From David Hodgson Sent Wed, Apr 22nd 1998, 19:11
But the joy with electronic music is that most of these instruments really don't generate much in the way of high frequency harmonics - your sampler can't. Which is why people used to love the Synclavier - it has a sample rate of 96kHz I think - something ridiculous > -----Original Message----- > From: Irene McC [SMTP:xxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx] > Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 1998 2:10 AM > To: xxxxxx@xxx-xxx-xxx.xxxxx.xx.xx; xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx > Subject: RE: (idm) nu __ge[minidi]scom > > On 22 Apr 98, siliconvortex wrote > > > a cd, which is (given good mastering) an exact digital copy > > There you said it "DIGITAL". All cut up into millions of little > bits and jammed back together, not one smooth sound curve. > It samples at 44 thousand.1 times per second.... > > > or vinyl, which has been converted from dat to analogue, cut with > > a lathe into a piece of metal, then pressed into a piece of soft > > plastic, then tracked through a dust filled groove with a diamond > > connected to a magnet, then put through an riaa equaliser, before > > you hear the end result. which did you say sounds better? > > It's not quite as simple as that. > > The actual vinyl has "give" in it, meaning that the walls of the > vinyl contract and expand - causing a certain amount of compression > that happens in the vinyl itself which sounds attractive to the > human ear. It's called "Wellie" (coming from the visual image of a > kick up the bum with a wellington boot). If you go above clip in > digital you get a terrible distortion but in any analogue medium it > givies it more 'wellie'. > > That's why certain recording artists deliberately go from their > digital master onto 1/2" analogue tape to saturate the tape which > gives it a much better "warmer" sound - and then transfer it to CD > from THAT. And many rock artists only record directly to analogue > multi-track tape and then use the Apogee UV22 process to achieve > analogue-like "warmth" on CD. The mastering process on the CD is > the most important : there is a *big loss* between original analog > mastering to digital - unless 24-bit mastering is used (which is > already available). > > A well-mastered vinyl 12" can contain harmonics up to 30 kHz, which > would be chopped dead on CD at 20 kHz. Brick wall. > > I > * > np : The Black Dog Live In Toronto (*** thanks!!)