Steve, Dolby NR?

[GoldenBoy]

Steve,

I was just wondering, when you remaster a recording that used Dolby NR, do you play it back with or without NR on? And what are your thoughts on using NR in general?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts on this issue. :)

[Angel]

Don't mean to answer for Steve, but he did discuss this with us once.

He said that if the original master tape was Dolby A encoded, he of course played it back using a Dolby A decoder, but not just ANY Dolby decoder, he used one similar to the one used in the era of the recording. Now THAT'S dedication.

Dolby decoders changed over the years and the "sound" changed with them, so Steve only uses the type that match his old tapes. Totally boss.

As for whether Steve H. likes to use Dolby noise reduction on mixes in general, he can answer that, but I think Dolby SR noise reduction is the only Dolby device Steve likes.

[Steve Hoffman]

Hi GoldenBoy,

Angel is right, that's what I try to do when I play back vintage tapes that have noise reduction. I really HATE old Dolby A tapes, because if the Dolby tone is off or (as in MOST cases) there is NO dolby set up tone on the master tape, I'm screwed. We have to wing it, and I hate doing that.

So, I prefer no noise reduction at all. But Dolby SR is a BIG improvement over Dolby A. Some tapes mixed or recorded with SR sound pretty darn good.

Don't confuse these Dolby processes with No-Noise or any other computer "after the fact" noise reduction scheme BTW.

[Dan C]

I understand that a dbx unit was used for Steely Dan's Katy Lied LP, and they ended up with a lousy master. Has Steve come accross any dbx masters? What do you think of them?
Thanks!
Dan C (new member, post as 'marantzman' over at the asylum. This place is way cool!)

[Steve Hoffman]

Hi Dan,

Welcome and thanks for posting!

DBX. Well, they had an idea that (to them) worked:

Totally compress the signal on recording and UNcompress it during playback using the DBX box-----Tape hiss vanishes!

Trouble is, it's pretty hard to compress a signal and then uncompress it without some bummer artifacts being added.

So, to answer your question, the only DBX tape I've ever encountered is "Katy Lied" by Steely Dan.

Now, I remember some DBX LP's that Columbia released in the very early 1980's. They sounded pretty good, but it was weird listening to an LP without any surface noise whatsoever. Made me a little uneasy actually. :)

[GoldenBoy]

Steve,

Thanks for the response. I never realized that using Dolby could be such a pain in the rear. I persi\onally never liked Dolby NR. When I was still into buying cassetes back in the '80s, I would always play them back without NR turned on, and when I was using reels in my home studio, I would either not use NR, or I would record with it initially and then mix without it, which to me gave pretty reasonable results, though many may argue with that.

[Richard Feirstein]

Steve; Sony and others issued CX encoded vinyl back then, just prior to the release of the CD, not DBX. (Although they could have put out a few of those, but I don't know). I still have my CX encoded disks, including Blood on the Tracks, and my hand made CX decoder.
:D

[Steve Hoffman]

Same principle, wrong company I guess.

Thanks.

How do they sound by the way?

[Bob Lovely]

All,

I have CBS DBX encoded LP's by Blood, Sweat & Tears and Loggins & Messina...with a round silver DBX sticker on the cover. They were other titles issued. They were quite expensive at the time and difficult to locate.

Bob

[Andrew]

Vox reissued some classical LPs DBX-encoded, although they (and the format itself) seemed to vanish rather quickly.

[Richard Feirstein]

The many CX encoded disks were standard price and intended to replace unencoded disks (producers objected since undecoded they sounded a bit compressed). They sound great. Good quiet vinyl was used. CX in a slightly less compressed version, was used for the first stereo laser disks until they needed room for the Dolby Digital technology. I will pull it out again to see if my W. Nelson CX disk (Star Dust?) sounds as good as the new SACD release.

[Paul Chang]

Originally posted by Steve Hoffman
I really HATE old Dolby A tapes, because if the Dolby tone is off or (as in MOST cases) there is NO dolby set up tone on the master tape, I'm screwed. We have to wing it, and I hate doing that. Wing it? With buffalo wings? The hot sauce is kinda sticky. Could you elaborate, Master Steve? :confused: