Dolby 361-A

[IzzyRock]

I own this little piece of equipement and its the best stuff I ever and will have.
It just makes everything sound INCREDIBLE

It adds that amazing "air" to the vocals (ala deff leppard), and you can use it for bass, acoustic guitars, snare drum, almost anything.

After using the dolby for vocals, you dont need to eq it at all, it just sounds wonderfull.

I've seen a lot of "armonic exiters" and stuff like that in focusrite preamps and etc, but they dont sound like the dolby, its a unique sound!

what do you guys think? anyone tried it before?

[msrecprod]

Here's a question along those lines. A lot of mixes coming from CLA and John Shanks (the new Ashlee Simpson) have an up front distortion thing on the vocal. I'm guessing this is some type of modded Dolby box. Anyone know what I'm talking about.

[nbrecording]

Originally Posted by IzzyRock

I own this little piece of equipement and its the best stuff I ever and will have.
It just makes everything sound INCREDIBLE

It adds that amazing "air" to the vocals (ala deff leppard), and you can use it for bass, acoustic guitars, snare drum, almost anything.

After using the dolby for vocals, you dont need to eq it at all, it just sounds wonderfull.

I've seen a lot of "armonic exiters" and stuff like that in focusrite preamps and etc, but they dont sound like the dolby, its a unique sound!

what do you guys think? anyone tried it before?

Queen were using the "Dolby A effect" on the voxes etc back in the 70's.....

[Ruudman]

Originally Posted by IzzyRock

After using the dolby for vocals, you dont need to eq it at all, it just sounds wonderfull.

I think you must congatulate yourself or the performer rather than the box.

But it's a fine unit.



ruudman

[warhead]

I have witnessed its use in a mixdown and it was a pretty cool sort of exciter effect. It was a 301 unit with the low end card pulled.

War

[BVB]

I have a 360 with CAT 22 to add that (h)air to the vocals.Nice piece of gear.
Seems that also Peter Gabriel used it.
You have to set it to "encode" mode only.

Greets

Paul

[warhead]

Don't mistake me for a techy guy, but at one point I was interested in a 301 and liked the fact that you could pull the low end card out to disable processing on that band. You can disable the low end processing of that 361 model, the info I'm posting below will net you identical results with a 301 (the original Dolby A), same as pulling the low end card.

An old email response I received from them:

***********************************
Hello -

It is indeed theoretically possible to disable the low-frequency band ("band 1") of a model 360 or 361, but it means getting at the edge-connector into which the Cat.No.22 noise reduction module plugs.

With the top cover removed, and looking from above and from the front, the lower pins are numbered 1 to 16 from left to right. The upper layer is lettered A to T (omitting I and round letters, that is G, O and Q), again left to right. To disable band 1, you need to connect a link between pin F (6th from left) and pin T (ground, at the right hand end). Incidentally, bands 2, 3 and 4 are pins J, M and S.

In addition, in case it is useful, the output impedance at those pins is 2K2, so if instead of a wire you connect a suitable resistor (or even a potentiometer) from a pin to ground, you reduce the degree of compression in that band.

Finally, I strongly recommend that any links or resistors be connected to the edge-connector socket, not to the corresponding fingers on the plug-in module, because it is all to easy to ruin the module.

I hope this may be helpful.

regards

Dolby Customer Support
***********************************

Hope this info helps someone. It took weeks of correspondence with them to get this info! The original Dolby A 301 units are almost impossible to find, while the 360 / 361 can be found fairly often.

Notice they also gave me info on adding a pot to be able to control each band externally if you wish!

War

[cookiekixx]

Thank you SO MUCH for posting that. It saved me 200.00!

chris coady

[warhead]

Originally Posted by cookiekixx

Thank you SO MUCH for posting that. It saved me 200.00!

chris coady

Very welcome.

War

[jimmyz]

This is an old thread so I dont know if it will get to you guys but can anyone give me an idea of how much I should expect to pay for a used 361 unit with the cat .22 modules?

Warren, great post thanks. I heard a 301 in action for the 1st time (although I've heard it on many a finished record) and I think the 361 is the way to go for me. Plus the mods you posted.

Thanks,

J

[Bassmankr]

There is already another thread on modding a Dolby cat #22 card for the Dolby trick. It's a simple matter of clipping one end on two resistors so it's an easy thing to reverse. Having a Dolby A301 and doing the 361 with cat #22 card trick I can say that it does not sound as good as the A301 but is still usable. By pulling the one card on the A301 you are actually disabling two of the four compression bands, the low and the low mid so if you decide to mess with War's pinout instead of cutting the two resistors mod on the cat #22, keep that in mind. My guess is that you could just use some non-conductive tape on those two pinouts on the edge connector and reinsert the card (low and low mid bands) thus blocking those two bands.

[mac black]

i love it !

[rob S]

the mod to the cat 22 card is doing the same thing.
it is bypassing two of the bands.

[warhead]

That is info I received from Dolby, but it wasn't long ago somebody else here on the boards refuted that info. I'm not a tech...please investigate further and be sure!

War

[Bassmankr]

"the mod to the cat 22 card is doing the same thing.
it is bypassing two of the bands."

Yep that's what is happening but the different part selection/circuit layout on the A301 plus the HUGE power section (about a third of the unit) accounts for most of the sound difference between it and a modded cat #22. Just pick up a newer Dolby and mod a cat #22 card, its cheap (Dolby 361 w/Cat #22 on ebay, under $100, probably under $75) and a useable effect. To me it's a no-brainer for the project studio guys starting to build an outboard compressor/effects rack. Cat $22 cards are $20 on ebay by themselves for the guys that want one modded and one un-modded for different effects.

[rufus13]

$100 each, local sale. Essentially perfect/complete/operational and UNMOLESTED by circuit bending freaks. These had Sowter transformers inside. 1971 and 1975 dated. Both needed basic power supply upgrades (filter cap leaking).

Cheers.

[sleestack]

what does an unmodded 361 do to the sound?

[andre tchmil]

I have two Dolby 361 units here , ready to go.
One with the cat 22 card, the other with the Telefunken C4 card.
PM me if someone is interested.
Located in Belgium, europe.

[rufus13]

Originally Posted by sleestack

what does an unmodded 361 do to the sound?

I suspect that the best use of a 361/Cat.22 is as NR on an analog tape deck. Narrow-gage tracks are hissy and NR can kill some of that. Brightens and sounds a little compressed if used as a single-ended processor. Not very controllable, not as useful as a parametric EQ and a dynamics controller. Moving the microphone and instructing the talent can work well.

The tape deck solution to noise is wider tracks and faster tape, or going to high-quality digital. In the days of analog decks only, Dolby saved studios and stations money by allowing narrower and slower tape at a -10dB noise advantage. This is a non-issue for the past 10 years in audio. Dolby on film analog soundtracks still works great.

Why does everything sound better through a Dolby 361A in an otherwise mediocre system? They have good line-drive amplifiers and transformers, even in "bypass". They have good stuff inside, and they cost a small fortune in the early 1970's.

Cheers.