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dbx, Inc. is an American manufacturer of professional audio recording equipment owned by
Harman International Harman International Industries, commonly known as Harman (stylized in all-uppercase as HARMAN), is an American audio electronics company. Since 2017, the company has been an independent subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. Headquartered in Stam ...
, a subsidiary of South Korea-based company
Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of ...
. It was founded by
David E. Blackmer David E. Blackmer (January 11, 1927 – March 21, 2002) was an American audio electronics engineer, most famous as the inventor of the DBX noise reduction system and founder of dbx. As well as audio noise reduction, Blackmer worked on extending ...
in 1971. The original company goal was: "To get closer to the realism of a live performance." Its early products were based on the concept of using decibel expansion which gave the company its name. dbx is best known for the dbx noise reduction system, a decibel
companding In telecommunication and signal processing, companding (occasionally called compansion) is a method of mitigating the detrimental effects of a channel with limited dynamic range. The name is a portmanteau of the words compressing and expanding, ...
system used for
noise reduction Noise reduction is the process of removing noise from a signal. Noise reduction techniques exist for audio and images. Noise reduction algorithms may distort the signal to some degree. Noise rejection is the ability of a circuit to isolate an und ...
in professional
analog tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...
recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...
that was in competition with
Dolby NR A Dolby noise-reduction system, or Dolby NR, is one of a series of noise reduction systems developed by Dolby Laboratories for use in analog audio tape recording. The first was '' Dolby A'', a professional broadband noise reduction ...
in the early
1970s File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War i ...
; though their systems did not gain as much traction. dbx is also the manufacturer of the Model 700, a unique but short-lived studio recording system, briefly popular in some circles as a mastering format.  Another early product was the eXpanded range DeciBel meter, a little solid-state meter that measured audio voltages both weaker and stronger than other bigger contemporary volume meters, built into an aluminum extrusion that was about the size of the meter itself, which was an earlier source of the company initials.  That dBx meter was related to their earlier CBS 600 extended range volume meter, developed and built at
CBS Laboratories CBS Laboratories or CBS Labs (later known as the CBS Technology Center or CTC) was the technology research and development organization of the CBS television network. Innovations developed at the labs included many groundbreaking broadcast, indust ...
.


Voltage controlled amplifier

The most important inventions of David Blackmer and dbx are the
Blackmer gain cell The Blackmer gain cell is an audio frequency voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA) circuit with an exponential control law. It was invented and patented by David E. Blackmer between 1970 and 1973. The four-transistor core of the original Blackmer cel ...
(a
voltage controlled amplifier A variable-gain (VGA) or voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA) is an electronic amplifier that varies its gain depending on a control voltage (often abbreviated CV). VCAs have many applications, including audio level compression, synthesizers and am ...
for
professional audio Professional audio, abbreviated as pro audio, refers to both an activity and a category of high quality, studio-grade audio equipment. Typically it encompasses sound recording, sound reinforcement system setup and audio mixing, and studio mus ...
) and the dbx RMS detector.  The original dbx 202 VCA was based on the Blackmer gain cell and was referred to as the dbx 202 "Black Can" VCA.  They were built using discrete transistors that were hand matched while running at an elevated temperature in an oven. While noisy and having significant distortion, they exceeded by far the performance of other VCAs of the time. These VCAs were used in most early automated mixing boards.


dbx compressors

In 1976 dbx introduced the dbx 160
compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transp ...
.  Using dbx's decilinear VCA and RMS level-detection circuits and feed forward gain reduction this compressor allowed much smoother gain reduction. The feed forward gain reduction allowed infinite compression without excessive distortion or oscillation.  It also allowed the compressor to track the attack and release times of compression based on the signal's envelope. The dbx 160 compressor also introduced OverEasy compression in which soft-knee gain reduction kicks in upon approaching a preset threshold.
/ref> A pro noise reduction card was the dbx k9, designed to fit into the pro dolby-A A361 frames, which were already in wide use in pro studios of the time, to reduce noise in reel-to-reel tape recordings.  One feature of the dbx system was an inbuilt noise-gate, to just shut off anything below a certain decibel level.


Acquisition history of dbx

dbx manufactured only signal processing equipment until bought by BSR in 1979. From 1979 until 1989, the brand name was also used for consumer audio equipment such as
speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...
s,
CD player A CD player is an electronic device that plays audio compact discs, which are a digital optical disc data storage format. CD players were first sold to consumers in 1982. CDs typically contain recordings of audio material such as music or aud ...
s and
amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the v ...
s. In 1989, the short-lived Carillon Corporation bought dbx. Sanju Chiba of
ELPJ Edison Laser Player (ELP) Japan is a Japanese audio equipment company started by Sanju Chiba, who manufacture laser turntables. The origin of ELP's turntable came from an American company named Finial Technologies, led by Michael Stoddard, who ...
acquired the dbx division of BSR and after virtually shutting down, the professional products division of dbx was sold off as a separate business to Orban AKG which in turn was bought by
Harman International Harman International Industries, commonly known as Harman (stylized in all-uppercase as HARMAN), is an American audio electronics company. Since 2017, the company has been an independent subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. Headquartered in Stam ...
. The
OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
business was sold to
THAT Corporation ''That'' is an English language word used for several grammatical purposes. These include use as an adjective, conjunction, pronoun, adverb, and intensifier; it has distance from the speaker, as opposed to words like ''this''. The word did not o ...
founded by members of dbx's engineering group. dbx once held key patents for MTS, the
U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...
for
stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
analog television Analog television is the original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio. In an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by amplitude, instantaneous phase and frequency, ...
transmission Transmission may refer to: Medicine, science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual transmission *** ...
, but in 1994 it sold those patents to THAT Corporation. In the present, they sell professional
digital signal processor A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor chip, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. DSPs are fabricated on MOS integrated circuit chips. They are widely used in audio si ...
s, equalizers,
compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transp ...
s,
crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...
s,
subharmonic synthesizer A subharmonic synthesizer is a device or system that generates subharmonics of an input signal. The ''n''th subharmonic of a signal of fundamental frequency ''F'' is a signal with frequency ''F''/''n''. This differs from ordinary harmonics, where t ...
s, and many similar products.


References


External links

*
dbx, Inc. home page
{{lowercase, title=dbx (company) Manufacturers of professional audio equipment Manufacturing companies established in 1971 American companies established in 1971 Harman International