You guys that have one with DBX, I suspect possibly abuse the DBX encoding method by playback without it...am I wrong or am I just hearing things in some of you guys' tracks?

You mean playback with DBX on tracks without DBX encoding?
Or reverse? Either way I'm going to try it when I get mine fixed.

C

Reverse...record with dbx, play without.

I've tried experimenting with it and have found I like the results when I record a tape with dbx 'on' then do playback with it 'on' while its bouncing to my sp or daw.

Still have some research to do so i actually understand the whole process better but it seems to add some nice hiss and compression

Very interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dbx_(noise_reduction)

DBX on makes a very distinctive sound that I think can be abused knowing how it works...I'm going to do some experiments on it, but overall...it sounds recognizable as a method of production on some people's tracks here, like they do post EQ while playing it off their 4 track onto final tape...

Example?

I have the 414mkII and DBX sucks ass. Its like timestretch on an SP-303. I didn't like recording with it on either, kinda takes away frequencies that I wanted on the original and felt like it was stressing the tape too.

On my boom box though, DBX sounds awesome. Too bad the newer Tascams don't have DBX on their digital series.

Is dbx like a digital bass expander effect or is like a Dolby noise reducer?

noise reduction

Yeah, its a Dolby Noise Reducer. Suppose to remove the hiss and make it cleaner but to me it was useless.

I upgraded to the DP-01(Now rocking the DP-03) for the clean digital sound lol! For real, the tape hiss and debris made my music muddier than it already was.

ive got the prtastudio 244 from 1981 and its at my mums at the other side of the country

got all new shit replaced but its the size of a house. my late 90s fostex is
sooooo much smaller i just use that but that shit isnt stereo

its amazing the difference different machines and different tapes makes

I have this nakamichi 500 4-track unit. It has noise reduction and it also has this other feature I'm not totally familiar with. When you flip one of the switches it plays a pure sine tone without any other audio. It has a Dolby logo next to it so prolly something to do with that stuff.

I'm like most people here, I don't like what the limiter does to my tracks so I don't use it. HS maybe post some comparison examples so we have a better reference point.

^ looks real nice man! probably sounds nice too.

Bad ass. I want. I don't think it is a 4 track though looks like a 2 track. (just bought one on Ebay actually!)
http://www.hifiengine.com/library/nakam ... acer.shtml

manuals- has info on sine wave gen and also Dolby noise reduction (actually applies to original topic of this thread!)
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5n8e5zj296mrc5c/Xz7CJwWbZx