Analogue versus Digital in Visual and Sound

[Rob C]

Last night, I watched a BBC 4 show called Sound City. It was about the LA recording studio using one of perhaps four Neve consoles ever produced.

Right from the start I became aware of the incredibly close spiritual link and similarity between the production worlds of recording tape and film stock. As the programme progressed, this impression of kinship grew ever tighter, and by the time it was over I came to realise the great damage that the later developments have wreaked upon both worlds, and for the very same reasons: the 'democratization' of production or, put another way, the placing within the wrong hands of the magic wand. As someone in the film said: there are now people in the business who have no business being here.

If you can catch the show somewhere, it's worth the looking time.

Rob C

http://youtu.be/HQoOfiLz1G4

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

...I came to realise the great damage that the later developments have wreaked upon both worlds...

Totally agree with you. Though, the damage began with the wide distribution of analog itself. You could preserve the beauty in analog, but then you could not share it. Analog copies are bound to whither away and lose most of their meaning at the same time. And, if you cannot share it, your market is small, and how can you profit?

Digital offers one supreme advantage - you can copy ad nauseum without being a victim of the effect of 'Chinese whispers'. It claims to bring beauty to the masses, but that hasn't happened the way it was promised.

If you find the time, please go through my text: Driving Miss Digital It's a naive work written explaining this very thing, as a love story between Analog and Digital.

[bill t.]

You can "rent' the whole Sound City film online.

My cinematic skill sets were rendered obsolete at least 3 times in my career, at roughly 10 year intervals.  But at least I belonged to a then small set of rare birds and was well treated.  I pity the poor kids in my footsteps, who are now counted in huge numbers, face a 3 year obsolescence cycle, and spend their days chained to dim monitors in the farthest corners of the least desirable buildings on the studio lot.

In the old days if you had the hard to obtain tools, you could to some extent define the genre that would come out of them, which could then be deemed "good" simply for being so pervasive and familiar.  No more.  Maybe the good news is, democratization forces one to concentrate on the genre itself.  Unfortunately, the noise level has gotten very high and it's awfully crowded.

[Jim Pascoe]

Thanks for the heads-up on that film Rob - I really enjoyed it - even though I'm not actually a fan of most of the music they played!  Loved the intro - made me think of loading up film in my old cameras. The sound software they were discussing near the end is the musical equivalent of Photoshop.  I suppose in summary you could say the best analogue was superb, early digital was poor by comparison, but the latest digital tools enable enormous control and the quality is now comparable.  Interesting though that lots of the musicians really valued playing together rather than separately recording tracks and then splicing them together in post production.  My photography is largely solo, but I guess the photographic equivalent would be one photographer shooting a landscape, another shooting an off-road vehicle, and then a tech putting it all together in software.  Much more real to take the vehicle to the location, but of course possibly more expensive and without the control (weather etc).

Jim

[hjulenissen]

I suppose in summary you could say the best analogue was superb, early digital was poor by comparison, but the latest digital tools enable enormous control and the quality is now comparable.

I don't think that this is true (although the perception seems to be widespread).

  Interesting though that lots of the musicians really valued playing together rather than separately recording tracks and then splicing them together in post production.

Recording musicians separately was invented long before digital.

-h

[Jim Pascoe]

I don't think that this is true (although the perception seems to be widespread).Recording musicians separately was invented long before digital.

-h

Which bit of my three statements do you not think are true (only my feelings anyway, and talking about the link between music editing and photography). And yes I realise that artists were recorded separately and blended before digital - as were photographs - but you need to see the film to maybe see what I'm on about.  It is the speed and ease with digital that has changed everything.  Do watch the film if you can, it is very atmospheric.  The comparisons between analogue and digital it discuses are much more about the 'feel' of the end result rather than the hard technical issues.

Jim

[hjulenissen]

Which bit of my three statements do you not think are true (only my feelings anyway, and talking about the link between music editing and photography).

I don't believe that early digital technology was poor compared to analog recording. I do believe that analog audio technology (properly maintained etc) was "good enough" for many uses (as evident by many old recordings of subjectively excellent audio quality)

And yes I realise that artists were recorded separately and blended before digital - as were photographs - but you need to see the film to maybe see what I'm on about.  It is the speed and ease with digital that has changed everything.

I see. Yes, I believe that the ease of doing complicated editing has changed music (and photography).

I don't see your argument about musicians liking to play together, as this was common practice well before the introduction of digital recording. It turns out to be easier (in many ways) and cheaper to record e.g. drums in isolation, than to record a full band simultaneously (while still recording individual instruments in isolation). But for musicians that favour playing in a band, there are downsides.

Do watch the film if you can, it is very atmospheric.  The comparisons between analogue and digital it discuses are much more about the 'feel' of the end result rather than the hard technical issues.

I shall watch the film. I have met many musicians and music lovers who are a bit "touchy-feely" to my taste: they have stated preferences and pseudo-technical explanations for stuff that really is quite well understood. (I reserve my touchy-feely emotions for the parts that are not well understood or easily dissected, questions like "what is good music"/"what is a good photography").

-h

[Jim Pascoe]

 I have met many musicians and music lovers who are a bit "touchy-feely" to my taste: they have stated preferences and pseudo-technical explanations for stuff that really is quite well understood. (I reserve my touchy-feely emotions for the parts that are not well understood or easily dissected, questions like "what is good music"/"what is a good photography").
-h

Ha - you cannot be a true 'artist' then!   Seriously though - to hear the guys in the film talking about the legendary Neve mixing desk was like hearing artists talking about a cherished violin or other interment - it just worked for them.

Jim

[Rob C]

I think the film requires an audience with both (photographic) experiences in order to understand why I thought it worth bringing to the collective attention in the first place.

Unfortunately, I am not a musician, but of those that I know personally, they all love the idea of collective playing - seems to be the buzz that one player hands over to the next; but that's jazz and R'n'R, and I have no idea how solo performers feel.

In contrast, as a photographer, the very worst scenario for me is having to work in front of another snapper. I feel uncomfortable, as if on some sort of 'test' of my abilities... it's not a rewarding process. Conversation kills creativity in free-style situations, where it may aid it in others, as when you have an AD whom you respect and you know respects you. I have known one such - the rest of the time I was fortunate enough to be given the job and not required back until I had something to show. I believe dem days is done.

Rob C