New analogue recording technology?

[shamann]

Does anyone know of any new developments in analogue recording media?

A few years ago, I saw something about some high frame rate, high definition film developed as an alternative to digital projection, started wondering today if there was anything similar for audio recording and playback.

Surely vinyl or magnetic tape weren't the last word in analogue recording/playback? Why aren't we seeing some big-brained audiophile freak putting the new high tech towards something like this? High definition analogue sound on a durable material and in a compact form, making use of the ever more precise digital technologies.

If some guy can write a whole novel on a grain of rice, surely something like this is possible and equally worth considering.

[funkadil]

Thats a good point and im interested. but it doesn't exactly compare with video because audio doesn't have frames really. I wonder though, time for google.

[Hink]

You might try Otari, but I believe they are all digital now and be prepared to drool...

[shamann]

but it doesn't exactly compare with video because audio doesn't have frames really.

I'm more just thinking anything that advances the state of the art in analogue audio recordings. Digital gets all the development love, and analogue just seems to be the dominion of nostalgia fetish, but surely there's more and better to be done with recordings that aren't digital.

[Hink]

but it doesn't exactly compare with video because audio doesn't have frames really.

I'm more just thinking anything that advances the state of the art in analogue audio recordings. Digital gets all the development love, and analogue just seems to be the dominion of nostalgia fetish, but surely there's more and better to be done with recordings that aren't digital.

Yeah I just checked, they were the rolls royce of 2" tape, but all they have left that's analog is a 2-Track Mastering deck.

One store I worked at we weren't even allowed to take anything (but some 4-tracks) analog in trade or purchase. I saw several very disapointed people who thought those thousands they spent was an investment, that was 2002 so it might be better now, but they couldn't get any serious offers on ebay either...you might find some good deals on ebay, but remember that tape isn't likely to get cheaper in the future

[shamann]

Well, since the last major manufacturer of tape stopped making it in the past year, tape is likely a dead end. But I'm hoping for something that goes beyond that, like audio grooves carved in small, dense surfaces, the size of CDs with ten times the information of an LP using new materials, highly controlled manufacturing processes, etc.

Like a forward thinking, mass-produced, non-boutique version of this stuff, or something of that order (actually, those laser turntables are pretty neat).

[james0tucson]

When digital audio formats -- *consumer* digital audio formats converged WAY beyond human proportions, analog died.

[shamann]

When digital audio formats -- *consumer* digital audio formats converged WAY beyond human proportions, analog died.

Most surprisingly, it didn't. Vinyl still sells way more than anyone in 1985 would have expected it to. And some people still use tape for recording, though again it's getting harder to do that. Analogue fell out of favour, sure, and it maybe can't match the ease and scope of digital, but it still has its place.

I recently watched a video of a lecture Steve Albini gave. I'm not in any way an analogue fetishist, but one of things he said that stuck with me was that digital recordings are not currently in any state to be preserved for future generations, where as all analog recordings have proven to be recoverable to some degree, whether or not we have access to the original technology on which they were played. We can recover old wax cylinder recordings, often make them better, but digital recordings from 1980 are proving difficult to reconstruct unless we can find the equipment needed. My personal philosophy is generally let it all rot, but I can still see the value of preservation.

I watched Cringely's first NerdTV instalment with Andy Hertzfeld the other day (available here for any one nerdly inclined), and he describes the difficult process of merely trying to recover the MacPaint source code. They managed to save and stick it in a museum, but had they waited ten years, they likely wouldn't have.

I just think there might be opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. New technologies can surely give us better (better sound, more compact, portable, inexpensive, durable) analogue recordings. With the growing download business, it makes less and less sense to a lot of folk to buy CDs for a few bits more, so why not offer a real alternative to mp3s? Download the song for a buck, but for twenty bucks get an album of pristine quality that will last. I suppose it all might be moot once digital recording with a scale down to the atomic level can be easily distributed and formats no longer need to improve/expand, but that's likely a while away.

[ross g]

shamann....

i understand albini and your's arguement, but did they even try and "preserve" the digital media in 1980? i'm thinking if natuaral magnetic deterioration sets in after 25 years to the point the digital info can't be recovered that's one thing, but what about properly stored optical media? i mean, if it's 0's an 1's, can't one "carve it in stone"? using that metaphor, an image carved in stone could be seen and "restored" in 1000 years, perhaps a digitized version of the image carved in stone would be impossible to recover....what do you think?

rg