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analogue paradox
 

offline Zeus from San Francisco (United States) on 2005-01-20 04:03 [#01467863]
Points: 14042 Status: Lurker



should I feel guilty for totally loving my access virus c
rack xl?


 

offline George_Kaplan on 2005-01-20 04:05 [#01467865]
Points: 838 Status: Regular



i could easily make music without any analogue gear but i
wouldnt waste my time trying to coax analogue-ish sounds out
of a computer. i still like the sound of some soft synths
tho, but more for what they are than for what theyre trying
to represent.


 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2005-01-20 04:05 [#01467867]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Followup to Zeus: #01467863 | Show recordbag



No, they're great and I want the TI desktop one ;-)


 

offline Zeus from San Francisco (United States) on 2005-01-20 04:07 [#01467868]
Points: 14042 Status: Lurker | Followup to Ceri JC: #01467867



yeah... id get that if it wasnt for having less then 1% of
the price of one in my bank account. :'(


 

offline elusive from detroit (United States) on 2005-01-20 06:50 [#01468072]
Points: 18368 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



tnav is correct when referring to forier, but im not sure
about the []wave bit. i must be mis-reading you because it
says an mp3 encoding takes a sine wave and converts it into
a square wave? not to be output i hope, i think you mean
just within the computer realm (digital) before the
conversion to the output device.

oh, and ecnad,
"No offense intended to anyone directly, but every last
one
of you are fucking stupid and don't know what you are
talking about. In fact the only person making much sense
was Zephyr Twin but then he had to fucking spoil it all by
going into some Star Trek bullshit. "


don't make a statement like this without information to add
to the discussion. you look like an ass


 

offline OK on 2005-01-20 11:17 [#01468538]
Points: 4791 Status: Lurker



does it matter?

NERD!!


 

offline Zephyr Twin from ΔΔΔ on 2005-01-20 11:38 [#01468578]
Points: 16982 Status: Regular | Followup to OK: #01468538 | Show recordbag



what a brilliant contribution.

shut the fuck up.


 

offline Drunken Mastah from OPPERKLASSESVIN!!! (Norway) on 2005-01-20 11:44 [#01468589]
Points: 35867 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



lalala...

a computer can't make a circle!


 

offline E-man from Rixensart (Belgium) on 2005-01-21 03:41 [#01469594]
Points: 3000 Status: Regular | Followup to Drunken Mastah: #01468589



don't be so superior, you can't either !!! ;D


 

offline Drunken Mastah from OPPERKLASSESVIN!!! (Norway) on 2005-01-21 03:44 [#01469604]
Points: 35867 Status: Lurker | Followup to E-man: #01469594 | Show recordbag



hahaha! I have a higher chance of accomplishing it, though!


 

offline qrter from the future, and it works (Netherlands, The) on 2005-01-21 03:51 [#01469612]
Points: 47414 Status: Moderator | Followup to Drunken Mastah: #01469604



in your specific case I wouldn't be so sure..


 

offline soundguy from London (United Kingdom) on 2005-01-27 07:05 [#01477280]
Points: 734 Status: Regular



"stop saying
everything is digital at a higher resolution it doesn't make
sense. molecules are not digits."

I didn't say they were digits, I said they were discrete
components, which is effectivly what the "percieved"
difference between analog and digital is.
There is no such thing as a "continuous wave" of sound it's
just lot's of molecules bumping into each other, the pattern
is a wave (at an ultra high resoloution) but the components
that make the wave are seperate entities like the o's and
1's in a digital sample, understand what I mean now?


 

offline JAroen from the pineal gland on 2005-01-27 09:34 [#01477464]
Points: 16065 Status: Regular



goddamn what a load of crap


 

offline JAroen from the pineal gland on 2005-01-27 09:36 [#01477468]
Points: 16065 Status: Regular | Followup to soundguy: #01477280



the human ear can detect displacements smaller than the
radius of say an O2 molecule.

you are talking bollox


 

offline JAroen from the pineal gland on 2005-01-27 09:37 [#01477473]
Points: 16065 Status: Regular



in fact nothing is discrete, and at your ultra high
resolution EVERYTHING has wavelike properties


 

offline bryce_berny from chronno (Canada) on 2005-01-27 11:27 [#01477587]
Points: 1568 Status: Lurker



I have had the continous/discrete argument with a pal
before. Some people believe that there are discrete units
in space which nothing can get smaller than. Sort of how
people used to view the atom.
I don't buy it, but if you want t o look into it
go here


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-01-27 11:38 [#01477592]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker



Ha, I'm must reading a novel called Schild's Ladder by Greg
Egan about people in the future testing the theory of
quantum geometry - that all spacetime is made up of
geometric patterns that are more or less stable according to
their particular configuration. A photon is one
self-replicating geometry in the quantum structure of vacuum
that appears to move as it replicates.

Of course while investigating this the scientists create a
new kind of vacuum that is more stable (has a lower energy
state) and starts expanding at half the speed of light,
destroying the known universe... goldurned scienticians.


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-01-27 11:42 [#01477597]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker



BTW no digital emulation will ever be able to model the full
complexity of an analog synth with all its subtle chaos and
unpredictability no matter what the sampling rate.

It's like expecting the finest porn to be as good as real
sex.

Of course most electronic musicians will never own an analog
synth, just as they will never touch a real woman.


 

offline JAroen from the pineal gland on 2005-01-27 12:16 [#01477643]
Points: 16065 Status: Regular | Followup to bryce_berny: #01477587



ouch



 

offline eXXailon from purgatory on 2005-01-27 16:15 [#01477967]
Points: 6745 Status: Lurker



Everything in the universe as we know it (reality) is
analogue. 'Digitalness' (is there even a proper noun for
it?) is a modelled representation of reality.


 

offline soundguy from London (United Kingdom) on 2005-02-02 10:32 [#01485114]
Points: 734 Status: Regular



"you are talking bollox"

errr don't think so somehow, I'm a qualified sound designer
FYI and I do know what I'm talking about.

To reiterate, ALL sound is nothing more than movement in air
molecules, it's one molecule knocking against another
molecule into another and so on until it reaches your ear,
your brain then interpretes the movement of these molecules
into sound.

Air molecules are discrete components and aren't actually
physically linked to one another therefore ALL sound is made
up of discrete components, it's not all that hard to
understand surely.


 

offline KEYFUMBLER from DUBLIN (Ireland) on 2005-02-02 10:42 [#01485119]
Points: 5696 Status: Lurker



i reckon "digilog" is the way to go really

I'm reminded of the seinfeld episode where george an dgerry
are having coffee and goerge is trying to say what a decent
human being he is:

george: "You know i can detect the tiiniest amount of human
suffering."

seinfeld: "Really? Are you detecting anything right
now....."



 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-02-02 11:00 [#01485127]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to soundguy: #01485114



You're confusing frequency of vibration with the medium
through which it is being transferred.

You ever seen a "newton's cradle"? You could say that the
quantum unit of force in that case is the metal ball - I
mean, if you were an idiot you could say that.

What if you were in a vacuum and struck a pitch fork and
held it to your skull so you could sense the vibration? The
vibration certainly wouldn't be defined by the size of air
molecules in that case, would it?


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-02-02 11:18 [#01485151]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to fleetmouse: #01485127



I didn't express myself very well - of course the vibration
will be affected by its medium but the point is that the
frequency is continuously variable - its steps are not
quantized - we say that in music theory a semitone is
divided up into 100 cents, and a digital sound system has a
particular sampling rate, but there's no set number of
gradations between pitches in an analog or physical system.


 

offline Drunken Mastah from OPPERKLASSESVIN!!! (Norway) on 2005-02-02 11:24 [#01485160]
Points: 35867 Status: Lurker | Followup to qrter: #01469612 | Show recordbag



why?


 

offline Daveeth on 2005-02-02 11:36 [#01485175]
Points: 75 Status: Regular



what´s the deal with the circle.
Analogue - Digital - Just make the music, don´t worry, be
happy. ok :)


 

offline soundguy from London (United Kingdom) on 2005-02-02 12:23 [#01485229]
Points: 734 Status: Regular



"What if you were in a vacuum and struck a pitch fork and
held it to your skull so you could sense the vibration? The

vibration certainly wouldn't be defined by the size of air
molecules in that case, would it?"

well if you were in a vacuum with no air you would die, but
the vibration you would sense if this wasn't the case would
be more akin to the sense of touch than the sense of
hearing, deaf people can hear through vibration but it's not
"hearing" as we know it, ie the stimulation of the inner
workings of the ear, if there was no air in the room and you
held it up to your ear you would hear nothing at all.


 

offline Zephyr Twin from ΔΔΔ on 2005-02-02 14:54 [#01485346]
Points: 16982 Status: Regular | Followup to soundguy: #01485229 | Show recordbag



"if there was no air in the room and you held it up to your
ear you would hear nothing at all."

which is precisely why you can't hear much under water
unless it is traveling in pockets of air [read: bubbles].


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-02-02 18:29 [#01485549]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to soundguy: #01485229



No, the vibration would travel through your skull-bone to
your hammer and anvil and cochlea and all those fiddly bits
and you would hear it. Actually there's a few music devices
built along this principle if I'm not mistaken...


 

offline JivverDicker from my house on 2005-02-02 18:33 [#01485554]
Points: 12102 Status: Regular | Followup to fleetmouse: #01485549



Soundguy was dumped by mira cocklix.

anyway.....

the point is , we're not in an oxygenless vacuum. do you
like music A or B. that's it really.


 

offline big from lsg on 2005-02-02 18:40 [#01485560]
Points: 23746 Status: Addict | Show recordbag



my speakers say 'designed for digital audio'


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-02-02 18:40 [#01485562]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to JivverDicker: #01485554



CHOOSE A OR B OR I'M BLOWING THE HATCH

* sound effect: death by explosive decompression *


 

offline JivverDicker from my house on 2005-02-02 18:42 [#01485564]
Points: 12102 Status: Regular | Followup to fleetmouse: #01485562



Ha Ha! it's true though.


 

offline Drunken Mastah from OPPERKLASSESVIN!!! (Norway) on 2005-02-02 19:15 [#01485606]
Points: 35867 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



I think people are lost in all this...

now, without reading any of the other posts, I will make a
new post.

dig·i·tal Audio pronunciation of "digital" ( P )
Pronunciation Key (dj-tl)
adj.

1. Of, relating to, or resembling a digit, especially a
finger.
2. Operated or done with the fingers: a digital switch.
3. Having digits.
4. Expressed in numerical form, especially for use by
a computer.

5. Computer Science. Of or relating to a device that can
read, write, or store information that is represented in
numerical form. See Usage Note at virtual.
6. Using or giving a reading in digits: a digital clock.


I guess 4 is the relevant definition.

Thus, digital is something inside a computer (or computing
unit, like that thing that decodes the information on a CD,
which kind of makes it a computer). This excludes any
possibility of "digital" existing in real life. It is merely
a metaphysical object inside a computer, and is comparable
to letters in a book. They don't really exist (there may be
ink on the page, but the letters have no existance of their
own..).

whether or not air-molecules bouncing together or electrical
impulses in the brain can be twisted to resemble the
workings of a computer, the computer is the child of these
ancient workings, and mimic them, not the other way around.

To sum up: you never hear or see anything digital.
Everything is "analogue" (this is NOT the correct word to
use, since analogue, in this context, also has something to
do with data-storage, and doesn't exist...) when it reaches
you, but it may be stored and encoded "digitally," which
sometimes means you can tell the difference, but the
difference is in a "real" quality, not a digital quality.


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-02-02 19:42 [#01485642]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker



If it's digital it means it's like a computer.


 

offline Drunken Mastah from OPPERKLASSESVIN!!! (Norway) on 2005-02-02 19:48 [#01485650]
Points: 35867 Status: Lurker | Followup to fleetmouse: #01485642 | Show recordbag



no, it means it only "exists" within the system of the
computer. the computer itself may be analogue (none of the
computers today are, and I don't mean computer in the way
the word is used today.. a computer is a device for
computing... calculating in a way, but not quite) or
digital.


 

offline bryce_berny from chronno (Canada) on 2005-02-02 19:48 [#01485651]
Points: 1568 Status: Lurker



" 4. Expressed in numerical form, especially for use by
a computer."
That could also be read "Expressed in a discrete computable
form"
w/ respect the the air molecules "knocking" together, that
is a continuous dynamical system, not a discrete system



 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-02-02 19:53 [#01485658]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to Drunken Mastah: #01485650



If I print some windows files on paper and mail them to you
will you tell me if they're digital?


 

offline Drunken Mastah from OPPERKLASSESVIN!!! (Norway) on 2005-02-02 20:11 [#01485694]
Points: 35867 Status: Lurker | Followup to fleetmouse: #01485658 | Show recordbag



sure!

send them to:

Richard D James
East Swansea Road 13
2342 Swansea

just mark the package "Anthrax," and you're sure it'll
arrive.


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-02-02 20:26 [#01485724]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to Drunken Mastah: #01485694



I better put some talcum powder in the envelope so the
digitals don't get chafed.


 

offline Drunken Mastah from OPPERKLASSESVIN!!! (Norway) on 2005-02-02 20:28 [#01485732]
Points: 35867 Status: Lurker | Followup to fleetmouse: #01485724 | Show recordbag



good.. nay, GREAT idea!


 

offline soundguy from London (United Kingdom) on 2005-02-09 12:14 [#01493078]
Points: 734 Status: Regular



"Soundguy was dumped by mira cocklix."

and pray tell, were did this information come from? and even
if it were true, how is it relevant to the debate?
some people need to grow up a bit me thinks.

"No, the vibration would travel through your skull-bone to
your hammer and anvil and cochlea and all those fiddly bits

and you would hear it. Actually there's a few music devices

built along this principle if I'm not mistaken..."

True.. but the molecules in your skull etc are denser than
air molecules thus the sound you hear would not be the same
as if the air molecules were stimulating your "fiddly bits"
directly.
It would be as if (Like as Zephyr Twin said) you were
underwater, higher frequencies would be absorbed and
therfore it's not really hearing as we know it.
But yes I concurr, the molecules in your skull are less like
discrete components and therfore cannot really be compared
to a digital waveform, but what I said about air molecules
still stands, and they are, like it or not, the medium
through which the majority of us experience sound and
therfore the most relevant.


 

offline virginpusher from County Clare on 2005-02-09 12:17 [#01493080]
Points: 27325 Status: Lurker | Followup to soundguy: #01493078



so was she any good or what?


 

offline tolstoyed from the ocean on 2005-02-09 12:18 [#01493081]
Points: 50073 Status: Moderator



HAHAHA :D


 

offline virginpusher from County Clare on 2005-02-09 12:19 [#01493083]
Points: 27325 Status: Lurker



shit, i'd put it in her. I'd play "skin with me" at the same
time too just for bonus points.


 

offline soundguy from London (United Kingdom) on 2005-02-09 12:32 [#01493095]
Points: 734 Status: Regular



" 4. Expressed in numerical form, especially for use by
a computer."
That could also be read "Expressed in a discrete computable

form"
w/ respect the the air molecules "knocking" together, that
is a continuous dynamical system, not a discrete system"

But the argument for analog is that the waveforms are
"smooth" waves and digital is a series of 0s and 1s, I was
just trying to demonstrate that sound as we know it is
comprised not of a smooth wave but a series of small
components and therfore has a "resoloution" so to speak,
just like digital.

In actual fact the reason that analog sounds different has
nothing to do with the "smoothness" of the wave, it's more
about harmonics than anything else.
for example, to achieve a perfect sawtooth wave on an analog
machine is nigh on impossible because you will always have
extra harmonics creeping in due to circuitry etc, that's why
digital sawtooth waves can sound "flatter" than analog
one's, but it's not really the fault of the digital wave,
which will probably follow perfectly the requirments of a
sawtooth (odd and even harmonics up to whatever the Nyquist
limit of that wave is), it's the imperfctions in the analog
wave that give it character, and these imperfections are
quite difficult to emulate properly using software.


 

offline soundguy from London (United Kingdom) on 2005-02-09 12:34 [#01493096]
Points: 734 Status: Regular



"so was she any good or what?"

yes, if you must know


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-02-09 12:39 [#01493101]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to soundguy: #01493095



What is the Nyquist limit of sound traveling in air?


 

offline soundguy from London (United Kingdom) on 2005-02-09 12:41 [#01493104]
Points: 734 Status: Regular




" What is the Nyquist limit of sound traveling in air?"

Ifinite in theory, but you'd be lucky to hear up to about
20000 hz



 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2005-02-09 13:02 [#01493131]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker | Followup to soundguy: #01493104



You're talking absolute shit.

First of all, of course it's theoretically infinite. The
size of the air molecules has no bearing - a ringing bell
and a second ringing bell half the size have different
pitches but the larger deeper bell doesn't have a lower
"sampling rate".

Second of all, the limits of human hearing have nothing to
do with the Nyquist limits. I can hear aliasing perfectly
well with my human ears and so can you. And the fact that
it's there means that the digital representation of
frequency is fundamentally different from vibration in a
physical system.


 


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