AudioThing Type A

Description

VINTAGE ENHANCER

Type A is a plugin inspired by the famous Dolby® A Trick technique. The original unit was designed to be a noise reduction system for tape recording (encode stage) and playback (decode stage).

Type A emulates the encode stage, which was often misused as an enhancer, dynamically increasing the top end of a signal without introducing artifacts or altering the harmonic content. The results are similar to a dynamic EQ which adds presence and air to any track in a natural way.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

• Volume for each band
• Compressor Attack and Release
• Noise volume
• VU-Meter source selector

HOW DOES IT WORK?

To limit the amount of noise generated by tape recording, early noise reduction systems used what’s called a multi-band compander (compressor/expander). The unit dynamically emphasises the high frequencies during the encoding stage (recording to tape), so that during the decoding stage (playback from tape) the signal is attenuated, along with the typical tape noise. Type A emulates the encoding stage only.

The input signal is split into 4 bands (with the highest bands overlapping), dynamically compressed and then summed back with the dry signal. The amount of compression on each band is inversely proportional to the volume of the band. Quieter sounds get brighter while louder sounds remain almost unchanged.
This adds brightness and air without generating any new harmonic content or distortion, resulting in a more pleasant and natural enhancer compared to a typical exciter.