The Digital/Analog Dilemma

In going through some of my older issues of FSM, I came across an interesting, but in no way unique, situation: everyone seems to see the CD as the ultimate form of musical presentation. While I will agree that the digital age has seen a marked improvement of sound quality over previous decades, I must protest that analog is not the evil that it would seem to be, it has many advantages over digital reproduction.

I am by no means saying that I dislike digital technology. It is an excellent and economical method of mixing, mastering and storage. But it is not perfect, and analog sound reproduction has several advantages that fewer and fewer people seem to be aware of nowadays.

Despite the prevalance of digital technology, analog is still out there, and has found something of a niche in the high-end, audiophile community, and in the area of the recording industry, a large part of which is now returning to analog as a recording medium of choice. (Shawn Murphy recently stated that he prefers to record analog, and mix and master in the digital domain.)

Because I work in a record store, I hear about the opposition to analog constantly. Many of the people that consider analog inferior (and people making statements about it in the FSM Mail Bag) are probably people that have heard worn out, dirty LPs, and on top of that, probably heard them on a phonograph that hasn't been properly cared for, etc. Obviously, this is not optimum, and because vinyl is no longer widely distributed, this experience will probably often play a deciding role in how a person perceives LP sound quality.

In truth, not only can LPs sound as good as CDs, when properly mastered, kept clean and played on well tuned equipment, they can yield much better sound than CD. And I don't just mean the celebrated analog warmth, either.

If you're saying "whaaa...?" after that last statement, here is a brief explanation of what "analogue warmth" is. When analog is recorded and mastered, the sound undergoes slight alterations from the original intonation. Usually the effect is a pleasing one, emphasizing the presence of the low end while giving a sheen to the upper end of the overall recording (please realize, audio purists, before groaning, that recording engineers always take into account the method of recording and playback they are using and therefore balance their mix accordingly).

But LPs and other analog sound reproductions offer another advantage over the digital reproduction system and it relates to how the digital recording process works.

An analog recording is exactly that—the sound waves are captured and a corresponding representation or facsimile of that wave is reproduced. This facsimile is saved as a groove on a record, the arrangements of magnetic particles on a tape, or the image of the wave on the side of a strip of film.

When a digital recording is made (and I mean any digital recording, whether it is an original recording or the material is being re-recorded from an analog source), the sound is being cut into small pieces, essentially being placed into a binary mathematical form which is then encoded onto the reproduction surface either as pits in a disc such as on the CD or Mini-Disc, or also as patterns of magnetic material on a strip of plastic such as on the DAT, A- DAT or DCC. However, the digital signal is not a direct analog to the original sound wave, it is only a series of numbers (actually yes/no points).

Intrigued? Next time we'll go over the several disavantages of analog sound recording—and then get into the disadvantages of digital.

Tomorrow: "This News Friday" with Lukas—including answers to recent questions.