#390669 - 01/05/00 03:11 PM
About sound
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amerio stefano
Member
Registered: 01/05/00
Posts: 18
Loc: CAVALICCO - Udine - ITALY
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Dear Mr. Nichols
I'm happy to write to you.I'm an italian reader of EQ and I like a lot your articles on this.I have a recording studio that work a lot with jazz and acoustic bands. I work with 3 Adat XT(setting to 44.1/16 bit), 2 Adat Bridge and PT 24 mix+.I mix via AES/EBU to Finalizer Plus then go to DAT at 44.1/16 bit.
My question is if is possible to make the digital sound go to an analog feel.
Another question is:Adat recording is better on 48/16bit than go to PT, edit,mix on this rate and than go to Finalizer Plus with real time converter the rate and go to dat at 44.1/16 bit?
Thanks a lot.
Stefano Amerio
PS
Sorry for my English.
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#390670 - 01/07/00 11:59 AM
Re: About sound
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Roger Nichols
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Registered: 12/13/99
Posts: 1249
Loc: Miami, Florida
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Stefano
There are many factors that make analog "feel" analog.
1) The noise floor. Digital is much quieter than analog which makes the decay of each note more audible.
2) Harmonic distortion. The harmonic distortion is greater on analog recordings. The definition of Zero dB for level reference is "3% harmonic distortion". The trade-offs were that if you recorded at a lower level you got more noise, but if you recorded louder you got more distortion. As analog tapes improved the levels ould go higher before the distortion limit was reached which gave you more distance from the noise floor.
3) Phase shifts at higher frequencies. Because of analog tape wow and flutter, these phase shifts change rapidly and color the sound by a small amount. Digital recordings have no phase shift comparable to this analog anomoly.
4) Compression. Because of the physics of analog tape, the louder the signal the more ompression (and more distortion) you get in the signal. The curve of this compression is not like any normal compressor. Digital can be recorded at any level until you run out of bits, then it just slapps you in the face.
To get a more analog sound you can use plug-ins that are available for Proo Tools. There are a few of them. Some emulate the sound of tubes, some emulate guitar amps, some emulate analog tape compression, and some emulate different microphones. Check the Digidesign web site (www.digidesign.com) or your dealer.
The second question. Most professional multitrack recordings are done at 48 kHz and then mixed through 1) an analog console into an A/D converter set at 44.1 kHz. or 2) a digital console (or Pro Tools) ande sample rate converted to 44.1 kHz. In the beginning of digital recording there was a big difference between 48k and 44.1k. Now that difference is verry small because converters are so much better. If your recordings sound fine, then leave things the way they are. Since your destination is CD, then 44.1k is the final destination. If you are recording music destined for video tape as in post production work, 48k is the answer because digital audio on video tape is recorded at 48k.
I hope this helps
Roger Nichols
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