Original Message                 Date: 28-Feb-02  @  09:02 PM   -   Why is digital less warm than....

Mindspawn

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Hey folks, just some food for thought...

We all hear things like, digital isn't as warm as analog, and while I'm not here to argue that specifically, did you ever think about why that is? Outside of some of the basic physical properties, you'd think the two mediums wouldn't be that divergent.... and in some sense, maybe they're not. Now I'm gonna try a little heresy...

Maybe the reason mixes from analog sounds warmer, more musical, whatever, is: our techniques for recording, mixing, etc., are mostly built and modeled on analog experience. We've learned techniques for, say mic placement, that were establised in the analog realm... maybe we should be evaluating new ways of doing things....?

I mean think about one of the most basic differences between the two mediums, the level meter... Many of us that came from the analog world were sorely surprised to find out we couldn't push the LEDs "past the red" on a digital board... Now once I learned how to use digital LEDs, mt life, and my mixes, sounded better...

I'm not really trying to lay out new "rules" of digital recording/mixing, but just bouncing the idea off you all. If you have any experience with what I'm on about here, by all means share it. If you got a "warm sound" from all digital equipment, what was your methodology? Why do you think it worked that way? If you captured a digital take of a vocalist that just simply shimmers, did you do it the "traditional" (i.e., basically as it's always been done on analog equipment) way, or did you find a technique that is exclusive to digital?

Anyhoos, just some thoughts....

Peace All

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Message 101/157                 Date: 30-Mar-02  @  06:42 AM   -   RE: Why is digital less warm than....

Brett B

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will it live to it's next 100th birthday?

I am missing the ghosts referance, Are you saying they are a good or bad anomaly? I crank my eq's all differant ways on the master buss to expose things like that. I found a low end flutter that was being caused by a hp filter on a loop and fixed it.

and a 50/50 analog digital system? is that what you meant K?

Science is theoretical and thus can be called a philosophy, but it requires facts to prove theories to be a hard science. And though mixing teqniques are scientific and thus a form of engineering, they are more of a soft science that is swayed more by qualitative then quantitative measures. So fact for one engineer is just food for thought to another.

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Message 102/157                 Date: 30-Mar-02  @  07:50 PM   -   RE: Why is digital less warm than....

onemind

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"I am missing the ghosts referance, Are you saying they are a good or bad anomaly?"

Its when you have the sum of the parts- sometimes a complex pad sound will do it- with all of the harmonies/overtones, other sounds and patterns reveal them selves. K, you said it the best man.

I think it is a beautiful thing. Alot of my sounds and patterns come from this. you "learn them and sequence them in". Once you bring in the new part, it sounds like it was ment to be there.

God I love music.

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Message 103/157                 Date: 30-Mar-02  @  08:25 PM   -   RE: Why is digital less warm than....

influx

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and music, in turn, loves YOU

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Message 104/157                 Date: 30-Mar-02  @  08:35 PM   -   RE: Why is digital less warm than....

onemind

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Nice 

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Message 105/157                 Date: 31-Mar-02  @  12:12 AM   -   RE: Why is digital less warm than....

Mindspawn

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I can just feel the love in here.... Fortunately I'm immune to such stuff... =)

Peace

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Message 106/157                 Date: 31-Mar-02  @  04:03 PM   -   RE: Why is digital less warm than....

Pongoid

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You want to hear ghosts? Follow the link above to my mp3's and DL Cavedweller. Ghosts aplenty in that wierd pad I used, especially near the end of the track. Not trying to purvey the mediocre sound of the track, but like the ghosts and anomolies too much to redo.


Ape

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Message 107/157                 Date: 01-Apr-02  @  07:48 AM   -   RE: Why is digital less warm than....

Brett B

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Interesting. I know what you mean now. I have that alot. a part sounds diferant in the mix with reverb and filter and the frequencies that overlap from other parts hide, and attenuate certain parts of it to make it sound totally diferant from when it is alone. I'll have a listen.

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Message 108/157                 Date: 03-Apr-02  @  06:27 AM   -   RE: Why is digital less warm than....

Mindspawn

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Pongoid - took a listen to that track... the pad sound you're working is waaay cool, and check this, I got this very cool instrument awhile back, an ocean harp, and your pad sounds a whole lot like it... very tasty track from what I can hear, not at all "mediocre" less you mean in plain sound quality, which I honestly can't judge from an mp3. But yeah, "ghosts" aplenty, especially toward the end....

Peace

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Message 109/157                 Date: 03-Apr-02  @  12:19 PM   -   RE: Why is digital less warm than....

Pongoid

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Glad you dug it. Ocean Harp? You've got a real one? Whoa, dude, that's heavy. Like a Waterphone, right? You ready to talk to whales?
But yeah, ghosts, wierd shit happening with the compressor (they're good for that sometimes when you tweak them just right or 'wrong' enough), extreme low freq's warbling out highs, and vive versa, wierd harmonics and stuff. There's a time and place for all of it. It's always a case of learning the rules to learn how to properly break them, innit?  


Ape

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Message 110/157                 Date: 03-Apr-02  @  12:29 PM   -   RE: Why is digital less warm than....

Mindspawn

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Heheh - agreed, though I gotta admit, there's a lot of rules I never figured out... But yeah, got a real "waterharp." Been spendin' an inordinate amount of my time making lovesick whale sounds along with other, less cheerful, noises... But yer pad, very eerie how its "ghosting" is really similar to the the "ghosting" I've gotten out of the waterharp. Makes sense from a purely technical standpoint I guess, it's all frequency afterall, but it's really cool just HOW similar they are.

Took a listen to some of yer other bits you had posted, too. Nice work sir, sehr nice work indeed. Your sound is more "you" so to speak than the stuff I heard from you a year or so back. I like the direction you're taking your art. Tasty stuffs....

Peace

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