Analog or digital?

[Funkeegirl]

So what does every-one think is better to record onto? Analog or digital and why?

[john]

Hey Katie

For me it's digital. I recorded in analogue for many years, and there are aspects I miss, but the quality and flexibility of digital wins out. At the end of the day most distribution media is digital, so a digital conversion will happen anyway.

The main thing I miss about analogue, in my current set up, is the tactile interface. Because many parts of the modern digital signal chain can use the same common knobs, buttons and displays as their interface, the lack of immediacy of dedicated interfaces slows down the creative flow. At least for me it does.

Cheers

John

[Alistair]

Digital - cos you can cheat and edit mistakes more easily without having to do another take!

[Marc]

Digital. I only recorded a few times in analog. I can't even think of an advantage for analog. Why? It's much more flexible, has more options, less time-consuming, less cluttersome, lets you be more creative and has better sound quality. Like John, I prefer a tactile interface, but you can buy some devices with sliders and knobs and configure it for software.

[Alistair]

Another advantage is that it is easier to sound more talented than you are with digital. I don't mean pitchshifting or 128 track vocals, it's much simpler than that.

I posted one of my tracks 'Both Ends Burning' on my ic-musicmedia site (link below - plug, plug) and actually got some fan mail from a person in Arizona (I say person because their name was Micah and I have seen that for both men and women). S/he wanted to send her compliments to me and 'the person singing with me'. I had to gently explain that they were both me.

I know this was possible with tape, just not as easy.

Actually, come to think of it, it's probably just as easy to sound less talented than you are with digital becuase generally you can't blame the sound quality!

[Steve]

Digital for me! I hated waiting for the tape to rewind..... :

[Funkeegirl]

I agree that digial gear is much easier to use than analog in many repects... but I've still not heard a track that can capture that analog sound - I think it's easier to record keyboards, programmed drums & electric guitar...but I've always found it hard to get a nice acoustic guitar sound from digi gear I mean this may be that I'm not using it right! lol But I've always favoured using the trusty old fashioned analog stuff - is that coz I've not come across the right program to use? What do you think? Do you notice that your music lacks that analog warmth when you record digitally? Or is it just me!?!?

<---My friend Lisa looks like this when she plays drums

[Alistair]

I agree that digial gear is much easier to use than analog in many repects... but I've still not heard a track that can capture that analog sound - I think it's easier to record keyboards, programmed drums & electric guitar...but I've always found it hard to get a nice acoustic guitar sound from digi gear  I mean this may be that I'm not using it right! lol But I've always favoured using the trusty old fashioned analog stuff - is that coz I've not come across the right program to use? What do you think? Do you notice that your music lacks that analog warmth when you record digitally? Or is it just me!?!? 

<---My friend Lisa looks like this when she plays drums

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, Katie, you are right about the acoustic guitar sound in digital. I find it sounds very flat in tone (even after I put new strings on) so most of my tracks have a tad of chorus added to fill it out more.

[Steve]

Personaly, I think the term 'Anologue warmth' was a phrase much bandied about by tape manufacturers, and is a way of describing hiss! Luckily! You can now get a digital plugin to add hiss, or 'Digital warmth' as it is sometimes aluded to...

[Marc]

Personaly, I think the term 'Anologue warmth' was a phrase much bandied about by tape manufacturers, and is a way of describing hiss! Luckily! You can now get a digital plugin to add hiss, or 'Digital warmth' as it is sometimes aluded to...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[FinnArild]

Personaly, I think the term 'Anologue warmth' was a phrase much bandied about by tape manufacturers, and is a way of describing hiss! Luckily! You can now get a digital plugin to add hiss, or 'Digital warmth' as it is sometimes aluded to...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What you can do on tape which until recently has been tough to do digitally, is the compression that tape provides. But plugins like Magneto handles that fine now. I think there's really no reason to record to tape anymore. 8 tracks - that's no more than I use for my backing vocals :-) ...