Friday, December 03, 2004
The Great Vinyl Debate
There is a marked difference between the music reproducion accuracy (usually we refer to this as "fidelity") of digitally recorded music as compared to analog-aly (?) recorded music. Whether or not humans can tell the difference is a subject of great debate.
Digital music (this includes CDs - even ones you buy in stores - it's digital) records sound by doing something called 'sampling' using a piece of hardware (sometimes software) called an ADC (Analog-To-Digital-Converter). So the recording device 'samples' the source sound a certain number of times a second. You can think of these as a series of points on a graph. If you connect the dots you get something close to the original wave form of the source signal (which is an analog signal inherently). There is a piece of hardware in CD players, (software on your computer can do this too) called a DAC (Digital-To-Analog-Converter - they drop the 'T' for 'To' for some reason) that 'smoothes' the signal out, connecting the dots, so to speak, and making the noise sound closer to the original wave. The CD standard samples at 44.1kHz, so that 44,100 times per second - which is pretty damned fast.
Also, digital music has a defined range, so that it doesn't record frequencies above x or below y. Now, humans can't actually hear all the way up to x or all the way down to y, so the original designers of the CD standard figured that it would be enough to make everyone happy if they recorded a few notches past what humans have the ability to hear.
True analog recordings have neither of these limitations - they record CONTINUOUSLY, and they record ALL FREQUENCIES (every frequency that the recording mechanism can handle, but good recording gear can get more than you might imagine). Audiophiles claim that the 'feeling' of these other frequencies and the fidelity of the continous recording provide a more accurate representation of the original source.
Here's some good info about this: HowStuffWorks
That being said, almost all music being produced now uses digital technology in some way, which defeats the analog benefit. If you're not specifically trying to keep digital equipment out of the process you'll wreck the analog-ness of the signal. One digital guitar pedal or effects processor or compressor or noise gate or anything causes the resulting signal to no longer have the fidelity of an analog signal.
So if there's popular music being released on Vinyl it's because the artists think it's cool, and it makes a very good collector's market. Nirvana released all of their stuff on Vinyl with the original printing of their records and many many singles. They were done in white vinyl or translucent vinyl or whatever and featured huge cover art and were printed in limited quantity. Very good collector's items.
So there you have it. Hope that helps!
Digital music (this includes CDs - even ones you buy in stores - it's digital) records sound by doing something called 'sampling' using a piece of hardware (sometimes software) called an ADC (Analog-To-Digital-Converter). So the recording device 'samples' the source sound a certain number of times a second. You can think of these as a series of points on a graph. If you connect the dots you get something close to the original wave form of the source signal (which is an analog signal inherently). There is a piece of hardware in CD players, (software on your computer can do this too) called a DAC (Digital-To-Analog-Converter - they drop the 'T' for 'To' for some reason) that 'smoothes' the signal out, connecting the dots, so to speak, and making the noise sound closer to the original wave. The CD standard samples at 44.1kHz, so that 44,100 times per second - which is pretty damned fast.
Also, digital music has a defined range, so that it doesn't record frequencies above x or below y. Now, humans can't actually hear all the way up to x or all the way down to y, so the original designers of the CD standard figured that it would be enough to make everyone happy if they recorded a few notches past what humans have the ability to hear.
True analog recordings have neither of these limitations - they record CONTINUOUSLY, and they record ALL FREQUENCIES (every frequency that the recording mechanism can handle, but good recording gear can get more than you might imagine). Audiophiles claim that the 'feeling' of these other frequencies and the fidelity of the continous recording provide a more accurate representation of the original source.
Here's some good info about this: HowStuffWorks
That being said, almost all music being produced now uses digital technology in some way, which defeats the analog benefit. If you're not specifically trying to keep digital equipment out of the process you'll wreck the analog-ness of the signal. One digital guitar pedal or effects processor or compressor or noise gate or anything causes the resulting signal to no longer have the fidelity of an analog signal.
So if there's popular music being released on Vinyl it's because the artists think it's cool, and it makes a very good collector's market. Nirvana released all of their stuff on Vinyl with the original printing of their records and many many singles. They were done in white vinyl or translucent vinyl or whatever and featured huge cover art and were printed in limited quantity. Very good collector's items.
So there you have it. Hope that helps!
Comments:
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Very good point. I hate when people are like "I'm cool, I have this on vinyl" but it is the vinyl you're talking about that is digital anyway. Or whatever. I DO on the other hand think that bands willing to go that extra step to produce something analog as WELL AS the CD (does that make sense? Or did I miss something?) kick ass.
-ME
-ME
# posted by 
: 10:32 a.m.
: 10:32 a.m.
I like it when bands do Vinyl releases too - I think it shows that they care about their "real" fans.
I just put it up here because I thought I could dress it up a bit more with some nice links and stuff, and also you're not the only person who's asked me that question....
Post a link to my site instead!
Thanks for the question by the way.
Post a link to my site instead!
Thanks for the question by the way.
Article on the same subject.Some of the better comments:
123As far as guitar effects go: "One digital guitar pedal or effects processor or compressor or noise gate or anything causes the resulting signal to no longer have the fidelity of an analog signal."
The point of an effect is not fidelity, but rather, to change the sound. If a DSP of some sort changes the sound in a way the musician desires, how is that worse than analog?
Personally, I don't use digital effects, but only because I don't use any effects at all. My electric guitar rig is Guitar>Amp, sometimes with a volume pedal.
However, I've recently set up a very modest recording rig around my computer. I've done some recordings not using my amps at all (normally I would either mic or take a direct line from), but instead running my guitar>Berhinger tube preamp>M-Audio USB interface>G5>Garageband, using GarageBand's amp simulations which are fantastic. The recordings sound great, and nobody has been able to tell that they were cut with falsies (as it were).
GarageBand, as a 'consumer' level product only allows for 44.1KHz/16 bit input (the M-Audio box can supply 96KHz/24bit). There's a marked difference between the quality of these amp simulations and the cheap digitalFX pedals.
Poor production and post-production work can ruin a recording regardless of whether it's analog or digital.
Digital recording is just easier for anything more elaborate than using a Fisher-Price tape deck when one is seven.
--jamie
123As far as guitar effects go: "One digital guitar pedal or effects processor or compressor or noise gate or anything causes the resulting signal to no longer have the fidelity of an analog signal."
The point of an effect is not fidelity, but rather, to change the sound. If a DSP of some sort changes the sound in a way the musician desires, how is that worse than analog?
Personally, I don't use digital effects, but only because I don't use any effects at all. My electric guitar rig is Guitar>Amp, sometimes with a volume pedal.
However, I've recently set up a very modest recording rig around my computer. I've done some recordings not using my amps at all (normally I would either mic or take a direct line from), but instead running my guitar>Berhinger tube preamp>M-Audio USB interface>G5>Garageband, using GarageBand's amp simulations which are fantastic. The recordings sound great, and nobody has been able to tell that they were cut with falsies (as it were).
GarageBand, as a 'consumer' level product only allows for 44.1KHz/16 bit input (the M-Audio box can supply 96KHz/24bit). There's a marked difference between the quality of these amp simulations and the cheap digitalFX pedals.
Poor production and post-production work can ruin a recording regardless of whether it's analog or digital.
Digital recording is just easier for anything more elaborate than using a Fisher-Price tape deck when one is seven.
--jamie
# posted by : 4:38 p.m.
: 4:38 p.m.
Insightful as always Jamie. Thanks for the link - my viewers appreciate it!
I agree with what you wrote too. Especially the points that the REASON you would use digital effects is to change the sound without regard for fidelity ( - Actually, if the digital processor you're using produces 44.1kHz - 16 bit sound, you're technically going to get %100 fidelity anyway right!) and also that Garageband's 'spoofing' of guitar rigs and different effects is astounding for a consumer level product (that is practically free)
I recently bought a CD (actually it was a vinyl record that came with a CD) that was done by a Canadian rock band called "C'mon" (which are fantastic, by the way. Lindsay will again vouch for my correctness on this subject) which proclaims on the back of the jacket "Recorded All Analog" - which is pretty cool. And VERY rock!
I agree with what you wrote too. Especially the points that the REASON you would use digital effects is to change the sound without regard for fidelity ( - Actually, if the digital processor you're using produces 44.1kHz - 16 bit sound, you're technically going to get %100 fidelity anyway right!) and also that Garageband's 'spoofing' of guitar rigs and different effects is astounding for a consumer level product (that is practically free)
I recently bought a CD (actually it was a vinyl record that came with a CD) that was done by a Canadian rock band called "C'mon" (which are fantastic, by the way. Lindsay will again vouch for my correctness on this subject) which proclaims on the back of the jacket "Recorded All Analog" - which is pretty cool. And VERY rock!
Send me an e-mail and I'll reply with a little mp3 love if you'd like. jard@our.former.haunt.ca
I tried your old address, but it bounced. Apparently but me has moved on with their e-mail lives. . .
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I tried your old address, but it bounced. Apparently but me has moved on with their e-mail lives. . .
# posted by : 11:27 a.m.
: 11:27 a.m. << Home
