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Analog vs. Digital
(A Quick Rundown)
by Shawn Maschino
The Home Recording Web Site
this is taken from Shawn's home recording FAQ
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What is better Digital or Analog? There is no such thing as better, only different. Factors that might influence your decision include cost, sound quality, cost of tape, reliability, compatibility with other studios, ease of expansion, how the medium might alter the original sound, and what special stuff it can do. Here's a quick rundown (glittering generalities) of analog vs. digital on these points:
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| Analog | VS | Digital |
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- track for track, analog is generally a cheaper machine to buy, but only by
a few hundred dollars
- analog tape is much more expensive than digital - $30 a roll for 1/4", but
only $10 per tape for ADAT
- analog machines are generally more reliable.
- analog can perform tricks like running the tape backwards, or splicing
several takes of one song together. digital doesn't do tricks, but many
digital machines have features such as copy and paste, automatic punch in,
total recall, and more.
- analog is generally more fun overall but lower sound quality. digital can
be prone to fussiness, but is generally a cleaner sound.
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- digital is a more faithful reproduction of the original sound - it's near
CD quality. (Some feel that this is actually a detriment, that digital is
"TOO perfect". Analog tends to modify the original sound but in a pleasant
way - mostly for guitars and bass. Most rockers use nothing but analog.)
- digital machines have experienced a tremendous boon recently, and as a
result, almost everyone has one. With that in mind, digital machines are
probably more compatible with someone else's studio than analog. It's pretty
easy to find another studio with ADAT, but it's pretty hard to find another
studio with 1/2" 16T.
- digital machines can be expanded readily. they all have connectors in back
that chain them to another machine of the same make. this allows you to
expand from 8 tracks to 16 tracks with the plug of a cable. some analog
machines can expand and be chained together, but normally there is much
more involved than plugging in a cable.
- digital barely alters the original sound at all no matter how many times
you bounce tracks - the sound really doesn't degrade. analog alters the
sound - sometimes in a pleasant way - and does degrade over the course
of many bounces.
- digital has basically zero noise while analog has some level of background
tape hiss of varying degrees, depending on the quality of the machine and the
tape.
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Shawn runs the Home Recording Web site -- a site devoted to home recording projects.
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