What is analog sound? Examples plz

[chk071]

What is "insert-random-adjective-here" sound?

Hard to say, isn't it? Hard to describe sound. Without resorting to terms which people will call non-descriptive again.

If you don't know what analog sound is, then you don't care for it. Which is fine. Those who do know what it is.

[bmanic]

To me analogue sound is just the chaotic variance of constant changes, even when sounds are really "tight" and stable, they are somehow powerfully vibrant and "alive". Also the envelope generators can be sometimes really snappy somehow, in a way that is difficult to achieve with various digital recreations, even if the analogue synth itself has digital envelopes or LFO.. just because the way they modulate the target of an analogue oscillator or filter it becomes "different" in the way the attack of the modulation sounds.

Some audio clips from my DeepMind 12D and a long random glitch thing from the Neutron at the end:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eLvYdO ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kwJtcp ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zGWLTe ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W2nSNj ... sp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jKNaCI ... sp=sharing

[chk071]

Apart from random-ness and saturation, I also think that most digital filters are not capable of capturing the behavior of (good) analog filters, especially at high resonance levels. Of course, there are also shit analog filters, but, I think their characteristics are also hard to capture virtually.

[vurt]

Apart from random-ness and saturation, I also think that most digital filters are not capable of capturing the behavior of (good) analog filters, especially at high resonance levels. Of course, there are also shit analog filters, but, I think their characteristics are also hard to capture virtually.

true, but we are getting closer now at least.
just think back to the days when synth1 a classic for it's time, was released, i know that's digital anyway (the nord) but that period. analogue emulations were bloody awful

i don't think it's the coding that's the issue now, it's "can we make the hardware fast enough to do the work?"
or maybe a bit of both? but i don't think we are too far from the sound now that "in a mix" it matters.
a/b comparisons you may notice a difference, especially if you are playing it and not watching someone else. but for actual use, more than good enough!

[elxsound]

Isn't that the sound of two flushes? Ok, maybe I'm in the wrong forum?

Taht must be an "insider", right? I´m glad I don´t even get it!^^

anal log

Head dick?

Are you making an offer?

[vurt]

[dark water]

In this post-truth world, analog is less a thing and more an emotion.


Ps, Daniel Avery's "Song for Alpha" album is also truly excellent.
But what does 'truly' mean in this post-truth world? Garrrrrghhhhh!!

[elxsound]

Apart from random-ness and saturation, I also think that most digital filters are not capable of capturing the behavior of (good) analog filters, especially at high resonance levels. Of course, there are also shit analog filters, but, I think their characteristics are also hard to capture virtually.

This is pretty much where it’s at for me. Like bmanic’s small variances and then the ability to overdrive and add saturation. This reminds me that I still need to add more filters this years.

[bmanic]

Any kind of heavy distortion be it through saturation/clipping or just tons of modulation which creates all sorts of intermodulation mayhem will still sound superior in the analogue domain simply due to the lack of aliasing. However, the advances in processing and really good up/down sampling for oversampled stuff, the noise floor of aliasing has been brought very much into the manageable domain. Within a mix it'll be extremely difficult to tell emulations from the real deal.

[elxsound]

Any kind of heavy distortion be it through saturation/clipping or just tons of modulation which creates all sorts of intermodulation mayhem will still sound superior in the analogue domain simply due to the lack of aliasing. However, the advances in processing and really good up/down sampling for oversampled stuff, the noise floor of aliasing has been brought very much into the manageable domain. Within a mix it'll be extremely difficult to tell emulations from the real deal.

That’s one of the reasons aside from raw samples, I don’t see the point of posting full mixes as an example.

[HAL76]

Isn't that the sound of two flushes? Ok, maybe I'm in the wrong forum?

Taht must be an "insider", right? I´m glad I don´t even get it!^^

anal log

Head dick?

Are you making an offer?

Every error evokes speculations about its cause here.

[HAL76]

In this post-truth world, analog is less a thing and more an emotion.


Ps, Daniel Avery's "Song for Alpha" album is also truly excellent.
But what does 'truly' mean in this post-truth world? Garrrrrghhhhh!!

Subjects often use this term to their statement more importance. It expresses that it seems true for them - respectively that they want you to think that they'd think that way.

It lastly means that they still live in Hobbit land and don't really mind bout the problems of other people.

I call them "trulys", they are relatives of the trolls.

[j wazza]

analog can sound very different from other analog, warm or cold etc, but it all has certain qualities compared to digital like more depth, fullness, thickness, richness and more texture and imperfections, this means it sounds closer to real world instrument sounds that all also have these qualities compared to digital, even though instruments sound very different from each other too

these qualities are a result of the sound being in a physical medium, like air in a room or electricity in a synth, tape or vinyl etc, rather than code

Thanks for the example/tune, liked it!

What I like most about the "old" and analog sound ist that it isn´t that "present" and "harsh". Often damped somehow. It´s smoother and "fuller". Just like in the example.

yeah i get what you mean, id say analog can still sound present and upfront enough but still smooth and not harsh, digital often sounds like its coming from right next to your ear, and can be smoothed over but then they end up sounding too filtered or far away in the mix

[t3toooo]

Pure analog goodness!

[dark water]

In this post-truth world, analog is less a thing and more an emotion.


Ps, Daniel Avery's "Song for Alpha" album is also truly excellent.
But what does 'truly' mean in this post-truth world? Garrrrrghhhhh!!

Subjects often use this term to their statement more importance. It expresses that it seems true for them - respectively that they want you to think that they'd think that way.

It lastly means that they still live in Hobbit land and don't really mind bout the problems of other people.

I call them "trulys", they are relatives of the trolls.

Hal76 - is this a serious thread or are you simply bored at Easter and wanting to troll people with a pointlessly open-ended and often-exhausted KVR theme about 'analog'?

If we are to assume that you're not actually trolling (albeit you have rudely ignored several other people, such as Bmanic's attempts, to answer your question seriously), then explain to us what specific elements of 'analog' sound does Daniel Avery's "Drone Logic" contain for you?

I stumbeled over the track below yesterday and thought wow, since it sounds like a record from 1994. For me it´s a perfect example of analog sound and since I collect sound examples I thought it might be interesting to ask here what is analog sound for you?

I also saw an other video from insides his studio. I could recognize an SH-101 and there were some others around.

Daniel Avery - Drone Logic...

We can all post some YT clips here, but what's the point if we don't know what 'analog' quality you are referring to because you haven't qualified it?

Saying something is "a perfect example of analog sound" is far too vague to have any meaning about a specific quality (in this case 'analog sound').

Also, "a record from 1994" has no particular connection to an analog sound: a hell of a lot of the electronic tracks around that time were made partly, if not totally, with digital synths and other equipment (and indeed digital synths / equipment had been used on countless successful records for several years prior to 1994).


On page 1 you wrote:

What I like most about the "old" and analog sound ist that it isn´t that "present" and "harsh". Often damped somehow.
It´s smoother and "fuller". Just like in the example.

But any track (made with digital instruments / equipment) can easily have harshness / presence reduced by the use of an EQ filter:
after all, harshness and presence are common terms used by professional mix engineers to denote particular frequency ranges.

So your idea here of 'analog sound' being related to a reduced or dampened frequency range, so the sound "isn't that present and harsh" doesn't cut the mustard, as this could follow on from digital technology as well.

As for "smoother and fuller" - are you arguing that digital instruments and equipment can not create a full or smooth mix?
If so, explain further...


Many of us like Daniel Avery's music: he's far from unknown around here.
(Hence my suggestion about how you might like his later excellent album - a suggestion which you simply ignored, as per your pattern with most other responses here).

Notably, Daniel Avery uses a mixture of analog and digital equipment to make his tracks, and 'Drone Logic' (released in 2013) was no exception.

So tell us clearly, how did "Drone Logic" sound 'analog' to you as opposed to 'non-analog'?

Failing that, it's fairly clear that with your refusal to courteously respond to some people's serious answers here - as well as with your ill-tempered responses to other people's light-hearted attempts at humour - that you are simply trolling.