Re: [ARSCLIST] Is The Record Shop Dead?

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "phillip holmes" <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx>
> They have a "blank" LP with time code or something on it that is fed 
> into the CD player.  You "wicka-wicka-wicka" just like normal, but the 
> LP is controlling the CD player.  For a while, I thought about using 
> just such a setup to give my CDs more "analog" like sound.  Find one of 
> the "blank" control LPs that's pressed way off center to give that 
> familiar seasick affect.  Then, use an outboard processor to add tube 
> "warmth" and tape saturation affects.  EQ it with some extra midbass and 
> use a tube buffered DAC.  All I'd have to do is discretely mix in some 
> crackle and pop, which is available as a loop I think.
> 
For the most part, the "digital sound" (as opposed to an "analog sound"
comes from the way XXI Jahrhundert sound engineers set up their equipment
when recording material for digital issue!

There IS, technically, a difference (albeit supposedly inaudible to human
ears...) between a "CD quality" (44.1) digital recording and the same in
analog form. A digital recording exists...HAS to...as a very large set of
signal samples...or, a set of very tiny square waves which are smoothed
into pseudo-analog "curved" waveforms by playback processes. For other
ex-calculus students out there in Radio-land...it is possible, in theory,
to approach a curve using an infinitely-large samples of VERY frequent
single sample values. As I understand it, the 44.1KHz sample frequency
is supposed to produce an adequate version of the actual analog signal
such that our human ears and mind can't hear any identifiable difference...?!

On the other hand, there DOES exist an identifiable and demonstrable
difference between vacuum-tube and solid-state audio equipment! Oddly
enough, this difference exists because most audio amplifiers operate
with audible/identifiable distortion. Tube amplification simply decreases
in efficiency is limits are approached...producing a distorted signal
waveform, but one without any "sharp corners"...! Solid-state amplification,
OTOH, simply reaches its limit and quits amplifying any further...leading
to "sharp corners" in the waveform.

I can't recall exactly, but seems to me that solid-state amplification
produces an overabundance of even-order harmonics...and the fast "transient
response" of solid-state devices also gets involved. I leave further
explanation to those who have studied long and hard in these areas...!

Steven C. Barr