Comparing Analog and Digital Recording

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Comparing Analog and Digital Recording

In the present time we are always coming up with better electronics, because that is what we expect. So, in the recording industry we have moved from analog to digital recording. Musicians want the best recording gear to give them the fastest, easiest, and best sounding recordings for their music. Digital recording is the newer way of recording music since analog recording, but is it always better? There are obviously definite positives of digital recording or we wouldn’t be using it, but does it fall short to analog recording in some areas? When digital recording was first introduced, the audio capture abilities were not what they were now. Where it is now has gone a long way to strengthen the analog vs. digital battle. Technology as it tends to do has improved by leaps and bounds (McLaughlin). Back in the days of analog recording the music was a continuous stream of sound, which is the exact opposite for digital recording. Digital recording is breaking the sound up and then putting the sound back together again. Digital music uses sound samples to convert the music into digital data that is read by a laser. This makes it seem like you’re listening to a constant flow of music, but you’re not. It’s like the difference in picture quality of a picture in a magazine compared to a picture in a newspaper (Day 92).

The magazine picture is high-resolution and smooth, but a newspaper photograph is grainy. Since the digital recording breaks the music up it is capable of holding more minutes of music on a compact disc than on a vinyl record using analog recording. One reason for being able to fit more music onto the compact disc is because digital recording gives a representation of the musical sig...

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...imited bass, having to lift the tonearm when the record is over, and the pops heard from the record, audiophiles still prefer the analog sound. With the changing times of technology, recording equipment is becoming better. Digital recording has many positives over analog recording, but also has its flaws. Musicians now have the faster, more efficient, and crisper recording, but to some that isn’t what matters. Some still enjoy the rich natural sound of the analog recordings

Works Cited

Day, Rebecca. “You Spin Me Right ‘Round.” Popular Mechanics. Oct. 2003: 92 Academic Search Premiere. EBSCO Publishing. 3 April 2004. Leonard Jr., Vincent A.; Rudolph, Thomas E. “Digital Zero.” Electronic Musician. June 2004: 107. Academic Search Premiere. EBSCO Publishing. 3 April 2004. McLaughlin, Ryan. “Canadian Musician.” Academic Search Premiere. EBSCO Publishing. 3 April 2004.

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