Does the average listener really care if its analog?

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What a weird discussion this has turned into :)

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Well, someone is claiming to be a God among us mere mortals. You never know, he might be right. In which case I think it'd be wise to get into his good books and start sucking up to him, see if I can get him to pull a few strings, maybe end world hunger or squish the music industry under his thumb or something :hihi:
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Blue-eyed Blonde Ape wrote:
It's a real life's reflection, take a look around
Most things in nature and human behavior can be modeled in a bell-shaped curve.

But most things musical follow a logarithm or logistics curve, as does most human perception.

Mapping between these two is difficult, and attempting to do so may be futile and is almost certainly counterproductive.

I don't expect anyone to understand what I'm suggesting, but it is highly relevant to the relationship between music and the female sexual behavior that Ape is ape-handedly trying to oversimplify.

It's amusing to me that different observations of common (even universal) behaviors can lead to heated arguments (this thread doesn't even register much on that spectrum :-)

Love these discussions where people from different geographic locales and different age brackets try to find common ground in their observations and assumptions. Betting there are more males than females on this board, which probably makes a difference.

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God has massive hardware
And a crass video to play
She doesn't give a crap about analogue
She doesn't care either way

God owns all the synthies
But just makes songs that suck
But if you ask her about analogue
She doesn't give a f...
Q. Why is a mouse when it spins?
A. The higher the fewer.

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Regarding the question, I hope not because everyone making music using DAW and plugins is making "digital music", including me :? Digital is not exactly a compliment, I take it.

I think analog sound might actually be mistaken for the kind of music made when technology was till analog. I can make music on my DAW and plugins that sounds pretty much like music did 30 years ago, not only the type and style of music, but also the different sound and production (more compact, fewer high and very low frequencies, less dynamic etc.). Actually, that is exactly what I try to do. I like the old Quincy Jones/Bruce Swedien sound from the late 70s and early 80s. MJ's song Get on the Floor for instance. (Although that song was already quite dynamic for an analog song. But it still sounded compact somehow.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ierY2nOVX64

What also plays a role is that 30 years ago synths were rarely used in many genres. That MJ song for instance probably did not feature a single synth, not even a Rhodes piano. Thus of course the human element is so much more present, it allowed for a flow that I rarely hear with modern music. Good luck trying to play that bass line on a VST :D
Last edited by fluffy_little_something on Sun Apr 20, 2014 8:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Imagine if every track on tubular bells was all perfectly in time and tune - it would loose all its character.

Oh hang...he did that to it...and it lost all its character!
Q. Why is a mouse when it spins?
A. The higher the fewer.

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fluffy_little_something wrote:Digital is not exactly a compliment, I take it.
I like a lot music that sounds digital and doesn't even try to sound "warm" or "analog".

Cheers
Dennis

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Bronto Scorpio wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:Digital is not exactly a compliment, I take it.
I like a lot music that sounds digital and doesn't even try to sound "warm" or "analog.

Cheers
Dennis
I bet you could record some physical instruments and say it was from a VA synth and some people would say it was too digital and thin

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I like both. They both bring something.

Does the average listener care? I doubt if the average listener would even think about it, let alone care.

It's possible they'd prefer analogue if you played them a raw tune processed digitally, and then processed with analogue gear - but that might also depend on a bunch of factors like how old they are, what their tastes are, where they tend to listen to music (club, home, car, earphones....) and what kind of equipment they play it on.

Make your music as YOU would want to hear it (getting it to sound as close to right as you can in as many different spaces as you can, if that's something you care about). If you like the sound of analogue or emulated analogue then go for it. The analogue/digital debate is not on the average listener's radar.
Q. Why is a mouse when it spins?
A. The higher the fewer.

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When I'm talking about digital sounding music I'm usually talking about "Computer music". Simply stuff doesn't only sound digital in a "I'm not trying to sound warm" sense but also stuff that embraces the advantages of digital technology like precise timing, predictability, complete control over sound and so on.

A perfect example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyVgWuKtgjA
Lots of cold, perfectly timed FM sounds (Probably a Nord modular) all over the place and it sounds awesome! There is nothing "warm" or "human" about it, and that's exactly what makes it so amazing.
pdxindy wrote:
Bronto Scorpio wrote:
fluffy_little_something wrote:Digital is not exactly a compliment, I take it.
I like a lot music that sounds digital and doesn't even try to sound "warm" or "analog.

Cheers
Dennis
I bet you could record some physical instruments and say it was from a VA synth and some people would say it was too digital and thin
Yeah, we arleady had some threads here people thought something sounded super analog when it really was Synth1 :hihi:

Cheers
Dennis

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I honestly blame this whole "digital = bad" thing on marketing men :hihi:

Basically, since the late 90's, the words "warm", "analog", "analogue" and "organic" have been used to print money by constantly pounding the point home that digital is bad.

There was also more than a grain of truth to it in the past, as naiively coded digital oscillators and filters sound honest to god like crap. But digital instrument coders have defeated 99% of these demons and hence in this day and age, apart from a few specific edge cases, good analog and good digital are interchangable.
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HydrogenHuman wrote:All a listener wants from a song is for it to be memorable so they can keep it on their playlist.

How you get the song to be memorable may or may not involve analog.

So the short answer is no, the average listener will not even think about it. Most likely they will say to themselves, "Wow! That sound is so cool! How-de-do-dat?!"
+1

For "memorable" 4 Chord songs suffice :)
Works at KV331 Audio
SynthMaster voted #1 in MusicRadar's "Best Synth of 2019" poll
SynthMaster One voted #4 in MusicRadar's "Best Synth of 2019" poll

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Sendy wrote:I honestly blame this whole "digital = bad" thing on marketing men :hihi:

Basically, since the late 90's, the words "warm", "analog", "analogue" and "organic" have been used to print money by constantly pounding the point home that digital is bad.

There was also more than a grain of truth to it in the past, as naiively coded digital oscillators and filters sound honest to god like crap. But digital instrument coders have defeated 99% of these demons and hence in this day and age, apart from a few specific edge cases, good analog and good digital are interchangable.
:clap:


Also,the stuff about being perfectly in tune and having perfectly on the grid timing? That's not an analog vs. digital issue, that's just laziness. You can control these things.

I think anyone who's making rhythmic music of any kind really needs to play with manipulating grooves via timing and dynamics, and not just draw quantized stuff onto a piano roll and call it done.

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Yeah, I'm amazed how many producers just click onto the grid, default timing, default pitches, default velocity. No wonder it sounds so bad it makes people actually PICTURE THE DAW. Pretty much the worst thing you can have your music do.
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foosnark wrote:Also,the stuff about being perfectly in tune and having perfectly on the grid timing? That's not an analog vs. digital issue, that's just laziness. You can control these things.

I think anyone who's making rhythmic music of any kind really needs to play with manipulating grooves via timing and dynamics, and not just draw quantized stuff onto a piano roll and call it done.
Oh come on, this is a very old topic of discussion and it should have been long settled and well understood by just about everyone.

The human element is not merely a matter of adding some "humanize" noise or other modulation to a sequence. There is a dynamic, evolving effect that occurs much like the difference between a good compressor vs. just automating the volume.

You could get there with a massive amount of effort, but the likelihood you'd reach exactly the same place as you would naturally with very little effort using the compressor itself is very low.

It isn't a matter of effort or laziness, it's an issue of the way you go about getting the job done. It is possible in a sequencer to get exactly the same human rhythm you'd expect from a skilled bassist, but the amount of effort you'll invest will be way higher in the moment than the bassist would. The effort of the bassist is spread out over time learning to play the instrument, much like a lever can allow you to multiply your effort by many times.

The person working the sequencer will not only need to put in massive effort to fine-tune individual events and a handful of parameters, they'll also need to have invested the effort over time to learn that skill as well.

I think due to the variation between players and playing styles a "virtual bassist" midi processor would actually be possible and the best possible solution to this problem.

Then though we have the question: Why is such a thing not commonplace and popular at this point in time?

Fact is people in many cases prefer the hard quantized effect.
Last edited by aciddose on Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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