Analog VS Digital - The Great Debate
Figured i'd write some studio nerd stuff tonight. The great debate between "which is better" analog or digital is still alive and well. Let me throw in my two cents, but first let me preface this by saying that I've recorded and mixed hundreds of songs completely in the analog domain, 24 Track 2 inch tape with a big SSL or Neve board. half inch analog mixdown tape. I've used damn near every type of console ever built, both analog and digital (SSL E/E/J/K/AWS, Old Neve, New Neve, API, Focusrite, Oxford, Capricorn, Axiom, Harrison, MCI, Sony, Trident, Amek, you name it, i've used it). And i've recorded with every recording format in the known universe both analog and digital, both tape and hard disk. I have a pretty good knowledge base from which to speak on this subject. Here are my opinions.
IF every 2 inch analog tape machine ended up at the bottom of the ocean, i wouldnt even notice. More and more, as digital improves, I'm feeling that way more and more about big consoles too, though its always a rush to mix on a 15 foot long console. I love doing it, its not necessary. First lets address analog tape.
ANALOG TAPE PROS: creative sonic use of "Tape Saturation" if your into that sorta thing, Tape definitely has a "sound", and its cool. I still think mixing down to half inch analog stereo (on a great machine) sounds AMAZING. Tape is very durable to a point, and its a tangible medium, you can touch the stuff. There's a beautiful simplicity in working with tape. It forces you to make decisions before you mix. You cant get too crazy out of hand with the number of tracks you use, unless you have alot of time and a BIG budget. 24 track machines are super cheap nowadays, but the tape isnt. Countless amazing sounding records have been made with the stuff. I'm all outta pro's
ALALOG TAPE CONS: for better or worse, what you put in is not exactly what comes out. Analog tape changes the sound, and it changes it more over time. it adds tape hiss, it adds "crosstalk" (when one track bleeds slightly into the track next to it so even when your snare track is muted, you can still hear that snare faintly on the adjacent track. Then there's "Print Thru" which are ghost echos before and after a loud sound from when the tape sits wrapped. 1 Reel of 2 inch tape costs more than a 200 gig hard drive, and will only hold 16 minutes of 24 tracks, AND its bulky as hell and hard to transport. If you want more than 24 tracks you have to lock 2 machines together, which takes between 3 and ten seconds to lock every time you rewind or fast forward (big vibe killer). Oh yeah, you have to rewind and fast forward to the stuff. Its difficult and time consuming to edit tape, even half inch tape. The dynamic range is limited. If your music has soft and loud sections, you'll get alot of tape hiss. Analog tape machines are HUGE and heavy and noisy. You have to keep a tape machine aligned (pain in the ass) and you must clean the heads regularly. and maintenance is a limited to skilled techs. If you fuck up a punch on analog tape you've just erased something forever. Fortunately i was always amazing at punching, and very cool under big pressure. I've seen engineers turn into silly putty when they need to do tight punches.
DIGITAL PROS: (Most of this is assuming the highest quality systems, like an HD rig with a great clock and alot of horsepower). What you put in (nowadays) is exactly what comes back out, now and ten years from now. EDITING IS RETARDEDLY POWERFUL IN DIGITAL as compared to analog. ZERO attack time compression (the Distressor analog compressor is about the fastest smoothest analog compressor for attack times and versatility). COST. Nowadays, under a dollar per gig of storage space. a typical full session will take up between 1 and 4 gig of hard drive space per song. Portability - I regularly get songs to mix uploaded directly to my FTP from around the world with practically no wait time. Even Fed Ex is becoming a dinosaur. I send clients finished mixes to listen to for comments or approval, anywhere in the world, in a matter of minutes, which makes revisions a breeze. Then i can upload the finished 24 bit mixes for the mastering house as well, this is becoming the norm, not the exception, and I've been doing it for years. Portability 2, i can carry several entire albums worth of material in my hand, along with all my notes, sounds, samples, plugins, software, etc... the best plugins nowadays are so freakin powerful. If i can imagine a sound in my head, i have a plugin that will dial it in. NO REWIND TIME. I can work on a 16 bar chorus for an hour straight if i want with no rewind time. this has cut mixing time in half for me, AND, i vibe much better because i can just zone out to what i'm listening to without the tape machine stopping every 20 seconds to rewind.
MORE DIGITAL PROS: Instant mix recall. What used to take 2 to 5 hours on a big analog board, recalling all the settings of a final mix, now takes a few seconds. and analog recalls rarely come back perfect. (not that any of my mixes ever had to be recalled :-) yes they did. If you wanna try a bunch of ideas without losing your surrent mix, you just save a new version and try whatever you want. You can always go back to an older version quickly and easily. for analog lovers, the analog simulation plugins are FINALLY convincing my ear. So many choices. i can use whatever type of EQ i want on whatever track i want, or reverb or delay or flanger or ????? you name it. And its fast. no patchbay. used to take a few minutes to patch an outboard EQ, then you only had maybe 5 or ten real high quality outboard EQ's even in the good mix rooms (there are exceptions). Huge dynamic range with no tape noise (in fact i regularly add real tape hiss to my mixes, swear to god. it gives character sometimes). The new virtual synths and samplers are a dream come true and it doesnt take 20 minutes to hook one up, and no ground hum loops!!!! OK, you get the idea. OH YEAH, one last thing. i actually like the way digital sounds. I have no problem with it whatsoever, if i have good convertors, etc... And consumer digital is cheap nowadays and you can do good qwuality recordings at home now.
DIGITAL CONS: People use 100 tracks just because they can. Music has gotten so cluttered lately. there is a pervasive attitude of "Let the mixer sort it out". which often makes my life hell. It makes singers lazy. Autotune makes singers not care anymore that they are in tune. Honestly. it sucks. In the analog days, we worked very hard to get great performances that were also in tune. it was alot of hard work, but i think vocal performances as a whole used to be better. Now they are just more in tune. Having said that, i dont know how many times i've gotten tracks in to mix that the tracking engineer must have been asleep when he committed autotune to a vocal. I constantly hear artifacts that make me cringe. horrible stuff. In the right hands though, powerful tools no doubt. More digital cons. Media management. You have to be so careful nowadays to make sure what drive your recording on, where all of your audio is, make sure its labeled well, etc... i have gotten SO MANY sessions to mix that were missing audio due to carelessness of audio file management. often parts or songs are lost forever. Then there are hard drive crashes. I've had a couple. they just want to make you cry. you must have a good backup strategy which takes time, money, diligence, and forthought. More digital cons: the advent of pro tools and digital audio has decimated the large studio industry. labels use to have no choice but to record in a big studio, now labels often insist the producers record in their own studios, which has brought the overall quality of the material recorded down. It has forced the closer of innumerable major studios and will continue to do so. It has put engineers out of work, and worst of all, its given far too many peoplke the notion that they actually know how to record things (and dont get me started on mixing). if i had a nickel for every time a phone conversation started with "i'm a pretty good mixer, but i just cant get it to sound like the stuff i hear on the radio............ news flash........ that means your NOT a pretty good mixer, and you dont hold a candle to what i can do. I mix 7 days a week over 300 days a year, come on, its like taking a knife to a gun fight. If your a producer, produce, if your an artist, be an artist. Digital has made everyone think they can and should wear every hat, which again has brought down the overall quality of recordings and mixes. New engineers have fewer chances to assist for, and hence learn from, REAL talented engineers. Your sittin in your home studio thinking your going to be able to get where i am if you keep workin at it. I have bad news for you. Its never going to happen. The path i took to get where i am, the knowledge i gained along the way, the experience i've gotten, that path only still exists for a chosen few (my assistants being two of the few). And if your grinding it out in your home studio thinking some day your gonna be a big mixer, I've got bad news for you. Until all the big mixers (i'm at the bottom of that list somewhere) die out, its not gonna happen. Sorry it got cynical there for a moment, but i'm always one to speak the very blunt straight forward truth. Alot of people dont like me for it. I dont care. That doesnt make it any less truthful if you dont like what i have to say.
ANYWAY..... i digress. in closing. I'm a digital fan forever, or for the forseeable future. Having said that, nothing will replace my super amazing analog gear that i use on the way into digital. I've got plenty of tube gear and class A analog gear here, and i use it on the way into digital, and during a mix of i need that certain analog something. Oh and i have a real EMT 140 Plate reverb that i LOVE. thats REALLY analog. and 8 feet long. But analog tape. Yeah, i dont miss it.
-Ken
IF every 2 inch analog tape machine ended up at the bottom of the ocean, i wouldnt even notice. More and more, as digital improves, I'm feeling that way more and more about big consoles too, though its always a rush to mix on a 15 foot long console. I love doing it, its not necessary. First lets address analog tape.
ANALOG TAPE PROS: creative sonic use of "Tape Saturation" if your into that sorta thing, Tape definitely has a "sound", and its cool. I still think mixing down to half inch analog stereo (on a great machine) sounds AMAZING. Tape is very durable to a point, and its a tangible medium, you can touch the stuff. There's a beautiful simplicity in working with tape. It forces you to make decisions before you mix. You cant get too crazy out of hand with the number of tracks you use, unless you have alot of time and a BIG budget. 24 track machines are super cheap nowadays, but the tape isnt. Countless amazing sounding records have been made with the stuff. I'm all outta pro's
ALALOG TAPE CONS: for better or worse, what you put in is not exactly what comes out. Analog tape changes the sound, and it changes it more over time. it adds tape hiss, it adds "crosstalk" (when one track bleeds slightly into the track next to it so even when your snare track is muted, you can still hear that snare faintly on the adjacent track. Then there's "Print Thru" which are ghost echos before and after a loud sound from when the tape sits wrapped. 1 Reel of 2 inch tape costs more than a 200 gig hard drive, and will only hold 16 minutes of 24 tracks, AND its bulky as hell and hard to transport. If you want more than 24 tracks you have to lock 2 machines together, which takes between 3 and ten seconds to lock every time you rewind or fast forward (big vibe killer). Oh yeah, you have to rewind and fast forward to the stuff. Its difficult and time consuming to edit tape, even half inch tape. The dynamic range is limited. If your music has soft and loud sections, you'll get alot of tape hiss. Analog tape machines are HUGE and heavy and noisy. You have to keep a tape machine aligned (pain in the ass) and you must clean the heads regularly. and maintenance is a limited to skilled techs. If you fuck up a punch on analog tape you've just erased something forever. Fortunately i was always amazing at punching, and very cool under big pressure. I've seen engineers turn into silly putty when they need to do tight punches.
DIGITAL PROS: (Most of this is assuming the highest quality systems, like an HD rig with a great clock and alot of horsepower). What you put in (nowadays) is exactly what comes back out, now and ten years from now. EDITING IS RETARDEDLY POWERFUL IN DIGITAL as compared to analog. ZERO attack time compression (the Distressor analog compressor is about the fastest smoothest analog compressor for attack times and versatility). COST. Nowadays, under a dollar per gig of storage space. a typical full session will take up between 1 and 4 gig of hard drive space per song. Portability - I regularly get songs to mix uploaded directly to my FTP from around the world with practically no wait time. Even Fed Ex is becoming a dinosaur. I send clients finished mixes to listen to for comments or approval, anywhere in the world, in a matter of minutes, which makes revisions a breeze. Then i can upload the finished 24 bit mixes for the mastering house as well, this is becoming the norm, not the exception, and I've been doing it for years. Portability 2, i can carry several entire albums worth of material in my hand, along with all my notes, sounds, samples, plugins, software, etc... the best plugins nowadays are so freakin powerful. If i can imagine a sound in my head, i have a plugin that will dial it in. NO REWIND TIME. I can work on a 16 bar chorus for an hour straight if i want with no rewind time. this has cut mixing time in half for me, AND, i vibe much better because i can just zone out to what i'm listening to without the tape machine stopping every 20 seconds to rewind.
MORE DIGITAL PROS: Instant mix recall. What used to take 2 to 5 hours on a big analog board, recalling all the settings of a final mix, now takes a few seconds. and analog recalls rarely come back perfect. (not that any of my mixes ever had to be recalled :-) yes they did. If you wanna try a bunch of ideas without losing your surrent mix, you just save a new version and try whatever you want. You can always go back to an older version quickly and easily. for analog lovers, the analog simulation plugins are FINALLY convincing my ear. So many choices. i can use whatever type of EQ i want on whatever track i want, or reverb or delay or flanger or ????? you name it. And its fast. no patchbay. used to take a few minutes to patch an outboard EQ, then you only had maybe 5 or ten real high quality outboard EQ's even in the good mix rooms (there are exceptions). Huge dynamic range with no tape noise (in fact i regularly add real tape hiss to my mixes, swear to god. it gives character sometimes). The new virtual synths and samplers are a dream come true and it doesnt take 20 minutes to hook one up, and no ground hum loops!!!! OK, you get the idea. OH YEAH, one last thing. i actually like the way digital sounds. I have no problem with it whatsoever, if i have good convertors, etc... And consumer digital is cheap nowadays and you can do good qwuality recordings at home now.
DIGITAL CONS: People use 100 tracks just because they can. Music has gotten so cluttered lately. there is a pervasive attitude of "Let the mixer sort it out". which often makes my life hell. It makes singers lazy. Autotune makes singers not care anymore that they are in tune. Honestly. it sucks. In the analog days, we worked very hard to get great performances that were also in tune. it was alot of hard work, but i think vocal performances as a whole used to be better. Now they are just more in tune. Having said that, i dont know how many times i've gotten tracks in to mix that the tracking engineer must have been asleep when he committed autotune to a vocal. I constantly hear artifacts that make me cringe. horrible stuff. In the right hands though, powerful tools no doubt. More digital cons. Media management. You have to be so careful nowadays to make sure what drive your recording on, where all of your audio is, make sure its labeled well, etc... i have gotten SO MANY sessions to mix that were missing audio due to carelessness of audio file management. often parts or songs are lost forever. Then there are hard drive crashes. I've had a couple. they just want to make you cry. you must have a good backup strategy which takes time, money, diligence, and forthought. More digital cons: the advent of pro tools and digital audio has decimated the large studio industry. labels use to have no choice but to record in a big studio, now labels often insist the producers record in their own studios, which has brought the overall quality of the material recorded down. It has forced the closer of innumerable major studios and will continue to do so. It has put engineers out of work, and worst of all, its given far too many peoplke the notion that they actually know how to record things (and dont get me started on mixing). if i had a nickel for every time a phone conversation started with "i'm a pretty good mixer, but i just cant get it to sound like the stuff i hear on the radio............ news flash........ that means your NOT a pretty good mixer, and you dont hold a candle to what i can do. I mix 7 days a week over 300 days a year, come on, its like taking a knife to a gun fight. If your a producer, produce, if your an artist, be an artist. Digital has made everyone think they can and should wear every hat, which again has brought down the overall quality of recordings and mixes. New engineers have fewer chances to assist for, and hence learn from, REAL talented engineers. Your sittin in your home studio thinking your going to be able to get where i am if you keep workin at it. I have bad news for you. Its never going to happen. The path i took to get where i am, the knowledge i gained along the way, the experience i've gotten, that path only still exists for a chosen few (my assistants being two of the few). And if your grinding it out in your home studio thinking some day your gonna be a big mixer, I've got bad news for you. Until all the big mixers (i'm at the bottom of that list somewhere) die out, its not gonna happen. Sorry it got cynical there for a moment, but i'm always one to speak the very blunt straight forward truth. Alot of people dont like me for it. I dont care. That doesnt make it any less truthful if you dont like what i have to say.
ANYWAY..... i digress. in closing. I'm a digital fan forever, or for the forseeable future. Having said that, nothing will replace my super amazing analog gear that i use on the way into digital. I've got plenty of tube gear and class A analog gear here, and i use it on the way into digital, and during a mix of i need that certain analog something. Oh and i have a real EMT 140 Plate reverb that i LOVE. thats REALLY analog. and 8 feet long. But analog tape. Yeah, i dont miss it.
-Ken
posted by Protools Mixing at 3:58 AM
4 Comments:
You might as well slap every wheelchair-basketball player in the face with your discouraging speech! You're taking out your
spite on a generation of new and potentially talented musicicans working as hard as they can to make quality productions,
with full control over the sound of their music. What? "Your sittin in your home studio thinking your going to be able to get
where i am if you keep workin at it. I have bad news for you. Its never going to happen." Yeah computers either!!
You dropped a real bad news bombshell when you revealed in a whiney, self-absorbed internet blog, that no one will ever get
to where you are by hard work. Damn.. I wished for so long that I might become a jaded cynacist, forced to work for peanuts
and no-name artists most of the time.
I will never stop working, and I hope no one reading this does either! Thanks ken, you have really helped inspire me to
become a better mixing engineer. It's ironic.. to tell a human being they can't do somthing is a sure fire way to get them to
do it.
Sounds to me like someone didn't see enough inspirational kitty posters when he was in school.. :/
i love when people post anonymously. especially when in anger. First off, i think you encaspulated a very small part of a much larger point, but i am glad that you'll use it as fuel to prove me wrong. Somebody is going to, i'm sure many people are going to prove me wrong, but percentage-wise, very few. New up and coming mix engineers just arent getting the shots that were out there to get when i was coming up thru the ranks, and it was really tough back then. Nowadays, fewer studios, fewer records being made, A&R people's jobs riding on every record they put out. More and more, that means the well established guys are going to get the lions share of the mixing work. And if you can tell me how your going to jump from bedroom mix engineer to major label mix engineer, that would be an interesting read.
The old path is quickly dissolving, get into a good studio, work your way thru the ranks, build your credits, and over time establish yourself as a mixer. It is still happening, but far less frequently. and from bedroom mixer to established label mixer, i'm sorry to be cynical about it, and i'm sure it will happen for someone, but the odds are seriously stacked against.
By the way, I had no idea peanuts were so damn expensive nowadays. I also didnt know all of those artists i've been mixing for had no names. What will people call them when they see them on the charts? I love it when people attack my credits, kinda feels like when rappers start saying the Neptunes are over in their rhymes.
-Ken Lewis
Sorry it was just a cheap shot :)
Hey Ken,
I quess you were taken the wrong way by some,although I can understand some for being angry when told they will never go no where working at home.But you were right about choosing what you love to do the most and master your craft.Its very easy now a days for every one to own a studio but they miss out working in pro studio's with pro's.
The young also miss editing with the old razor blade(I always enjoyed it)
anyway next time Iquess try to be a little gentle with them
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