Digital vs Analog
This is an interesting topic of digital vs analog. It's one that seems to be more emotionally driven, more than anything else. Since I'm in the biz of music production I'll share my area of expertise.
Honestly, there is no better format. Why? Simply put- they both have their deffiencies. One thing needs to be clarified here; there's really no such thing as "digital audio" ... Really! Why? Because if you were to hear an actual digital bit stream, you would not be hearing anthing but "noise" (if indeed you could hear RF). Don't believe it? For an example, just listen to the noise a dial-up modem makes- it's "noise". Nothing intelligable there, right? So therefore, no such thing as digital audio... not for humans anyway. ALL audio (i.e., music, voice, etc) is in fact ANALOG. That's indeed what it is... point blank. Yes, I realize that you probably already know this. But U'd be suprized at the people who don't.
Remember "Digital Ready" speakers and headphones? Hmmm...! Fact is, there is NOTHING digital about 'em! It was (and still is) a sales gimmick. Don't belive it? Then just try put'n a digital bit stream into 'em (be it AC3, Dolby, etc) and see if it'll decode it back to intelligable audio. Won't work! They're NOT digital ready.
Now- for validation sake, yes, you CAN in fact, hear audio SOURCED from a digital medium, such as a CD. Those wonderful little 1's & 0's that are of course matmatical representations of audio, ALL have to eventually go thru a little device we call a "D to A" (aka Digita to Analog) converter. So there ya have it... BACK to ANALOG! That's the way they work... Sorry digital guys, but that's life!
Now I'm not gonna get into quantum phisics, as in, talking about the tape granulation of an analog recorder somehow being like digital bits... Nope! That's just pusing it a bit too far and that therum lacks acuracy.
Ok, now to answer the issue of weather digital is better than analog. all's I can say, the digital mentality is certainly in current fashion and it certainly has big advantages that certainly make audio much more easy to manage, manipulate, edit and store. Yes, it has those wonderful advantages! I work with them all the time... AND analog too. Keep in mind, that I'm not gonna snow you. I'm in the recording/production buisness and we use it all... Really! Yes, even outboard tube equipment... and it sounds really great!
To really sum it all up, just think of the differences of digital and analog, like the difference between standard and automatic transmissions. One is obviously more easier to use, while the other is more labor intesive, but is very reliable efficient when used properly. They both work within their mean and they work well and we STILL use both.
I can honestly tell you, that if I gave you a blind side-by-side listening test of something that was originally produced in the analog and digital domain,
I dare say that you really won't be able to tell the difference. Again, the quality is in the hands of the producer and engineer.
Another point you'll find interesting, is that here in Hollywood (and elsewhere), we are now mastering to "Fat track" analog machines. These are generally half-inch or 1-inch, 2-track analog machines we're mastering to to BEFORE they go to CD. A lot of the top artists are being mastered in this fashion.
And if you talk to (or read about) recording engineers like Bruce Sweden and Al Schmidt (some of the big pros), they'll tell U that they gladly work with both formats... digital and analog... from the Sony and Mitsubishi DASH formats, all the way over to the wonderful analog Studer A827 2-inch
24-track machines.
I will not lie to you tho about analog machines. They are not ruler flat! They don't really have to be tho, as long as they come reasonably close. If you compare certain details, such as flatness across the entire audio spectrum such as THD, phase relationships, freq responces, wow 'n flutter, the digitals usually win. Altho there IS a caveat to these specs; digitals' weak points can be with the A/D and D/A coverters. Inexpensive coverters can lead to aliasing and certain noise and phasing problems. In either the case of analog or digital, good quality components and equipment, usually translate to great quality sound production.
Here's some informative sites about analog and digital:
http://www.focusedaudio.com/articles/artcF-T_9910_AnalogNotDead.html
http://www.sorcerersound.com/studer.htm
http://www.echopark.com/analog.html
http://www.timjordanrentals.com/Ultimate Analog.htm
So whether analog or digital, there's NO free lunch, folks! Hope this sheds a little light on the subject.
Bob
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I'm writing a paper proving that digital audio is better then analog audio. It's a research paper and I need "professional" opinions and quotes on the matter. If you work in the field or know a lot about it, please post a quote here and leave your name and where you work. Thanks for the
help.