Help me understand this analog fetish

[werp]

I prefer analog to digital and can easily tell the difference:

Digital


Analog

I can't hear the difference.

White cats with blue eyes are usually deaf

[funky lime]

it's like organic versus conventional.

tell someone food's "organic" and they will pay more for it, and also think that it tastes better. even if it's not really organic and you just told them that.

case in point, i make guacamole, usually with conventionally grown veggies, though every now and then i spring for the organic stuff. my most recent batch was non-organic, but i told the people who tried it that it was organic. the consensus was "this organic guac is way better than the usual stuff."

people generally believe what they are told. they "taste" with their eyes and ears rather than their taste buds. just like with gear used for recordings... tell them it's analog or "vintage" even when its not, and they will often believe it. or such is my hypothesis.
("yeah that's my vintage ludwig vistalite kit from the 70s"... "oh no wonder it sounds so good!" ... nevermind that it's the drummer, not the drums, that determine the sound)

you can say a VST is "circuit-modeled" or whatever the term is, and the mere mention of that buzz-word makes it sound better; that's leaving out the whole GUI thing entirely, which is another layer of deception.



also, i had a white cat with one yellow eye and one blue eye. he was still all the way deaf.

[SODDI]

I prefer analog to digital and can easily tell the difference:

Digital


Analog

I can't hear the difference.

You need a bigger subwoofer.

[SODDI]

also, i had a white cat with one yellow eye and one blue eye. he was still all the way deaf.

Yeah, I had one too - it's the albino males with the one blue eye and the one yellow eye that are always deaf. They are usually way inbred.

Colonel Yow - the best cat ever.

[Sendy]

Digital sounds bad because it comes out of the speakers as a stepped waveform. Literally, the speaker cone doesn't move so much as teleport to each step in the wave, potentially causing a black hole because of infinite energy. The digital waveform TOTALLY isn't smoothed over by the act of sending it through a physical object that can only move at finite speed. So that's bad stairstepped sound AND black holes and breaking the law of phsyics (which is illegal and immoral). No wonder rich people who can afford it choose analog, unlike those poor idiots (plebs).

[HanafiH]

Yeah man the digital fetish is sooo much better

[Sendy]

Yeah man the digital fetish is sooo much better

He's got balls! They're off the chain, yo.

[kritikon]

Right at the ned of the article.

We sit in silence for a few moments, marvelling at the clarity. Save for a few little crackles here and there, it's perfect.

Did either this Hutchison guy or the author not realise what twats they are?

[trimph1]

We must overcome the dominance of the EYE!!!!

[tranel]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/ma ... -recording

I just don't understand that kind of fixation.

As we get older our hearing will, either we like it or not, deteriorate.

So however much analog mumbo-jumbo that is thrown into the mix, that will affect how it is perceived by the listener.

Beethoven got deaf and composed with a stick between his teeth, feeling the tones by vibration.

I find the numbers involved here disturbing. 40,000 quid is like double the annual salary of quite few people in the UK. Ridiculous.

Did he spare a quid or two for kids in Afghanistan? Probably not.

[ontol]

[annode]

Digitized music, since it can be copied without generation loss, can be copied and shared with any and all over and over again. It no longer has any real value. No one will put much effort into working hard to make it in what was the business to become a star. ( Thanking my lucky stars there are still film stars because there is still big money in it as incentive.)

I grew up in the analog world. I loved it all so much. It was the most exciting time in my life and in the art world. I dreamed about one day maybe achieving some level of notoriety. I dreamed about guitars and tube amps. I dreamed about seeing spectacular concert performances by superstars of the music world. They earned big money and sold millions of albums as incentive.

Now we can share all those recordings, for free if we wish, across the internet. We can listen to someone's idea of music produced cheaply in an audio format that is more similar to 'Lego' blocks then an actual performance by actual people. It's mostly dance styles because it's all just a repetitive series of 'Lego' structures.

You can discuss the 'pros and cons' on analog vs digital, but your really just talking about 'Lego' block colors and the death of all the dreams you never got to dream.

[zerocrossing]

Well, in this guy's case it's clearly a matter of having too much money and time on his hands. It's got to go somewhere!

Even with my approaching 50 year old ears I can hear the difference between an mp3 and a CD... but like someone else said, "...jogging though the park..." Right. So, I'll com[promise and compress audio to get a lot of it on my iPHone because I like to have a lot of my music with me at all times. Of course, I'm comparing digital to compressed digital, but in the case of audio I used to take all my LPs and record them on cassette anyway because I knew that the second time you play an LP it's different. So I'd already be degrading my nice LP for the sake of... not ruining it.

Then, while I was travelling, I entrusted my record collection to my sister who couldn't be bothered moving it when she moved out of her boyfriend's apt. Gone. She actually liked to me and told me movers lost it, but years later confessed

So... all my vinyl gone. Sad... sure. But to be honest, more about the stuff that can't be replaced. The bootlegs and rare stuff. In the days of vinyl I was usually pretty poor so I had a basic $99 Techniques turntable with a decent cartridge... but nothing special in terms of hi-fi system. The CD based system that replaced it sounded far better. Of course, not better than a super expensive analog system, but better than the analog system I could afford.

I embraced digital straight off. I never loved the fragility of vinyl and tape. Multitrack recording on taps is it's own level of PITA. Could it sound better than good digital...? I doubt I'd be able to tell the difference between two high end recordings. To me, above all else is the content. Would South Park be funnier with better drawings and animation? Nope. In the end good music is still good music regardless of it's format.

So... I keep a little collection of analog synths. Nothing vintage or expensive. I think it sounds better than it's virtual analog counterpart. I probably would fail in a blind taste test, but I "feel" that there's something there... something I can hear and sense. Maybe placebo. Not sure. It was all pretty inexpensive and it makes me happy so... who cares? This guy isn't hurting anyone, so let him spend is money on what ever stupid thing turns him on. If it keeps him off the streets, it's a good thing, though I'd put him in the same category as the guy who likes to watch women poop on men in porn. I don't get it at all, but if everyone's a consenting adult and not getting hurt, have at it, just don't tell me about it.

[HanafiH]

Yeah man the digital fetish is sooo much better

He's got balls! They're off the chain, yo.

I think i'ts essential in the modern recording ecology to have balls. Kids want balls. That's what today is. Digital balls. Analog balls. It doesn't really matter. Today is the age of Balls. And that's what my latest albums are: balls. I think of it as a new genre.

[ouroboros]

If it keeps him off the streets, it's a good thing, though I'd put him in the same category as the guy who likes to watch women poop on men in porn. I don't get it at all, but if everyone's a consenting adult and not getting hurt, have at it, just don't tell me about it.

/thread