{"id":2968,"date":"2018-04-04T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T08:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artbyodo.net\/?p=2968"},"modified":"2019-05-06T06:40:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T06:40:18","slug":"involving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/2018\/04\/04\/involving\/","title":{"rendered":"Involving"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the arguments in favor of analog audio, LPs, and vacuum tubes, is that an analog signal is closer to the real continuous acoustic waveform<\/span><\/span><\/span>;<\/span><\/span><\/span> that analog is a perfectly smooth wave, just like sound<\/span><\/span><\/span> in air<\/span><\/span><\/span>. Digital, in contrast, is broken up bits. The beautiful, smooth, continuous sound wave has been chopped to pieces and stacked together in jagged blocks. How could that possibly sound natural, or even good? Both of these beliefs rely on certain assumptions.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Assumption number one<\/span><\/span><\/span> :<\/span><\/span><\/span> Sound waves are smooth and continuous. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Well. . <\/span><\/span><\/span>, kinda, sorta, maybe. <\/span><\/span><\/span>A<\/span><\/span><\/span>ir, the medium sound travel<\/span><\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0through, is not smooth and continuous. It’s a myriad of atoms and molecules floating around in space, bumping into each other\u2014hardly smooth or continuous. Converting the sound wave into an electrical wave\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>makes for<\/span><\/span><\/span> an excellent analogy. The electrical wave is likewise individual electrons all jostling around interacting with each other in the medium of copper or silicon. It’s not exactly <\/span><\/span><\/span>perfectly <\/span><\/span><\/span>smooth and continuous either. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Analog reel-to-reel tape is made up of grains of magnetic <\/span><\/span><\/span>molecules<\/span><\/span><\/span>, rather large ones at that. If you know the basics of tape recording, you’ll know that wider tape, running at a faster speed makes for a higher quality recording. Cassette tapes, 1\/8″ wide running at a snail’s pace of 1 7\/8 inches per second, can’t hold a candle to a studio <\/span><\/span><\/span>deck<\/span><\/span><\/span> with 1″ tape running a 15 or 30 inches per second. The simple explanation is resolution, that is, the number of molecules holding the signal is 64 times greater on the 1″ tape. (Given both are four track\u20141″ is 8 times wider, and 15ips is 8 times faster, 8×8=64.) This allows for a stronger signal, wider dynamic range, wider frequency response, and less distortion in every way distortion can be measured\u2014wow & flutter, harmonic, noise (tape hiss), etc., and yet it’s still not perfectly smooth.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Vinyl is subject to much of the same,<\/span><\/span><\/span> plus<\/span><\/span><\/span> more issues to deal with\u2014groove depth and width, cutter and stylus size and shape, chemical makeup of the vinyl, <\/span><\/span><\/span>friction, <\/span><\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span><\/span>variables associated with the shrinking radius from outside to inside grove<\/span><\/span><\/span>. Add to this the mechanical elements\u2014turntable, tonearm, cartridge\u2014and you’ve got a chain of discontinuity, changes in medium and method of carrying the wave. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Every change, every point of contact, entails a loss of information, loss of accuracy, loss of fidelity. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But the real deception comes from how we’ve constructed our conceptual models of analog and digital. The model of a continuous waveform is a way for us to <\/span><\/span><\/span>describe and <\/span><\/span><\/span>understand what’s happening in the air acoustically, <\/span><\/span><\/span>or<\/span><\/span><\/span> in a wire electrically. Discreet bits, 1 or 0,<\/span><\/span><\/span> on or off,<\/span><\/span><\/span> is how we understand digital. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Neither is an exact picture. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Both are only model<\/span><\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span><\/span> of reality. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Assumption number two<\/span><\/span><\/span> :<\/span><\/span><\/span> Digital bits appear<\/span><\/span><\/span> to be disconnected<\/span><\/span><\/span> chunk<\/span><\/span><\/span>s\u2014jagged pieces of the wave that are missing huge portions of information in between the sampled bits<\/span><\/span><\/span>. It may seem that a mere forty-four-thousand-one-hundred bits per second is inadequate to represent an apparently infinitely smooth waveform, however\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>forty-four-thousand samples per second is<\/span><\/span><\/span> all that’s needed to encode a\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>waveform up to 22kHz,<\/span><\/span><\/span> frequencies<\/span><\/span><\/span> beyond human hearing<\/span><\/span><\/span>. It doesn’t have to be a perfectly smooth representation<\/span><\/span><\/span>, because all the audible information<\/em> is there. But<\/span><\/span><\/span> the biggest deception of digital is that the playback is in bits. No<\/span><\/span><\/span>, no<\/span><\/span><\/span> one listens to digital bits. We listen to the analog reconstruction of the digitally encoded original analog waveform. Digital is simply a different way of representing (recording and storing) a sound wave. And because the sound is being encoded without mechanics <\/span><\/span><\/span>imparting its grunge<\/span><\/span><\/span>, or grains of magnetic oxides adding their own noise, or diamond styluses <\/span><\/span><\/span>grinding<\/span><\/span><\/span> across<\/span><\/span><\/span> vinyl, digital is able to save the wave as clean and pure as the original signal fed to the analog-digital converter. And that digital code can be manipulated, controlled, copied, and recopied without adding noise <\/span><\/span><\/span>or<\/span><\/span><\/span> distortion as happens invariably at every step with analog processing. Digital is an audio (<\/span><\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span><\/span>video) miracle. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, why <\/span><\/span><\/span>are so<\/span><\/span><\/span> many a’philes <\/span><\/span><\/span>in <\/span><\/span><\/span>love<\/span><\/span><\/span> with<\/span><\/span><\/span> LPs and tubes? Why do they categorically state that analog “blows digital out of the water<\/span><\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span><\/span> man<\/span><\/span><\/span>“<\/span><\/span><\/span>? In a single word : involvement. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of taps on a <\/span><\/span><\/span>touch screen to cue up a digital file<\/span><\/span><\/span> doesn’t compare to the ceremony of LP playback\u2014pulling the 12″ album from the shelf, extracting the sleeved LP, carefully removing it from its inner <\/span><\/span><\/span>liner<\/span><\/span><\/span>, touching only on the <\/span><\/span><\/span>outer <\/span><\/span><\/span>edge and<\/span><\/span><\/span> the<\/span><\/span><\/span> label, placing it <\/span><\/span><\/span>tenderly <\/span><\/span><\/span>on the turntable’s platter, cleaning the surface, and gently, gently setting the tonearm on the spinning <\/span><\/span><\/span>spiral<\/span><\/span><\/span>. Oh, and the big album cover with artwork and text you can read by <\/span><\/span><\/span>moon<\/span><\/span><\/span>light. It’s a sonata of involvement. One is\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>invested<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0even before a sound is heard. <\/span><\/span><\/span>And don’t underestimate the investment, not only in<\/span><\/span><\/span> ritual and<\/span><\/span><\/span> time, but in the monetary resources required\u2014good analog costs more, much, much more. <\/span><\/span><\/span>Then. . , the<\/span><\/span><\/span>re’s the<\/span><\/span><\/span> sound. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is something special about the sound of vinyl. It<\/span><\/span><\/span> is<\/span><\/span><\/span> not sterile. It’s full and rich. Full of resonances and rumble; rich in harmonics,<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0surface noises, and crosstalk<\/span><\/span><\/span>. It takes extra concentration to listen through the encompassing steamy warmth of LP colorations. Those extras hide details that our mind’s ear needs to fill in. The extra engagement, <\/span><\/span><\/span>extra <\/span><\/span><\/span>effort, makes LP listening more demanding, more involving. And when we fill in <\/span><\/span><\/span>the missing pieces <\/span><\/span><\/span>with our imagination, <\/span><\/span><\/span>aa<\/span><\/span><\/span>ahhh, there’s a rainbow world of blooming, blushing beauty to behold. This brings us to valves. Vacuum tubes add an additional layer of harmonic and resonant color to the sound\u2014plus more<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0time, and effort, and cost<\/span><\/span><\/span>. It’s no wonder why some people are so enamored with these quaint,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>antiquated<\/span><\/span><\/span> technologies, and swear by them. Consequently, analog lovers are unable to get their ears around the clean, unembellished sound of digital. Digital requires no extra effort, no engagement, no imagination. It presents us with the complete, clear, crystalline details flat out\u2014direct and raw\u2014straight, no chaser. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With all that added color, there’s no way that analog, in any form, can deliver a more perfect waveform of the original <\/span><\/span><\/span>music<\/span><\/span><\/span> than digital<\/span><\/span><\/span> can<\/span><\/span><\/span> no matter how we model it, no matter how we hear it. It matters little that analog appears to be more akin to <\/span><\/span><\/span>acoustic<\/span><\/span><\/span> waves when sounds waves are in themselves granular. Waves don’t<\/span><\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span><\/span> in reality<\/span><\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span><\/span> exist as infinitely continuous. And it doesn’t matter that digital is made of discreet bits because we don’t listen to bits. After all the processing a recording goes through, whether analog or digital, the final result, what we hear<\/span><\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span><\/span> is only the sound <\/span><\/span><\/span>re<\/span><\/span><\/span>produced by the speakers. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ultimately, o<\/span><\/span><\/span>ne could argue, digital is<\/span><\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span><\/span> in<\/span><\/span><\/span> reality<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2014<\/span><\/span><\/span>quantum realit<\/span><\/span><\/span>y\u2014closer to reality<\/span><\/span><\/span>. A<\/span><\/span><\/span>t some point everything reduces to a quantum unit\u2014energy, matter, gravity, space, and time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the arguments in favor of analog audio, LPs, and vacuum tubes, is that an analog signal is closer to the real continuous acoustic waveform; that analog is a perfectly smooth wave, just like sound in air. Digital, in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[541,673,715,714],"class_list":["post-2968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-discover","tag-analog-vs-digital","tag-lp-vs-cd","tag-quantum-reality","tag-quantum-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2968"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3587,"href":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968\/revisions\/3587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artbyodo.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}