Sunday, May 30, 2010

analog vs. digital

Numbers... ugh... Now, I'm actually a mathematician, but the way people use numbers to try and explain what is REALLY going on frustrates me. As analogy of this situation, I will describe to you the difference between vinyl records and super high quality blu-ray digital sound. Vinyl records are old, man... out dated... they don't even use computers at all. There are no 0's and 1's to decode and transform into some great tune or beat. They actually work with magnets. Records have, literally inscribed on the surface of it, the sound wave in physical form. The needle works sort of like a microphone and just amplifies the sound that's there as the record turns. Digital music (ALL digital music, despite the quality) works sort of like movie frames. Each instant has a new "frame" of sound followed by a TINY break (too small of a break to ever hear it) then proceeds with the next instance of sound. These sound chunks are analyzed by putting 0's and 1's in a specific order. In other words, there will be a specified line between where the wave length ends and there is no longer sound. Going through the length of the song, this really isn't a very big deal. The difference comes from within the sound. Each sound has a wavelength, and each wavelength is continuous. This means that it isn't square, but rather curved. There isn't ever actually a line between where it ends and where the next begins. This is how a vinyl record works. It takes the actual shape of the wave and engraves it on the vinyl.
I challenge anyone who reads this to find access to a good surround sound system and play a song on vinyl at the same time as you play the same song with the highest quality digital speed that you can. Flip back and forth between the two. You'll never listen to digital music the same way again. You'll miss the continuous, smooth, clear sound you can only get from an analog source. That's not even taking into account the high ends and the low ends that get cut out with digital mixing. Seriously. Try it. After you do, sit down and think about what discreet numbers mean. What putting a fixed interval between values does to any system. Ask yourself if this is how reality works. Once you understand this, you'll realize that the universe is far stranger then you could have possibly imagined.

No comments:

Post a Comment