Basslines: digital is not analog

[victorgonzales]

I thnk it is just the same as the difference between to digital synths. You can put two digi synths side by side and use the EXACT same settings and they will not sound the same. You can also take two hardware synths that are basically the same and have the same result.

You probably heard a hardware synths that you really liked and your basing your opinion of digital on that.

[staefn]

My friend (al) is a hippy and hates anything digital, only listens to vinyl and only listens to music recorded in the 60's and 70's. During my physics class when we were learning about Sound; up came the discussion of audio on digital devices (mp3's for example). And this was his reasoning for analog sounding different to vinyl.

Basically, everything on computers(digital computers of course); down to their roots; are made up of 1's and 0's. From images to videos and audio.
For example, to create a sine wave on a computer it would look like this

Code: Select all

        _
      _|  |_         
   _|        |_    _|
                 |_|

With the _'s being the 1's, and |'s being the 0's.

I included a picture


Were'as a true sine create on an analog synth would not have those sharp lines on it, it is pure and flowing bend; which is why some people say that analog sounds 'warmer' or sounds different.

Wether I agree with this or not is a different story, with audio being capable of 24bit 192khz (correct me if i am wrong, but our ears can't process that kind of sampling rate?) there really isn't much difference in the audio ITSELF (what kind of speakers and pickups you use is a whole different story).

The problem is, analog equipment contain interference from all sorts of things in the circuits, which add noise or clicks etc; hell it might even completely change the sound of the sinewave. That is why some equipment such as amps can cost enormous amounts of money, because it has really good noise cancellation.

If you ask me, whether audio is digital or analog, it is only going to sound as good as the equipment that it is being played threw. (that is if your listening to analog and 24bit digital audio).

If anything is inaccurate, please correct me!
I hope i helpt;


edit: Formatting was off

[gmschroeder]

*edit*
What the guy immediately above said.