2. digital
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When is digital going to get the soul of music?

I have to ask this(actually, I thought I mentioned this in another thread.). It's been at least 25 years of digital. The equivalent in vinyl is 1975. I am currently listening to a pre-1975 album. It conveys the soul of music. Although digital may be more detailed, and even gives more detail than analog does(in a way), when will it convey the soul of music. This has escaped digital, as far as I can tell.
mmakshak
edle
235 posts
 
The answer is very sad....NEVER.
gunbei
2,327 posts
 
A lot of tubes help.
robm321
932 posts
 
Never I'm afraid. I'll keep my TT - SACD improves in all areas, but nothing is as "real" sounding as vinyl (studio equipment excluded).
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,141 posts
 
There was a story about a recording session in Stereophile where the engineer used 3 different mediums for recordings, hi-rez digital, redbook digital and analog tape. The performers, engineer and others compared the results and they all concluded that the hi-rez digital sounded most like the live event, but they all preferred the analog tape sound. I can only conclude that a little dynamic compression and distortion sounds really good. Some people even give human attributions to this phenomena and call it "emotion" or "soul". Don't get me wrong, nothings wrong with liking distortion, personally I like it too! But let's call it what it is and stop this analog is magic mumbo jumbo.

BTW, the processing step from analog tape to vinyl adds another layer of dynamic compression/distortion. If it sounds good, it's good, but it's a purely physical, readily understood effect.
dweller's avatar
dweller
3,740 posts
 
I just need the machines to recreate the event in a reasonably accurate way (no hiss, clicks, pops or chops).
Once it's in my head, MY SOUL does the rest...
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