Digital recording for £249 sounds too good to be true. Could DCC be the ideal mastering format for skint musicians?
![]() Price is the key element in the favour of DCC as a digital mastering format. While the cost of industry standard DAT (Digital Audio Tape) recorders remains artificially inflated to at least £500 for the cheapest unit, with an asking price of £249 DCC has a niche whether or not it eventually conquers the hi-fi market. This article looks at DCC as a potential digital mastering solution for musicians on the tightest of budgets.
| DCC flavours There are currently five main DCC models available from Philips offering a fairly flexible array of options. In addition to those listed here, there's also a car stereo model available. The packages here are based on prices and deals offered by DCC distributor SRTL (tel: 01243 379 834). A number of free DCC tapes are bundled with each of the models. SRTL also do a few bundles made up of various combinations of two different DCC decks. Bear in mind that Philips have discontinued the DCC range. You will need to obtain enough tapes to keep you going for some time. The discontinued status cuts both ways with prices being low to clear remaining stock. |
DCC was designed to wean people off analogue cassette tape and has many similarities to the old format. Its cassettes are the same size as analogue tapes but have their own subtly different design with a retractable metal cover that protects the tape, rather like that on a floppy disk. DCC decks can play analogue and DCC cassettes but recordings can only be made on DCC tapes. DCC tapes can also contain data for track markers and track titles to be displayed during playback. The documentation also says pre-recorded tapes can contain whole lyrics, although we didn't come across any.
Compensating for the compression, the sound is recorded at 18 bit resolution, which in effect gives you more headroom when making recordings from analogue sources (compared to recording at the 16 bit CD standard). Due to a bit of a cock up with the operating system design this is particularly important, as setting optimum record levels is much harder than it should be, as we'll discuss shortly. But assuming you've got that covered, DCC makes apparently perfect copies. If you use either of the digital inputs (optical or electrical phono) then this is all done automatically.
So it's fine as far as sound quality goes, but what if you're the only person
you know who has a DCC machine? At the moment it wouldn't be much use sending
out demos to record companies on DCC for the simple fact that hardly any will
have a DCC machine to play them on. When it comes to getting your music put
onto CD or vinyl you'll also have the problem that the cutting house are
unlikely to have a DCC machine. In this case you would have to take your
own machine, which may or may not be practical depending on which DCC model
you have and how flexible the cutting house is. The portable recorder and
playback units would obviously be more suitable for this.
Setting the recording level should be a very simple affair with a standard volume bar display as used on most analogue tape decks and DATs. However, a rather confusing dual numeric display is used instead. When set in record/pause mode with an incoming signal, the first number displayed is the continuous peak level, while the second number is the amount of headroom you have left before the sound will clip due to overloading. Both measurements are given in 'dB'. While this must have sounded very logical to the boffins who designed the system, most people will find it very confusing. The dB scale can be tricky to understand and the manual makes little attempt to demysify it. This will lead many to simply use the 'Over' indicator which appears whenever the incoming signal is too loud.
Most other operations are fairly simple and straight forward, although the system does have a few quirks. Now and again (for whatever reason) the mechanism has a tendency to thrash around with a newly inserted tape, as if it's confused or maybe trying to get a grip on the information on the tape. One discovery during our tests was that it's quite possible to buy 'bad' tapes that for one reason or another will not work on any DCC recorder. We had a brand new BASF 90 minute DCC cassette that refused to work on four different decks. While a poor quality blank tape will normally still work on an analogue system, digital systems like things more cut and dried: either it works or it doesn't.
Which DCC?Philips have made a fair attempt at producing a DCC machine to suit everyone. The DCC 730 is fine for anyone with a hi-fi separates system or a home studio set-up. Technically identical is the DCC 951, which offers a new style front panel (and some extra blank tapes) for £30 more. If you want portability then there's the DCC 170, a robust metal-cased Walkman-type unit that offers the same features as the 730. The playback-only DCC 134 is another portable option, but with the lack of commercial pre-recorded tapes this is only worth considering as a complement to a non-portable DCC recorder. The FW 68 is a complete mini hi-fi system which comes complete with speakers, and integral amplifier, tuner, CD player and a dual tape deck in which one is DCC and the other is analogue. | Table of Philips DCC models | |||
Model | Description | Free tapes | Price | |
DCC730 | Hi-fi separate style record and playback unit | 5 | £249 | |
DCC951 | Identical to DCC730 except for restyled front panel | 10 | £279 | |
DCC170 | Portable Walkman-style record and playback unit | 5 | £249 | |
DCC134 | Portable Walkman-style playback only unit | 3 | £150 | |
FW68 | Mini hi-fi system with speakers, CD, tuner & additional analogue tape deck | 10 | £399 |
Bearing these shortfalls in mind, it's really the £249 DCC730 which looks the most attractive option. DAT is the ideal choice for anyone that can afford it, but if you don't mind making a few compromises, DCC is well worth looking into at half the price. It has very little '' factor' beyond the realms of your hi-fi system and you might even have to put up with a bit of ridicule from ignorant members of the recording industry. If that bothers you then forget it. However, it's recommended as a stepping stone to DAT. If it's the difference between getting your first record released or giving up or losing momentum due to lack of funds then it's got to be worth considering. Even if you get a DAT soon after with your first royalty or advance cheque, the DCC can still be put to good use in your hi-fi stack.
Tony Horgan - Editor of CU Amiga Magazine
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