I've been mixing to my Ampex 440 B (1/4 inch 15 ips with 456) and my mastering engineer suggested getting a Dolby SR unit. He said they sound great and increase dynamic range.

Any opinions on the SR series? A pair is going around $1000. Is it worth it?

I will go on record as saying that Dolby SR is worse than the problem it "cures."

Since they drift, the cards need to be calibrated, which nobody ever does. If the tapes are played back on a system that isn't calibrated, they won't sound right, even if they are encoded properly. Mastering guys used to recommend that the very cards used to record the tapes should be used for playback (you have to ship them with the tapes). This isn't an issue for a static multitrack system, but all the cards in our multitracks get moved around (for repair, troubleshooting, etc.) and I don't like systems where the potential (or likelyhood) of error is so apparent.

I have only used SR once, and I thought it made small quiet sounds (high-hat steps, non-syllabic vocal sounds, cymbal decay) sound weird -- almost like there was an auto-wah filter on them. It may have been an out-of-calibration system, but that makes my earlier point for me.

I'm not into it. I don't find noise to be a problem in practice, as long as track management is reasonable.

Good luck.

We have an Otari MTR-100 at my work with SR cards. I tend to use SR when running at 15 ips on wide dynamic range material. Honestly I've never looked into the calibration of the cards, but now that it's been brought to my attention it's the next thing I'm gonna check out before my next session. I've never had a problem with SR fucking with the sound in a way i didn't like, though I've always only used one machine for recording and playback.

For two track mixdown, I don't know if the compounding noise reduction would be such a hot idea. If one channel in 24 is off, i can still get a good mix. If you have an SR issue on a stereo mix, it's going to be really apparant.

have you tried calibrating your machine for 499 or GP9 (+6 or +9)? that might help get the noise floor down a bit.

ben adrian

benadrian wrote:have you tried calibrating your machine for 499 or GP9 (+6 or +9)? that might help get the noise floor down a bit.

Barry,

I second that. 456 sounds good but it's pretty noisy. You're probably better off using a higher output tape for dynamic material (GP9 is great) and avoiding the problems Steve mentioned.

It's good to hear you're mixing to a 440. I have one as well and I really dig it, although I've had trouble getting the low end flat so I haven't mixed anything to it yet. What procedure to you follow when you bias your machine? I've noticed that the bias level affects low frequency response pretty significantly.

Steve- do your statements above reflect your opinions on noise reduction in general or just SR?

-Chas.