"UnsteadyKen" wrote in message
...
Serge Auckland wrote...
Sad in a way, but my PC does infinitely
better recordings with a lot less faf.
The cassette format has had a good lifespan, nearly
50 years now isn't it? I got a used MiniDisc deck 3 years ago
and am very pleased with it. Ideal for digital recording from DAB
and DVB the editing/naming facilities are super for that sort of
use. Sadly I seem to have climbed onto the bandwagon just as the wheels
were falling off. 3 years ago there were 3 sources of blank discs in my
town now there are none and its a 20 mile hike or fleabay. Looks like
Sony are giving up on MD after only 16 years.
On Dolby C; 5/6 years ago I picked an old Aiwa cassette deck at a car
boot just because it had C. I noticed a lot of pumping on recordings I
made,one in particular, some Synth pop stuff was so bad that it had me
on my knees in a fit of giggles at the poor thing. Was this a
characteristic of C or was it just the Aiwa?
--
Ken
http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/buddyduck/
Dolby C was effectively two Dolby B processors cascaded, and working at
different frequencies. In fact, the earlier implementations which both
Nakamichi and AIWA had was made from exactly that, two Dolby B processors
with different filter components. Then, some years later, an IC was released
that had B and C on one chip, but, it was incompatible with the earlier
implementation, probably not far enough out for the general public, but
clearly audible if you had your machines well lined up. I had a Nak and
bought an AIWA for my Dad so the tapes I made for him were compatible.
Anyway, Dolby B was sensitive to alignment, and Dolby C doubly so. If you
found Dolby C to give you pumping noises, then I'd say the alignment was
out. Tape machines had to be aligned to 1dB on Dolby tracking if pumping was
not going to be audible, and the only way of doing that, was to get the
machine aligned to one formulation of tape, and stick to it. Even sticking
to one manufacturer was no guarantee, as they kept "improving" their
formulations so they could put a "new, improved" sticker on the packet, but
which screwed-up the alignment totally. In the mid-80s, I saw many if not
all "enthusiasts" saying they didn't like or use Dolby as it screwed up the
sound, and in every case that I investigated it was due to poor line-up
and/or inadequate machines that couldn't be aligned accurately.
In the studios where I worked in the mid '70s, we realigned the tape
machines every morning, as Dolby A tracking was critical, perhaps we could
have got away with realigning once a week, but it showed that alignment was
crucial. Translate this now to domestic machines that usually never got
aligned, and it's no surprise that the Hi-Fi fraternity never took to Dolby.
With my own machine I realigned it every time I did a recording, and it was
a right faff.
Dolby, especially C, was a great system, but it required a degree of
maintenance that just wasn't possible for the consumer, so very few heard it
working properly.
S.
--
http://audiopages.googlepages.com
Tape and Dolby
Hybrid Mode
