Digital vs. Analog Music Production

Digital vs. Analog Music Production

Various audiophiles have had their say since the advent of digital recording and CD technology, insisting that the sound isn't as warm and rich and robust as what comes out of analog recording or from the grooves on vinyl records. The pundits may be right to an extent, but digital recording range has come a long way in the past two decades. With the proper playback equipment, the sound can be as mighty as one would hope. And there are other considerations when it comes to building a piece of recorded music.

 

There's little arguing with traditionalists -- and, to be fair, there's something rather comforting about the idea of an old-school studio with multi-track tapes and a minimum of electronic instrumentation. Still, if you look past the computerized ones and zeroes and consider the way that recorded sounds and styles have changed over the years, digital tech is a real boon to production. On the convenience front alone, you don't need to splice tape, an imprecise science that is fraught with potential errors, when you can use a cursor to edit a track to the millisecond. Meticulous beats and sequences can assure a precise rhythm. You have access to pre-recorded samples and computer-generated instruments -- either approximations of real ones or sonic keyboard fantasias. Auto-tune can salvage a flat or shaky vocal. And when you can record a composition on your home computer in your bedroom or basement for next to no money, and parlay it into a career in music, all bets are off.

 

Sure, a rough, raw analog recording with the occasional glitch or flaw left intact has a power and grace all its own, and vinyl sales are back in a big way, eating into the compact-disc market -- although the rise of music streaming services has something to do with that. That aside, digital music production is the wave of the present, and its future seems assured. 

#Humberto Gatica  #digital  #analog  #music production  #creating  #isina 
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