Analog Vs Digital

In my experiences, I havce come across the fact that digital is way better than analog.
It is a cleaner signal that actually allows for mor modulation possibilities.
Just look at the MicroWave XT… or any of the Roland workstations.

Each can “act” as a mono synth as well.

Please discuss.

This has been discussed to death, but…

“Better” can only be determined relative to a specific set of objectives and aesthetic values. Without specifying what kind of result you want your gear to achieve, and why, there’s no way to answer the question.

And since musical style is very diverse (a good thing IMO), we shouldn’t expect that everyone will share the same objectives and values. Which means that there can be no general answer to the question.

Many people seem to have a hard time accepting this, though, which is why the topic keeps coming up and never gets resolved (because it is in principle unresolvable).

FWIW, in my own music I find digital tools better suited to certain tasks and analog ones better suited to others. I couldn’t say that one was better overall, even within my own needs…

Don’t feed the troll… :stuck_out_tongue:

Yep, you’re right. Now go away you cock.

In the event that you aren’t a troll, I can offer you this:

Digital is like a player piano. It plays all the right notes, in all the right places, with all the right values. The playing is clean, no doubt, but some might argue that it’s “too clean,” too sterile, it has no soul.

Analog is like a person playing the same song. They also play all the right notes, in all the right places, with all the right values. However since they’re not a machine, their playing has a certain ineffable feel to it, a human quality that is not imparted by the player piano. It’s not as clean as the player piano, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be pleasurable to listen to nevertheless.

Musically speaking, the decision as to which one is better than the other comes down to whoever it is doing the listening. It’s an aesthetic decision.

In the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. :slight_smile:

I will also comment hoping this is not troll feeding.

I have keyboards at two extremes, a Korg M3 and a Moog Voyager (along with Moogerfoogers, CP-251 and expander for the Voyager).

The primary reason I have a Voyager is because of control voltages. The Korg M3 has a very sophisticated system of modulation but you still can do with it what you can with control voltages. The sky is the limit with CVs. You can feed them into modules in a modular, Moogerfoogers, you can even use DIY electronics. Digital synthesizers do one thing, run programs.

Every digital synth is simply a computer with limited operating system (in some cases a scaled down and specialized windows) running a program. Whatever that program allows you do do is all you are going to be able to do.

Computers also have to break up time into descrete parts. I am convinced that some of the itnteractions of analogue circuits can be duplicated because of this. Try creating a good self oscillating filter with a computer program. Analogue electronics add color which is not a bad thing. It’s why certain synths have been so popular, just consider the Moog ladder filter for example.

I think filters are also diffrent. I don’t like the filters of the Korg M3 at all. The are thin and harsh although the sounds of the M3 itself are very beautiful but that has a lot to do with how carefully Korg constructed them.

Bottom line is that I love both off my synthesizers. I don’t see one as bettter than the other, only different and in many ways, they complement one another.

i vote to delete this post on principle, whatcha think mod? :slight_smile:

Delete!

Perfection is boring. A shiny new car is only worth a few zero’s on a piece of paper. After you dent or scratch it for the first time, then it becomes valuable and you can assess how much it’s worth to you.

Just a though that came to me reading the word ‘digital’.

Delete this thread, please.

OP is a first-poster and he is spouting trollbait. He should be banned.

Ban!

Bring on the hammer!

It’s like going on a Harley forum and saying “2 cylinder motorcycles are garbage, what do you think?”

If it looks like a troll, and smells like a troll…

…and has a troll-like name on an analog Moog forum…

Or the Waldorf Microwave I… oh wait, that has 8 analog filters.
Well the Pulse…no that has an analog “Moog” type ladder filter.
But my Miniworks 4 pole…nope that has the same analog filter as the pulse.
OK, the Q+…What, 16 analog filters?
Perhaps using Waldorf as an example wasn’t the best idea for the “digital is better” troll bait? :laughing:

Analog vs Digital! There are digital components in many of the analog synths and the digital synths made currently all have several analog-mimicking aspects. It is just technology to produce sound. This notion that there’s some type of competition between analog and digital is silly.

NOE BUT DIGGITAL IS MOAR PRISTEEN!!! :wink:

agreed.

let’s now move to the next point of discussion:

PC or MAC?

Let’s please be concise, because we’ve got a full schedule tonight: we need to sort out the “korg or yamaha” issue as well before the townhall meeting adjournes.

Aha! The Korg/Yamaha issues, therin lies the real rub.

Last night I spent 1 hour fine tuning a patch I need for a song.

It is just 3 knob twists away from the “init” setting of the voyager’s panel,

and I spent 1 hour working on the correct allocation of key velocity to “wave form of oscillator 1”.

It dramatically changes the mood of a solo, because I need some “talking” quality in the patch, but too much “wha” will produce a “I’m a moog and I own this place” effect.

  • 49% of the solution is in my fingers,

  • 49% of the solution is in the quality of moog’s components (i.e.; what happens if I twist the “wave” knob 1 or 2 degress left, and get a response [message to moog: the 25/50/100% setting for velocity is awful. Work on a more detailed response]

  • 1% is in the quality on my wife’s coffee

  • the remaining 1% is about menus, features, “model 1” versus “model 1 pro”, “model pro” versus “model EX”, etcetera.

Forum space allocation on the internet is exactly contrary

  • 98% discussing “voyager vs access”
  • 1% about making your own coffee (because no wife seems to find a place in clogged studios filled with walls of synths)
  • 1% about fingers and ears.

Only in this world a question like “analog or digital” can supposedly make any sense.

In other words: nerdish