dolby b decode in software? at DVinfo.net

Seth Bloombaum · November 26th, 2005, 11:28 AM

I'm helping some folks who have hundreds of archival cassettes from 1968-1980 develop a workflow for capture and transfer to digital formats for long-term archive.

Upon review of the tape, it's hard to tell which cassettes were recorded with dolby b and which were not. Some of the tapes sound as if they more-or-less had dolby encoding; that the variations in tape stock, heads, and perhaps the encoding electronics mean that when switching in dolby b on playback it's hard to tell whether its sounding better... or if some tweaks on the decode might result in better sound.

Anyone developed a workflow for this kind of thing - the dolby encode is based on high freq. emphasis and expansion, then de-emphasis and compression on playback.

Anyone worked out the math to do multiband compress for dolby decode with vegas plugs or ozone or other multiband compressor and EQ? It would help the workflow of that project a great deal if we didn't have to spend time during capture figuring out whether to switch in the dolby, and then there's the need to tweak it too.

November 26th, 2005, 11:28 AM	#1
Seth Bloombaum Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,420	dolby b decode in software? I'm helping some folks who have hundreds of archival cassettes from 1968-1980 develop a workflow for capture and transfer to digital formats for long-term archive. Upon review of the tape, it's hard to tell which cassettes were recorded with dolby b and which were not. Some of the tapes sound as if they more-or-less had dolby encoding; that the variations in tape stock, heads, and perhaps the encoding electronics mean that when switching in dolby b on playback it's hard to tell whether its sounding better... or if some tweaks on the decode might result in better sound. Anyone developed a workflow for this kind of thing - the dolby encode is based on high freq. emphasis and expansion, then de-emphasis and compression on playback. Anyone worked out the math to do multiband compress for dolby decode with vegas plugs or ozone or other multiband compressor and EQ? It would help the workflow of that project a great deal if we didn't have to spend time during capture figuring out whether to switch in the dolby, and then there's the need to tweak it too.