get my hands on a Telcom C4, and started to experiment with it. I?m not winning the battle ATM. I need a manual to fully understand it (anyone can help?). Maybe it?s not working properly... 4 channels but one way only. Weird connections routing and design.

I never liked DBX on Tascam38 nor 58. I don`t think I`ll try it again in my new ATR60.

ofajen · Post by **ofajen** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:28 am

ofajen wrote:I'm actually going to look at the possibility of modding my extra set of cards for my 3M M-23 1/4" machine to use the Ampex Mastering Equalization curve at 15 ips. That should net about 4 dB in hiss reduction compared to NAB.o

Oops. Obviously, I meant Jay McKnight's proposed Studio Mastering eq, not AME. No LF rec boost and upper transition frequency of 6300 Hz, twice that of NAB. IEC1, of course, is 4500 Hz, which is OK, too, but since I'll have to mod individual components on the cards, it will be just as easy to go with the higher transition.

Cheers,

Otto

A.David.MacKinnon · Post by **A.David.MacKinnon** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:29 am

Dolby S for me and no complaints.
Used to use the DBX units on my Tascam 38. The trick to make them sound good was to turn them off on the channels where you don't need them - loudish drums. electric guitar etc - and only use them on the stuff with extra wide dynamic range - vocals and the like.
Also, DBX noise reduction is compression and expansion so the harder you hit it the more squished and shitty it'll sound.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:46 am

At the last analog place I worked, the common philosophy was that you used dbx for speech but not for music.

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:41 pm

I liked DBX on things that already sounded kinda synthetic. But it would just ruin guitars, cymbals, anything that once lived in air.
I used to really like dolby, but then I got into just trying to run all the tracks "naked" and mixing to mask whatever hiss you got.
Honestly, I think the older tape formulations must have more hiss, When I was using brand new 1/2" 456 I never got too much hiss to really care.

gpiccolini · Post by **gpiccolini** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:59 am

junkshop wrote: Used to use the DBX units on my Tascam 38. The trick to make them sound good was to turn them off on the channels where you don't need them - loudish drums. electric guitar etc - and only use them on the stuff with extra wide dynamic range - vocals and the like.
Also, DBX noise reduction is compression and expansion so the harder you hit it the more squished and shitty it'll sound.

Nice explanation, thanks

bestmixerever · Post by **bestmixerever** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:17 am

!5ips with SR on an A800 is the shit. You need an octopus to align it, but with the recession, I hear you can get 'em cheap.

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