Every music maker is constantly in search of that special something that can make their mixes stand apart from the crowd. Like its namesake, Universal Audio's A-Type multiband dynamic enhancer plug-in is based on the Dolby Laboratories A-Type noise reduction system introduced in 1965. In basic terms, the original A-Type circuit is a compressor/expander (compander) with four frequency bands and individual compressors for each band. During the A-Type encoding process, lower-level signals are boosted while emphasizing high end frequencies often associated with tape noise. During the decoding process, the A-Type expands the signal back to the original dynamic range while reducing the noise that was boosted during the encoding process. However, despite their obvious utility for commercial studios, there’s an old studio trick with these modules outside of their intended purpose.
I had the opportunity to speak with Universal Audio’s Senior Product Designer, Will Shanks, about the impetus of the plug-in and the role that UA’s James Santiago played in inspiring A-Type’s development during his ongoing archival work of Sound City’s tape vault. Here’s what Will had to say: “The Sound City [Studios] plug-in [Tape Op #159] was really great synchronicity; James Santiago had asked Dr. Dave Berners [#69] for a decode plug-in because he was tired of fighting the aged A-Type [hardware]. It started life as a decoder. And if you’re going to make a decoder, you’re already making encode, so that’s Excite right there. But the plug-in that James used was just the decoder with a gain control so that you could send in your tones and set the meter to zero. It gave him the functionality of running the A-Type hardware. That’s how it started. We might refer to this as a ‘skunkworks project’ at UA, but it served a useful need for James. Dave is a compressor nut. I’m sure he knew what to do already, and just made it for him, and he started using it right away. James sent the loaner 24-track A-type analog system back to Alan Sides [#106], and that eliminated a lot of steps from the restoration and archiving process. You’re not dealing with flaky ELCO connections or bad card edges. It took a lot of the stress out of archiving. Almost all of the tapes at Sound City are A-Type encoded.” This is a noble use of technology. Will adds, “The good news is that you can run already digitized multitracks or masters through the plug-in, and get it flat.”
However, late at night, alone in dark rooms when no one else is listening, engineers like to fuck around and find out by using gear for unintended purposes. None of us were in the room when engineers such as Keith Olsen [Tape Op #33] and Roy Thomas Baker perfected and popularized the use of the Dolby Laboratories A-Type as an enhance or air effect on individual tracks. This truth is born through multitrack masters with specific tracks labeled “Do not decode!” You can hear these creative uses on records by Fleetwood Mac, The Cars, Queen, Journey – it’s that vocal spice we begin to hear on nearly every hit from the early ‘80s and on. Though A-Type’s utility as an archiving tool cannot be understated, the encode without decode classic studio trick that you can now use on your laptop (and studio) mixes is a shining example of what Universal Audio does best.
I was excited to get my ears on the A-Type as an effect. Universal Audio’s UIs have always been fun, and this plug-in does look like an old Dolby Laboratories 361 hardware unit but it’s definitely got its own thing going on. There are five primary modes (Excite, Expand, Air, Crush, and Gated) with clearly labeled bright-colored buttons. A large Amount knob adjusts the threshold with an auto-gain feature. A Mix knob takes care of parallel wet/dry adjustment. The old-school broadcast-style indicator can switch between input (IN) and gain reduction (GR) metering. The original hardware only had an input meter, and in GR mode, the meter can "look over the top." The three-position sidechain (SC) filter options include low cut, tilt, and off modes. On designing the UI, Will says, “The great thing is, if you’re emulating hardware you’ve got a lot of cues to draw from. I bought every permutation of A-Type hardware that I could find, so [the UI] is a bit of an amalgam of Dolby A-Type hardware, including some test equipment where the knobs came from, the Cat. No. 43 [Film Processor] boxes that actually had multiband, the 361, of course, and the original older unit – the 301. There are little nods to the complete history of the A-Type hardware.”
Expand mode is effectively the decode mode ideal for transferring Dolby Type-A encoded analog tape to digital. There’s a built-in A-Type EXPAND Stock HW Decode preset, or, when in Expand mode, users can click A-Type’s grease pencil marks on the Amount and Mix knobs for the same settings. Will notes that “The (original) A-Type was always monophonic; there was never a stereo version of it.” UA’s A-Type operates in stereo, multiple mono, or mono, which can be handy when restoring a stereo mix with, say, a left channel out of calibration, for example. Though it may take some tweaking, A-Type to the rescue!