Digital killed music?

[Nikola]

Very real and true article i come across this morning about music being recorded analog to 2 inch tape versus digital realm.

I totally agree, feels like i said this

Back in the day when there was no programs like Protools, Logic, etc. people had to go to a real studio to record and mix their music. This excluded a lot of people from making music. Most of the people who were allowed to record in a studio had proved that they had a certain degree of musical skills. The bar for being able to record music was much higher and there was a higher degree of musicianship. The fact that you had to go to a studio and record to tape sorted the good and serious musicians from the bad musicians.
Even if a less skilled musician payed to use a studio, it was much harder to fake a good performance back then. You can't edit performances (cut, copy, paste, nudge, etc.) the same way on tape as you can nowadays with digital DAWs (digital audio workstations).
Tape pushes musicians and artists to perform better from the start. There isn't as much fix-it-in-the-mix-after-recording-is-done as with digital. Also, the fact that you can't edit as much on tape makes the music sound more real. Tape doesn't lie.

And these are just some of the important points. I could also talk about digital limiting ruining the quality of music, the major benefits you get from the natural dynamic compression of tape, the sound of tape in general, and so on...

[Ghostridah]

I don't know if I agree. Digital democratized the music industry smaller players and individuals can bypass the record labels.

As to the claim that because artists recorded on tape it means there was a higher quality of music is false. There have always been bad artists even of they're recorded on tape.

The music industry follows trends and shuns artists that don't fit in to that box. Now we make our own trends we dictate music in a better way than when it was centralized in the hands an elite.

The quantity has grown I agree however that only means that we have more choice and I'm all for that.

Can you imagine all the indie artists that would of never been able to record their music? I can't.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[Nikola]

Everyone these days is using quantization, copy/paste, aligning, editing, way too much...all that stuff make song sound robotic...and add loudnesswar, and with loudness you get digital distortion which is awful.

people are using Melodyne and similar programs on every project
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFCjv4_jqAY]YouTube - Melodyne - Direct Note Access[/ame]

so, digital opened doors to many people who dont know shit about playing instruments/signing/producing/engineering and so on...
not to mention record label executives, media, fanbase that also dont know shit about music but want to make/promote/release music

there was bad music back then, but not as much like these days...

when was the last time someone made classic album/song? late 90s? its 2k11 almost.

[Esoteric]

people are using Melodyne and similar programs on every project
YouTube - Melodyne - Direct Note Access

Awesome, now I can use quotations when I say "artist" and it makes sense. That video bugged me in such a way that I can't find the words for a proper response.

[Burns Luciano]

Very real and true article i come across this morning about music being recorded analog to 2 inch tape versus digital realm.

I totally agree, feels like i said this

thats all bullshit you ever here of punch ins you ever here of digital audio tapes like adats witch you can record 8 tracks of audio on and when combining it with more adat decks to get more tracks that ran in to the mixing board so you can multi track recordings you ever here of analog to digital conversion. now a days digital just makes it easier thats all people record digital in 192kbs and when done transfer it to tape reels to get the a analog feel to the recording then transfer it back to digital. you need equipment to make your recordings sound good weather digital or analog most digital recordings sound just as good as analog and better its just up to the equipment you use if u just plugging a standard stage mic that you payed 10-100 bucks for in to your audio card then u just gonna get a basic sound you need things like a studio quality mic like a condenser ribbon tube mic ect. a mic pre amp analog to digital converter. you want good sound you gotta pay for it cant just buy the cheapest equipment and espect a great recording dont work like that. so maybe this will answer your question

[therealtruealtog]

I agree with nikola in some aspects, like the points he makes about the Loudness war, clipping, most "digital" music feeling soulless, but not in other aspects. If digital didn't exist, we coudn't correct mistakes that were made during recordings, and some off notes coudn't be corrected automatically (with melodyne).

And also we would not have classic jossy material lol.

[Burns Luciano]

all that analog shit is in digital right now u just gotta know what u doin when it comes to mixing most people over compress and it makes a big difference

[Nikola]

thats all bullshit you ever here of punch ins you ever here of digital audio tapes like adats witch you can record 8 tracks of audio on and when combining it with more adat decks to get more tracks that ran in to the mixing board so you can multi track recordings you ever here of analog to digital conversion. now a days digital just makes it easier thats all people record digital in 192kbs and when done transfer it to tape reels to get the a analog feel to the recording then transfer it back to digital. you need equipment to make your recordings sound good weather digital or analog most digital recordings sound just as good as analog and better its just up to the equipment you use if u just plugging a standard stage mic that you payed 10-100 bucks for in to your audio card then u just gonna get a basic sound you need things like a studio quality mic like a condenser ribbon tube mic ect. a mic pre amp analog to digital converter. you want good sound you gotta pay for it cant just buy the cheapest equipment and espect a great recording dont work like that. so maybe this will answer your question

I work with all that every single day.
ADAT and DAT format died 15 years ago, there were many issues with format itself and big minus was it could only record at 16 bit 44khz, so it was primarly used as back-up or mixdown format, although demo artist used A-DAT to make their demo or make beats then later take it to professional studio and track it from there to 2 inch tape and mix it with good gear .

the weakest link in digital domain is analog to digital converter, the same ad/da technology from early 00/03 is still used, tho last month few companies introduced new powerful converters to the game, so i hope they will be "Game changer" hardware.

my spectacular is, it will take another 5 to 10 years until digital fully suppress the SOUND quality, 3D depth and imaging that 2 inch tape recorders have.

and recording to digital first, then sending mixdown to tape machine will not sound good as if you would hit TAPE FIRST, then later digitalize it.

the more sound travels through digital conversion sound looses information
digital is all about 01010100101010.

professional recording studios are getting closed everyday because of people at home who use 500$ sound card and 400$ condenser microphone and cracked pluggins.

all that analog shit is in digital right now

Yes but it still has sound of tape, everything is same as listening directly from tape machine, very different (or better) then recordings tracked straight to computer.

[therealtruealtog]

Nikola is there any way that Digital can sound like it was recorded on Analog?

[Nikola]

There are pluggins and hardware that is suppose to recreate the sound of analog tape but its far from a real thing.

http://www.anamodaudio.com/ats1.html

Rupert Neve Designs – Portico 5042 – “True Tape” FX
CDSoundMaster.com
VTAPE

Its like your signature, no matter how many pluggins/hardware they make it wont sound like tape.

that doesn't mean tape is really THAT better, but certain mojo of tape, the saturation, noise, wow & flutter, gluey-type of sound, makes digital look lifeless, so the best solution is to have best of both worlds, and recording studios got it, expect artists dont give a fuck about all that good equipment in recording studio, they want AUTOTUNE.

[Burns Luciano]

thats you opinion on it. for every analog vocal u show me i can show u a digital that sounds better but thats just my opinion. i feel if u use analog hardware with digital recording it is great and the quality is great but u need good analog hard ware like mic pre's ect

[Ghostridah]

Let's say this digital did not kill music the engineers behind it did.

[Nikola]

Engineers?!?!?!?! Engineers and audiophiles are last one left that really care about sound quailty regardles of analog or digital domain.

I posted shout-out between tape and pro tools digital here

http://www.2pac-forum.com/producers/18557-analog_tape_vs_digital_shootout.html

load all files in Audacity or any other multi-track editing program and A/B them.

[Burns Luciano]

Engineers?!?!?!?! Engineers and audiophiles are last one left that really care about sound quailty regardles of analog or digital domain.

I posted shout-out between tape and pro tools digital here

http://www.2pac-forum.com/producers/18557-analog_tape_vs_digital_shootout.html

load all files in Audacity or any other multi-track editing program and A/B them.

word up i agree

[Ghostridah]

I apologize I misspoke I should've said some engineers along with record executives and artists. I think that 50% is the sound the music and 50% is the actual content. I'm sure there's great sounding music out there that I don't like.