Here I go again.

I'm converting some multitrack cassette tracks to digital. The tracks were recorded on a Tascam Porta One with the DBX NR enabled. However, my Porta One is broken, so the tracks are being played back on a Tascam Porta 02 which does not have DBX NR. Therefore, the sound quality is compromised. There's a lot of hiss and it sounds like there's too much compression.

Is there any plugin effect that might restore some of the sound quality that was lost in this process?

Thanks in advance.

 

recover something that was lost? I don't think so. But when it comes to sound repair, for me, izotope is the best Ozone or RX ,
For the hiss, I would try Fabfilter eq 3 and treat the specific frequency.

 

u-he's Satin can do dbx encoding and decoding...

But you might be better, as stated above, doing some de-noising instead. Modern tools are really good at this.

 

You are not trying to recover something lost in this situation. DBX Noise Reduction not being applied means the opposite. That's why it now has "hiss". It was already there and had been attenuated by the NR. The "over compression" comes from drastically changing the Signal to Noise Ratio.

 

Last edited: Jul 24, 2022

Satin can decode dbx?
Good to know, thanx!

 

Thanks for the quick responses. That's good to know about the u-he Satin.

 

If I remember correctly there were external DBX units that served exactly this purpose. Looking on Ebay, the cheapest I found is the DBX II 122





You have to hope that the decoding is compatible with your recording (noise reduction tech specs have varied over time).
The good news is that the price of it is not high ($ 65): you can risk and buy it, maybe it works

An alternative "homemade" method is this:

Decoding DBX Noise Reduction using standard plugins
http://www.bobweitz.com/dbx_webpage/dbx.html
Basically, an equalizer and an expander are applied to the recording. I wouldn't exactly call it a correct procedure to solve the problem, but you can try to hear what comes out (it costs nothing)

 

u8yt

 

Last edited: Aug 12, 2022

All excellent replies. Thank you. I'll get to work.