Jim I enjoyed the rambling.
I dont want to rob this thread too much more, but there are some things that I think cause some people to prefer the idea of analogue.
1 its what many have grown up with and are used to.
2 Analogue equipment has on the whole a sympathetic way of coloring music. Digital has not.
Put both well sorted out studio systems against each other and you will find a mixture of digital and analogue will be best.
Try bouncing tracks in the analogue domain. Its a joke, and very lossy. In the bad old days you would then have to re EQ to bring the life back into the bounce bringing even more noise and signal path. Bouncing digitally you wont be able to tell the difference.
Digital can be lifeless and crunchy. It can also be utterly breathtaking.
Regarding the recording techniques like using auto tune and so on. Again this is a tool which speeds up the recording process and can be used well or just turned off!
Years ago producers spent weeks on vocals dropping in words and so on to fine tune a take. There is no money in the music industry anymore. Not like it was, so the process of making the product has changed. I can promise you, no one in it would go back though, apart from for the budgets.
In the beginning we were sold that digital was perfect when it was not. Now it is different, although people are still judging it by talking about out of date equipment and software. I hear lots of people trashing digital and then when you ask what they are using, its some rubbish 10 years old or even older.
Regarding the upsampling or non upsampling debate, I think it is all about implementation. You just have to find the right player (maybe the ARC CD8... See what i did there?!). DACs are much better now and the understanding of what the problems and solutions are is clearer.
My hifi source uses DSD, and upsamples red book CDs to DSD. It is astonishing. Whatever you listen for.
Now I must apologize for my rambling. Happy listening.
I dont want to rob this thread too much more, but there are some things that I think cause some people to prefer the idea of analogue.
1 its what many have grown up with and are used to.
2 Analogue equipment has on the whole a sympathetic way of coloring music. Digital has not.
Put both well sorted out studio systems against each other and you will find a mixture of digital and analogue will be best.
Try bouncing tracks in the analogue domain. Its a joke, and very lossy. In the bad old days you would then have to re EQ to bring the life back into the bounce bringing even more noise and signal path. Bouncing digitally you wont be able to tell the difference.
Digital can be lifeless and crunchy. It can also be utterly breathtaking.
Regarding the recording techniques like using auto tune and so on. Again this is a tool which speeds up the recording process and can be used well or just turned off!
Years ago producers spent weeks on vocals dropping in words and so on to fine tune a take. There is no money in the music industry anymore. Not like it was, so the process of making the product has changed. I can promise you, no one in it would go back though, apart from for the budgets.
In the beginning we were sold that digital was perfect when it was not. Now it is different, although people are still judging it by talking about out of date equipment and software. I hear lots of people trashing digital and then when you ask what they are using, its some rubbish 10 years old or even older.
Regarding the upsampling or non upsampling debate, I think it is all about implementation. You just have to find the right player (maybe the ARC CD8... See what i did there?!). DACs are much better now and the understanding of what the problems and solutions are is clearer.
My hifi source uses DSD, and upsamples red book CDs to DSD. It is astonishing. Whatever you listen for.
Now I must apologize for my rambling. Happy listening.
