Adding warmth to digital

[Scott Tansley]

Here's another obvious difference that nobodies mentioned.
Analog desks.
Just like magnetic tape still (??probly) beats the sampling of converters, so too does the analog mixing beat the mathematically calculated mixdowns from a DAW.
Particularly on drums.
For example. turn up the faders for the drums on an analog desk ( a good one that is) and compare that with a computer drum mix.
They still "MIX" better. And warmer.

The "FATSO Jr" is a good compromise if you want to buy something.

PS.
I still prefer the sound of drums and guitars from 2" tape.
But bass and vocals seem to be better in digital.

 

[Son of Mixerman]

What tape width does the current converter bandwidth match or exceed at the present time?

An Otari MTR90III has a response of 50hz to 22khz at 30ips and 30hz to 20khz at 15 ips.

I should have added the following:

Converter bandwidth comparison for tape width against:

Different recording software/ HD systems
Alesis and Fostex ADATS
DAT
Roland and other DAW's

There are lots of variables in that list, tape has better bandwidths since most of the older digital converters were typically designed to focus on the CD format which is limited to 20hz to 20khz.

Professional digital mastering equipment.

Enquiring minds want to know.

OK here is the mother of all A/D converters, check out the bandwidth here... 10hz to 55khz

http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/adcs.htm ... So load up a few of these into a DAW and some serious hardrives...
The only thing Im not sure what filter 1 is, it seems it might be a first order noise shaper combined with dithering on the input conversion? So it would seem based on the webpage that digital now has a wider bandwidth. But remember also that the consoles do make a big difference in how something sounds (mentioned previously by Scott).

So how much data (music) is stripped on the way to CD?
Obviously your not going to keep it all, because CD's only hold 16/44.1 compared to 24/192, and if your dithering, it really less than 16 bit of music.

SoMm

 

[Sennheiser]

Thanks for the reply.

So I'm not doing too bad at 40Hz-20kHz at 15ips?

That's +/-3dB at 0 and -10 VU with a S/N ratio of 92dB with DBX.

 

[Michael Jones]

An Otari MTR90III has a response of 50hz to 22khz at 30ips and 30hz to 20khz at 15 ips.



There are lots of variables in that list, tape has better bandwidths since most of the older digital converters were typically designed to focus on the CD format which is limited to 20hz to 20khz.



OK here is the mother of all A/D converters, check out the bandwidth here... 10hz to 55khz

http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/adcs.htm ... So load up a few of these into a DAW and some serious hardrives...
The only thing Im not sure what filter 1 is, it seems it might be a first order noise shaper combined with dithering on the input conversion? So it would seem based on the webpage that digital now has a wider bandwidth. But remember also that the consoles do make a big difference in how something sounds (mentioned previously by Scott).

So how much data (music) is stripped on the way to CD?
Obviously your not going to keep it all, because CD's only hold 16/44.1 compared to 24/192, and if your dithering, it really less than 16 bit of music.

SoMm

SoMm, that is great info on analog tape resolution!
I always wondered.

I use Steinberg's 8 i/o AD/DA converters, and they publish its frequency response AD/DA, -0.1 dB: 5 Hz - 21.5 kHz

Pretty decent.

Someone said something about truncating the bits, but quality dithering, down to 16 bit is of equal importance to resolution.