Recording engineers using tape would usually push recording levels up into
the red.. This produced a saturated effect on the tape somewhat similar to a
compression type effect. This produced a warm, full sound.

Try to push the levels into the red with digital and you just get clipping.


"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"paul packer" wrote in message

On Fri, 26 May 2006 09:45:58 +1200, "Geoff"
wrote:

Mr. Tapeguy wrote:
James Price wrote:
I was reading an interview with Tom Scholz (Boston) in
which he was asked what his beef with digital is. He
replied as follows, however I'm wondering if others
agree with his assessment?


You know we could get into a lot of technical
gobbledygook as the forums often do but the bottom line
is how do you like the way it sounds? Digital has many
advantages over analog but I think all of us oldtimers
find the analog sound to be warmer and more pleasing in
a number of ways. Ultimately that's the test.

So ultimately we may ask a string quartet to perform
through a veil to make it sound like analogue recording ?

geoff

This is very witty, but though I don't advocate a return
to LPs I can understand what about them attracts people.

Yup sentimentality and ears that are far enough gone so that they don't
hear all of the bad stuff that the LP format adds.

When I listen to a live orchestra in the concert hall it
somehow sounds "analogue' to me, not digital.

Speaks to your unfortunate experience with bad digital, Paul.

In other words, I don't hear treble "glare" nor experience
listener fatigue.

Time to upgrade your system, Paul.

And ultimately live music has to be the criterion.

It's like Paul even knows what real-world live music sounds like, even in
his dreams.

"roke" wrote in message


Recording engineers using tape would usually push
recording levels up into the red..

No such rule exists.

This produced a
saturated effect on the tape somewhat similar to a
compression type effect. This produced a warm, full
sound.

No, it produces a mushy sound.

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"roke" wrote in message


Recording engineers using tape would usually push
recording levels up into the red..

No such rule exists.

This produced a
saturated effect on the tape somewhat similar to a
compression type effect. This produced a warm, full
sound.

No, it produces a mushy sound.


Rules my hole. It was/is common PRACTICE to drive the signals and saturate
the tape. This gives more 'headroom' than digital (thus greater dynamics).
If you listen to this phenomenon on analog recordings (analogue recorded
vinyl on good equipment) you will find it has a warm effect and will not
sound flawed. Digital, however, has virtually no 'headroom'. If distortion
occurs it is very brash and sounds very flawed.
"Digital preserves music the way that formaldehyde preserves frogs. You kill
it, and it lasts forever."

"roke" wrote in message
...

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"roke" wrote in message


Recording engineers using tape would usually push
recording levels up into the red..

No such rule exists.

This produced a
saturated effect on the tape somewhat similar to a
compression type effect. This produced a warm, full
sound.

No, it produces a mushy sound.


Rules my hole. It was/is common PRACTICE to drive the signals and saturate
the tape. This gives more 'headroom' than digital (thus greater dynamics).
If you listen to this phenomenon on analog recordings (analogue recorded
vinyl on good equipment) you will find it has a warm effect and will not
sound flawed. Digital, however, has virtually no 'headroom'. If distortion
occurs it is very brash and sounds very flawed.

Your ignoring the lower noise floor of digital. There is no reason to clip
in
digital recording.

"Digital preserves music the way that formaldehyde preserves frogs. You
kill it, and it lasts forever."

If your gonna clip everything...yeah... but that's just incompetent.

ScottW

"roke" wrote in message

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"roke" wrote in message


Recording engineers using tape would usually push
recording levels up into the red..

No such rule exists.

This produced a
saturated effect on the tape somewhat similar to a
compression type effect. This produced a warm, full
sound.

No, it produces a mushy sound.

Rules my hole. It was/is common PRACTICE to drive the
signals and saturate the tape.

It can't be common practice any more, because hardly anybody still uses
tape.

What people did when tape was all they had is pretty irrelevant here, more
than 20 years later.

This gives more 'headroom' than digital (thus greater dynamics).

Horsefeathers, tape does not give more dynamics than good digital.

If you mean that distorted sound tends to sound "louder" than undistorted
sound, then that's true, but so what?

If you listen to
this phenomenon on analog recordings (analogue recorded
vinyl on good equipment) you will find it has a warm
effect and will not sound flawed.

You call it warm and unflawed, I call it what it is - distorted.

Digital, however, has virtually no 'headroom'.

Horsefeathers. Good digital has far more dynamic range, and therefore its
far easier to run with lots of headroom.

If distortion occurs it is very brash and sounds very flawed.

If you can set levels to avoid that, how incompetent are you, anyway?

"Digital preserves music
the way that formaldehyde preserves frogs. You kill it,
and it lasts forever."

Nonsense. The worst thing that can be said about good digital is that the
signal that is played back is indistinguishable from the signal that was
recorded.

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
. ..
[snip]

Horsefeathers. Good digital has far more dynamic range, and therefore its
far easier to run with lots of headroom.

If distortion occurs it is very brash and sounds very flawed.

If you can set levels to avoid that, how incompetent are you, anyway?

"Digital preserves music
the way that formaldehyde preserves frogs. You kill it,
and it lasts forever."

Nonsense. The worst thing that can be said about good digital is that the
signal that is played back is indistinguishable from the signal that was
recorded.
Arny, in support of your point, I relate the following. I have been using a
Sound Devices 744T to record musicians in public places in NY. I've made a
number of beginner's mistakes. But with two stage optical limiting, and
immense headroom in the mike circuits, the sound is still impeccable. A
friend of mine, a tubophile, remarks that it doesn't sound like solid state.
It doesn't sound like anything. It is simply a superb recording device.