Since we’ve been running quite a few noise reduction terms in WFTD lately we have been getting a fair amount of questions pertaining to it. While the specifics may vary, the theme is often similar to this question from one of our inSync readers:
“I have Dolby S on a 3-head recorder. While I agree that it makes a wonderful recording, much of the equipment that I would use to playback the recording does not have Dolby S, but rather Dolby B or C (or dbx), or no noise reduction at all. Are there any ways that Dolby S can be used compatibly with these systems?”
In a word, no. This is the one downfall of most of the better noise reduction systems. They really can’t be used unless the playback equipment is equipped with the same system (though people sometimes incorrectly use Dolby B that way) for decoding. This is one of the big advantages of the Dolby HX Pro headroom extension. It requires no decoding. If you are unsure what sorts of noise reduction capabilities are available on the destination machine(s) for your tapes you are better of to use none at all. Just get really high quality tape, calibrate your machine to it, and slam the levels as high as you can without squashing the hi frequencies. I’ve been able to make phenomenal sounding cassettes with good tape and no noise reduction this way.