raan@hp-pcd.UUCP (raan) (11/04/85)
>> I'm curious. Why get the best tape that you can? I seems to me that >> dbx would place less stress on the tape. This is because the signal is >> compressed and has no problem fitting above the noise floor and the >> signal ceiling. I have a Teac open-reel deck with dbx. I have experimented with several different brands of tape, ranging from cheap Radio Shack to Maxell XL-II (EE). The quality of the tape has a very noticable affect on the recording when using dbx. This affect includes the intensity of 'breathing' (tape hiss increasing with a sharp loud sound in the music). But, in the cheaper tapes, I also noticed some very strange distortions. The affect was to make a very sharp cutoff in volume at some point. Piano music had an unnatural decay rate, for example. It gave a sort of 'surging' quality to the music -- very annoying. The Maxell XL-II (EE) tape did not exhibit this behaviour at all. --- Raan Young Unix mail: [hplabs|uoregon|orstcs|harpo|microsoft|tekronix]->!hp-pcd!raan HPMAIL: Raan YOUNG / HP3900/50 US mail: Raan Young | Hewlett-Packard | 1000 NE Circle | Corvallis, OR 97330 Phone: (503) 757-2000 X2506 TELNET 81-757-2506