Analog vs Digital - yadda yadda...

J

jethani

New member
Hi Gang.

Maybe because my experience behind a recording console is limited, or because I am a member of the Gen-X digital era (or both), I simply cannot tell the much-discussed difference between an analog recording and a digital one.

I have heard musicians like Lenny Kravitz make the case for analog, citing its natural warmth, its natural signal compression, its inner-harmonic distortion. I have also heard musicians cite the clean, hiss-free nature of digital.

For the life of me, I can't tell one from the other, and I have tried. Are there any recordings out there that demonstrate the difference? A respected mentor suggested I invest in decent analog tape playback unit, and it made me wonder about this all over again.

With all the hype about digital units, is there any reason to choose analog?
 
Hi jethani,

Although I am no expert I think that if you sat down and recorded a song on a piece of analog equipment and then went and recorded the same song on digital equipment you would be able to tell the difference. For one thing you get some noise with analog. Professional recordings that are recorded on analog however, are usually digitally mastered I think, and the noise is gotten rid of.

Although there is a lot of hype about digital I went with analog because of the dough factor and so far I am very happy with my Tascam 424 four-track analog recorder.

Have a good one,

Tucci
 
Hey Jet Man:

It is very simple. When you hear any sound, through your system or CD or whatever, your ears hear analog. However, what your ears hear can be processed via the digital medium, zeros and ones, thus the very clean sound.

I have had two Tascam 488's and it took a while to get the hang of them. However, when I plugged in my Yam MD-8 digital recorder, the 488 became obsolete. With a digital deck, you push a button after a take, and you're right back to the beginning. No tape stretch or hiss, etc. Although I did cut some nice stuff using analog tape, the digital domain is the place for me. So to keep it simple, when you hear the sound, it's analog; sound can be processed via ciphers on a hard disc or other digital means and the digital processing makes the EAR hear better analog.Keep recording; it's a fun medium.

The Green Hornet
 
Thanks for the replies, guys.

I think I understand the scientific difference pretty well; it's more of the audial difference I'm unsure of. While digital makes sense in the age of information, I keep hearing about these mysterious inherent qualities surrounding analog tape.

No side-by-side comparison out there, huh?

Cheers.
 
IMHO, you're going to hear the most difference in lower-quality analog recordings (i.e. the kind most of us can afford). That's why digital has taken off...it gives you clean noiseless sound for pennies (relatively). Go into a studio and record on 2" analog tape and you won't hear much noise, wow, flutter, or any of that either, but a reel of tape will cost you $85 and the recorder itself, you don't wanna know...
 
Alot of what rock musicians say is hype and involves being "trendy, stylish and cool". In the studio with the multi-tracks and the expensive monitors, a difference can be heard (different does not mean better or worse) but by the time you get it in your CD player and home stereo the difference is gone. Maybe professional sound guys can hear it with the best home stereo and the best headphones, but very few others can and most simply do not care.

Even the analog tapes are made into digital to get them onto CDs.

(Of course the CD player converts it back to analog to send it to the headphones or speakers.)
 
It's hard to do a side by side comparison of something like this.

I would suggest doing some serious listening to some finished products.

Go get some Lenny Kravitz recordings. You pretty much KNOW that he is recording, mixing and processing using analog equipment.
Then, try to find some albums that you KNOW are digitaly recorded, mixed and processes. I can't think of a specific example of an album that I know was all done digitally. You'll have to do some research.

I've done quite a bit of analog recording, and I've only been doing digital for several years. I am still floored by the lack of noise in a digital recording.

With analog, IMHO you need to know a lot more and you have to be a lot more careful. In the digital world, just about anybody can produce a good sounding recording.

Also, remember the equipment is important, but it's all about the human touch in the end.

I've butchered both analog and digital recordings with poorly done effects and mixing.

I hope this helps you. I'd probably bet money that you'll end up in the digital world, unless your wealthy.

Happy recording!

Conrad Josepi
 
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