Comments on: Analog or Digital? Have We Lost Ourselves?

By: Tweets that mention Josh Walker, Producer & Audio Engineer :: Northwest Indiana » Blog Archive » Analog or Digital? -- Topsy.com

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:32:11 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Josh Walker and Josh Walker, Transient Media. Transient Media said: Just wrote a post: "Analog or Digital?" http://bit.ly/anebJd We've replaced one drawback with another. #audio #music [...]

By: Josh Walker

Josh Walker — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:07:02 +0000

That’s very true about the film issue. I’ve always enjoyed photography as a hobby. My first experiences with photography were with 35mm film and a dark room. We couldn’t afford digital cameras when they first came out. And since having that knowledge and experience, I always revert to my 35mm Nikon for serious shooting. The color and warmth of film is something that is still difficult to replicate even in the high-end DSLRs. Kind of like the expensive plugins that we can buy for audio editing. They’re close, but not quite there.

By: eB

eB — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:54:11 +0000

My wife picked up a box of old Disney stories and kids’ songs on tape at a garage sale last summer and they’ve become our 2 year old son’s favorite thing (for few weeks). He can stack them, flip them in the player, and play them. He did learn to say “tape” before mp3, album, or compression.

A similar discussion that keeps coming around in the digital vs film photography conversations. Analog retains its magic there as well.

By: Josh Walker

Josh Walker — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:39:42 +0000

I appreciate the comment, Nick.

As far as FLAC, I’m actually developing an article that will deal with multiple digital formats and try to explain their benefits and drawbacks to the average listener. Many people still think MP3s are the greatest thing under the sun! It’s our job to educate the masses and help them realize that we all deserve better quality music. Not the wishy-washy sounding lossy compression of an MP3.

Keep your eyes peeled.

By: Nick Robertson

Nick Robertson — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:34:38 +0000

You’re totally right on this Josh. There’s also a big resurgence in vinyl. CD’s had worse sound than LP’s did, but the bad sound was cleaner. MP3′s sound worse than CD’s do, but they’re uber-portable.
Now people are looking for the tangible product to hold in their hands, and if that’s what you’re looking for (Artwork, liner notes, etc.), then the large canvas of an LP cover is the way to go. And most records I’ve bought lately, (yes, I BUY RECORDS!) have a free digital download of the MP3 version of it.
I’m curious about what’s going to happen with FLAC, though. Sounds like the best of both worlds, being able to record at high sample rates, and be able to compress it down to a managable file. What’s your take on that biz? Sorry for the huge post, but you have an interesting subject here!