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Analogue or Digital?
#1
I heard thee is an archives of recordings and that it is done in analogue because
they say, digital isn't as "true"

I am hearing old songs done digitally and they seem "thin" {void of something

I was listening to a tape that had run out of music but was playing back the ambient sounds from the room the recording was made in.

It was quiet, noise-wise, but it was not void of feeling, or so it seemed to me.


I wonder if an experiment could be done?

We'd need recordings of "silence" impregnated with emotion
like the silence in a court room, a funeral, a wedding ..
all the silent moments that are silent because
there is a strong thought, an emotion going into it.
Like a "pregnant pause"

record the ambient sounds in a "silent" room using both digital and analogue

I'd like to prove there IS some emotion transfered via the analogue
but not digital recordings.
The remakes of songs like Motown seem to me, very sterile when "digitalized".

I wonder if emotion can be felt in that "silent prenant pause" hidden in the hiss on a [not so] blank tape?

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#2
There is certainly a warmth that's missing with digitally mastered music. Quality might be better in some ways, but it's the organic imperfections (the same way as with photos and other media) that make the sounds more pleasing to the ears. In some cases though, since the technology has been getting more advanced, some older pieces have benefited by having hiss or pits taken out.

There are a lot of variables though. I mean, if you would do an experiment, you would have to simultaneously record on both analogue and digital means, and both should be set and mixed to the same levels (nothing fancy). That would reveal the differences.
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#3
Frankybonz Wrote:There is certainly a warmth that's missing with digitally mastered music. Quality might be better in some ways, but it's the organic imperfections (the same way as with photos and other media) that make the sounds more pleasing to the ears. In some cases though, since the technology has been getting more advanced, some older pieces have benefited by having hiss or pits taken out.
I agree. "warmth" that is another good way to put it.I wouldn have said "soul" or "bottom"
Songs had a beat you could feel and it goes missing when the same record is digitally remastered.
I have an album by Jimmie Reed at Carnagy Hall and another album of the same songs and
the housekeeper, who was most familiar with his music said: "it's missing the back beat"
Frankybonz Wrote:There are a lot of variables though. I mean, if you would do an experiment, you would have to simultaneously record on both analogue and digital means, and both should be set and mixed to the same levels (nothing fancy). That would reveal the differences.

what got my attention is a blank tape, no music, just silence.
I had gotten to the end of the tape, no room for another song but
there was an underlying recording on the tape that I needed to erase.
I chose to leave the mic open and just be still, recording "silence" till the tape ran out.
I was very full of emotions at the time.
I was being very still, not wanting any sound what so ever to be recorded.
It seemed to take For EVER to get to the end, lots of thoughts were going thru my head at the time.
It is now 6 years later and as I got to the end of the tape it sure seemed like there was 'something' in that silence that could be felt.

That made me think about the vibes a musician could have imprinted, along with the sound of the music.
Maybe that is what is missing? something we cannot yet measure?
I can [imagine] I hear northfork "poo pooing" my theory ..
He has strong vibes, he'd be a good choice for making the tape
~ maybe for the reason he'd like to refute it?
It'd have to be tested using people who had some psychic abilities or at least a belief in them.
There is a college out here that has classes in psychic phenomenon, maybe they'd want to try it?
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#4
Frankybonz Wrote:There is certainly a warmth that's missing with digitally mastered music. Quality might be better in some ways, but it's the organic imperfections (the same way as with photos and other media) that make the sounds more pleasing to the ears. In some cases though, since the technology has been getting more advanced, some older pieces have benefited by having hiss or pits taken out.
I agree. "warmth" that is another good way to put it.
I would have said "soul" or "bottom"
Songs had a beat you could feel and it goes missing when the same record is digitally remastered.
I have an album by Jimmie Reed at Carnagy Hall and another album of the same songs and
the housekeeper, who was most familiar with his music said: "it's missing the back beat"
Frankybonz Wrote:There are a lot of variables though. I mean, if you would do an experiment, you would have to simultaneously record on both analogue and digital means, and both should be set and mixed to the same levels (nothing fancy). That would reveal the differences.

what got my attention is a blank tape, no music, just silence.
I had gotten to the end of the tape, no room for another song but
there was an underlying recording on the tape that I needed to erase.
I chose to leave the mic open and just be still, recording "silence" till the tape ran out.
I was very full of emotions at the time.
I was being very still, not wanting any sound what so ever to be recorded.
It seemed to take For EVER to get to the end, lots of thoughts were going thru my head at the time.
It is now 6 years later and I am playing the tape.
The music ended and I was waiting to hear the cassette reach the end [click]
it sure seemed like there was 'something' in that silence that could be felt.
I can't be sure if it is my memory but I could step back into that moment when I was so uncomfortably poised over the recorder in silence.
It made me wonder if a person with some degree of psychic ability could read my emotions I imparted to the recording.

When I say "I imparted my emotion" I mean to say, my emotions were so strongly felt at the time I made the tape
Ithink Joe Average could have felt them through a Wall!

That made me think about the vibes a musician could have imprinted, along with the sound of the music.
Maybe that is what is missing? something we cannot yet measure?

I can [imagine] I hear northfork "poo pooing" my theory ..
He has strong vibes, he'd be a good choice for making the tape, maybe for the reason he'd like to refute it?
It'd have to be tested using people who had some psychic abilities or at least a belief in them.
There is a college out here that has classes in psychic phenomenon, maybe they'd want to try it?
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#5
A couple nights ago, I was up till about 4 am working on my portfolio for my interview. Before I went to sleep, I had the TV on in the background while setting up files and printing. I had on one of the public access stations, and they had a show on for Wired Magazine. I think last night's program was supposed to have something on this whole debate. From the sound bite, a person was saying something to the effect of, "If you have a well made EP record, without a question it's going to sound a hundred times better than an mp3." It's a bit vague to me, since I realize that there are so many variable that can go into this argument. How music has been recorded over the years has changed so much. Recording has been digital for a very long time (since the 70's or 80's I think, if not earlier), but even that has progressed significantly.

Going back to what we were talking about, there is the warmth of analogue recording that seem to be missing in the digital process. It's like digital is just too perfect.
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#6
"EP"? do you mean LP?
digital being "too perfect" I think is spot on.
sound, like color is a vibration a color like purple,
when isolated will appear different than when it is mixed
as in a sunset
If science were to isolate the properties of purple it may be different than when purple occurs naturally.
in other words, the beauty in the vibration could be in the way it interacts, so "isolating it" would take away from it.
I don't know how clear I am sounding ..
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