When digital music came along and I could buy CD’s that had no clicks and pops and were actually less susceptible to degradation in ordinary handling, I was happy. It seemed the answer to my prayer. I did miss having readable liner notes, but giving them up was a small sacrifice. And now that we have Google, who needs liner notes anyway?
Then I found myself sitting across the table in a bar from someone who told me flat out, as though it was an established fact, that analog was better than digital, that it sounded better, richer, warmer, and fuller, and that the reason was that the music on the cd was just “sampled,” whereas analog music comes at you in an uninterrupted stream. In other words, with digital, much of the original music is, quite literally, missing.
When you take the time to analyze these claims, you realize that this is the most ridiculous sort of irrational horseshit.
First off, you don’t hear in an uninterrupted stream. Nerves pulse and fire intermittently. So an auditory nerve basically samples data, too.
Beyond that, anyone who knows much of anything about modern recording techniques knows that just about all recordings go digital somewhere along the way, even if they end up being sold on analog media. Does that supposedly “missing” music somehow magically get added back in? No, it does not. You can’t really escape digital music by listening to it on vinyl. You just get it with the addition of surface noise.
Most tellingly for anyone interested in actual facts, double-blind tests have shown over and over again that people can’t hear the difference between analog and digital recordings
This is not to say that there can’t be instances where the digital version is, indeed, worse. Only a test based on a number of recordings where equivalent care is taken on both the analog and digital versions can really be determinative. It may actually be true that in the case of digital rereleases of analog recordings, they are not given the attention they deserve. A quality recording released in parallel in both digital and analog formats by a quality-conscious producer would give one the best kind of test. And not just one such release, but many. This would be so that the test is truly about analog and digital, not individual recordings.
Now, admittedly, I like digital music because I hate surface noise. I’m anal about things like that. But if you gave me a double-blind test I’d answer honestly and be ready to live with the results.
How about you?
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