BAHAHAHAHAHA, if an audio forum didn't have the most cliched audio topic in the world...and an OP laughing from behind the screen...it just wouldn't be an audio forum.

Just the mere and initial name of the topic stimulates the desire for pointless debate and exciting troll hysteria, regardless of what the OP is about...

Will you resist, or will you fall for the never ending, everlasting, torment filled hell hole that is the debate of Analog vs. Digital?

CAN YOU RESIST????

CAN YOU!!!!?????

CAN YOU!!!!????

 

That's a topic!
One thing is for certain, Analog will always be there, unless we teach our brains to decode PCM data. Analog is in itself PURE, it's an ideal representation of untranslated, raw electric signal with no bandpass and/or dynamic range limitations. It's an equivalent to floating-point PCM.
Digital is much more 'bordered', you still need ADC converters to get that limitless boundless signal to ones and zeros. Digital brings lots of unnatural noises, like aliasing.
Of course even though that path is far from lossless, digital recordings are surprisingly listenable

 

I like both

 

to me analog is like nice natural big juicey tits, and digital is plastic surgery big tits...It's still ok, and I would still like to rub my face around them, but if you put it next to some natural big tits and I had to choose, I would take the natural big tits any day...

However, not alot of women have natural big juicey tits, and the ones that do are mostly plastic due to the lack of big natural juicey tits, so natural means aren't enough and is very limited to certain women...so we have to take the big fake tits instead, which still does the job...but man those natural big tits have so much more dynamics and spread...FUCK!

See where I'm getting at?

 

have you met the wife? 100% natural

 

I need a face massage man...

and no I haven't met her...ahem...

 

I've suffered a few panic attacks I can tell you

I'm hijacking the topic, will stop now

 

Unbelievable

EDIT: Hijacking? Dude, I'm hijacking my own topic lawl...this was the intention SHHHHHHH...

 

I will let you into a little secret, I am a ham radio operator (aka amateur radio = posh CB) and when speaking to guys (and gals) over the airwaves you can usually tell if someone is using an old analog valve transmitter or a modern day digital black box

 

I'm pretty sure you could totally tell *yes*

 

You too?

Anyway for this topic:
Even in this digital era, I used to work with analog tapes a lot, about 2 years ago. I recorded live concerts to 24/96 but also to VHS Hi-Fi tape.
Once I recorded live piano to VHS and it sounded SO sweet. After ADC stage, the sweetness was gone.

Yep, I did a lot in analog and I liked it. Analog in that sense is great, but only audio enthusialists can
tell/appreciate the difference.

I also used to write about tape preemphasis and RIAA equalization curve for LPs in times when CD was considered obsolete

I can always publish my album on MC or VHS, but how many consumers still have decent equipment to play it?

 

wHAtS anALOG n whaTS DigiTaL???????!!???

 

Very true Andrew,

every good audio engineer should have a go at exploring recording to a tape reel. Some Top Class audio engineering schools still teach it for the sake of appreciating and understanding...and it still has it's uses especially for conversion and remastering old music and audio...

But how about:

DIRECT STREAM DIGITAALLLLLLL

 

You meas SACDs, their 2.822MHz sample rate and 1bit bit-depth?

 

yep DSD may have been a failure at first...but the future may support it again...it's the closest you can ever get to analog...

 

True, but I'd welcome HDCD encoders too. HDCD is backwards compatible with Audio-CD and still offers 20bit bit-depth on compatible players.

Pacific Microsonics sold their licence to Microsoft long ago. Microsoft treats it as dead technology, but if there was an publicly available encoder, that format would gain its popularity again.

On the other hand, who needs 20bit in today's zero-dynamic-range era? I do hope the loudness war ends someday. Then we can have a chat on how to innovate digital technologies to produce better analog signal

 

Anything that gets me as close to Analog as possible I'm fine with. DSD is the only format that doesn't create a stress reaction with people, which is pretty cool and utilizes it's own DR technology...which is also pretty cool. You can DSD all the way *yes*

Loudness war has pretty much ended long ago...good engineers have figured out a way to make tracks really loud while still maintaining dynamic headroom...I've heard enough popular tracks to feel convinced of this. Everyone else is just doing it wrong and trust me...they have the freedom to do so, and we have the freedom not to care. We don't need to fight for the end of loudness...it is the way it is... *yes*

 

You're right again. Today's movie soundtracks do have better DR than 4 years ago. *yes*
Maybe I sleep in a cage (not to be confused with J. Cage ) with a thought that there's still a battle outside. Time to open the hatch and find out

It's bedtime, see you tomorrow guys

 

trust me man, I've observed many tracks from certain genres and while there are still those engineers that brick wall the crap out of their music, there are still many tracks that sound super loud yet have a wealth of headroom and dynamics *yes*

One good track is 'Bad Selection' by Deadmau5...check that track out...so loud, yet so dynamic, with plenny of headroom. Believe me when he plays that track out in his shows, it sounds AMAZING!!!

BTW Andrew, would you be able to play me a recording of your Duduk? I've just had an idea that I could put the sound into a Granular synth and mangle it...or do some other crazy things with it for my sample library. :dancing: