I'm trying to get the best playback sound with my 4-track (tascam 424mkII), and it's got a dolby dbx feature. strange, when recording in w/ dolby OFF, the sound is very muffled when it's turned on during playback.

when recording with dolby ON, the playback is somewhat muffled. but then switching it off during playback gives me a way brighter sound, but it seems to add some unwanted compression and hiss. should i just keep dolby on when recording and mess with the eq? i'm not too impressed with the narrow freq range of the highs and mids... anybody good with this kind of stuff?

yo you got me thinking here. I was searching for them dman dolby feature for like 5 mins... until i realised i had the 414 mkII...

fuck.

thanks anyway Rabot

learn to love the compression and hiss KEL

i'll take that advice!!

i have the same "trouble" with the yamaha mt120.
i finally decided to never use the dolby. the sound is too much aggressed.

well i read in the manual that the dolby allows you to record at +10b without distortion, so i tried that (even though highest db on the meter readout is +6), and it worked pretty well (just had to turn the highs way up)... sounds good

oh yes, sorry i didn't explined well, i meant that i decide to never use dolby during listening the recorded tracks...(in reality i never used it during recording, had to check that)

haven't used my 414 for ages because it is broken, but i remember dbx being very good on that one, I am getting a 424 soon, wondering if anyone knows the difference in sound qualities between the 2 ?

i think you need a type II cassette to take advantage of it, or it sounds muffled. altho i've had little experience with cassette multitracks so I really have no idea lol. want one though!

cassettes for multitracks recorders must be chrome ones (cro2), type II should be ok.

here's a recording, and old track i played manually out the 404 into the 424, dolby on at about +10db with the highs boosted on playback, with some subtle reverb from another 404 hooked up to the effect send. sounds great to me!

http://www.box.net/s/cjkb2edxd5e07hnxur4k

and here's the original for comparision:

http://www.box.net/shared/84nouaxaio

listned to monitors
i like both, great track man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the tascam version is however more "full" while the original show some more dynamics. this not negative, depending on what you search. personally i tend to like the tascam version more, but it's maybe just 'cause i like it "full"...guys, what else?

thanks Ella, i'm using a TDK 'type 1' cassette. Also got a few maxell tapes called 'xl2 (type 2?)... these are the maxell tapes i used to use back in the day...

the snare (finger snap) on that track represents the highest frequencies i am usually able to achieve using the resample technique. i pitch almost all of my samples down, so usually all of my music comes out sounding pretty dark/muffled. having an eq section is nice. i'll do a comparison between type 1 and type 2 cassettes next...

yes do it please