ArkadiyB
Joined: 16 Aug 2013
Posts: 5
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 Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 12:22 pm Post subject: Significant distortion is welcomed |
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Significant distortion is welcomed
The most complex aspect of their difference from digital is in the nature of the electronics – with analogue typically exhibiting significant distortion and intermodulation characteristics.
"Engineers would normally classify this as a bad thing, but when such anomalies are interacting sympathetically with the source oscillators, the resulting sound can often be shaped and coloured in a very musical manner," Wilson explains. "The late Bob Moog's wonderful Minimoog model D (arguably the most famous synthesizer of all time) was a classic example of how subtle tuning instability and distortion resulted in a much more organic sound."
Such interactions have been well understood by electric guitarists for many years and, today, this 'sympathetic' distortion and colouration is leading to the use of analogue signal processing in recording studios.
"This is a particularly interesting development," Wilson says. "After years of 24bit/96kHz digital signal paths, many musicians, producers and studio engineers have discovered that placing at least some analogue equipment – often 1960s tube based technology – in the recording chain can add some magic that had curiously been lacking.
"For most, the use of analogue compressors or tube preamps is as far as it goes, but studios are increasingly rediscovering the benefits of mastering to analogue tape and even vinyl is making its way back in some circles. Again, it's all down to subtle, yet musically desirable, distortion and colouration which often interacts with the musician's playing style."
Wilson admits digital will win when it comes to repeatability, the convenience of total session recall, lossless editing/duplication, transparency and cost: look inside a synthesiser today, he says, and you will typically find a dsp, a processor and a few passive components. A genuine analogue polyphonic synthesizer features thousands of op amps, comparators, multiplexers and passives, with a price tag ten times larger. An analogue unit may also require component matching, heat soaking and lengthy calibration procedures.
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