Recording Studio Myths Part 1: Analog is Better than Digital

I thought I would kick off the year with a series of posts about recording studio myths. I plan to keep these posts as simple as possible so that it is easy to understand for the new and aspiring musicians.

The first myth I plan to address is the idea that analog is better than digital.

You will hear many people claim that analog sounds better than digital. I am always amazed when I hear this, because it is an idea born out of ignorance.

So what are the differences are between analog and digital?

Analog sounds different to digital due to the frequencies you hear. Digital delivers a wider range of frequencies, in particular at the higher end. This 'higher fidelity', means that it provides a more accurate representation of the recording and the higher frequencies digital recordings are able to access provide a "brighter" and clearer sound. Analog however delivers a more limited range of frequencies, the frequencies that you can hear with analog recordings are more noticeable at the lower end. It is these lower frequencies that give analog recordings their "warmer" sound.

Analog recording, and analog technology in general, has been around a lot longer than digital technology. This means that many people are more used to hearing music with the smaller range of frequencies and as a result often feel that digital recordings just don't sound right.

Guitarists complain about this a lot. This is because the early digital effects processors and/or pedals did not effectively replicate the more traditional analog sounding tones of the older amps. However technology has come leaps and bounds since the early days and now many guitarists, including multi-million dollar artists, use computer plugins (something I will look at in a later Recording Studio Myths post) both live and in the studio to get their sound.

If you think about it logically, if you have a wider range of frequencies to work with you should be able to create better sounding recordings. Of course if you still want to create that "warmer" sound you can mix your music and apply the EQ to favor those lower frequencies, no problem. Purists will argue with this statement, but I could play you a good digital recording with the mix emphasized to sound more analog and if I told you it was recorded using analog gear you would never know it was digital.

Think about it this way:

Would you keep and use your old CRT analog television because the picture is "warmer" or would you rather use a HD LCD digital television with a brighter and clearer picture and get to see everything you have missed out on over the past 60 years?

If you prefer to watch the HD LCD, then why would you want to limit your music experience?

Purists can spout all the technical jargon they like, but the argument is essentially the same.

So does analog 'sound' better than digital? I guess that depends on the frequencies you prefer to hear.

Is analog 'better' than digital? Quite simply, no it is not.

Blog Site Facelift

I finally got around to giving the blog site a facelift. I still have to iron out a few bugs but it is 95% done.

Soon I will turn my attention to the main site as it is a couple of years out of date.

Mobile Studio Equipment

I have recently finished building a mobile recording rig.

Having found myself in the position a couple of times where it has been more efficient to go to the artist, rather than have them come to me I have just finished building a mobile rig called "Studio B". This has many advantages, I can take my equipment and capture a band in their own environment (this has been the case where bands have wanted a "live" feel). Whilst I can easily replicate that feel in the studio, some bands have specifically wanted to record in a particular room/hall. Also it allows me to take my equipment anywhere so if I get the urge to record something it is fairly easy to do.

Which Amp to Use?

The endless search for "that" guitar tone can drive most guitarists crazy.

I have tried many different amps in this eternal search and what I have discovered is that the best amp is one that has a great clean tone. Why? Because if you have a great clean tone you can put any other effect through it and it will sound good. What a lot of people do not really know is that most major artists/bands do not rely on their amps alone to get their tone. Rather they use pedals, multi-effects and plugins through an amp on the clean channel.

For example Joe Satriani used a Boss DS1 through the clean channel of a Marshall amp for Flying in a Blue Dream. Brian May famously uses Vox AC30s yet his tone comes from a 1 watt transister amp built by Queen's bassist John Deacon lined into the Vox. Recently Def Leppard's Phil Collen stated that all of his guitar effects in the studio are now done through the computer.

With that said, I like to use Fender and Vox amps when playing live. In the studio I don't use any amps, I line in to the desk through a Line 6 Podxt Pro.

Les Paul Upgrade

I have recently upgraded one of my Les Pauls.

I recently swapped out the stock pickups in one of my Les Pauls for Alnico Pro II pickups. The change in sound is great, the Alnicos give my guitar more of a vintage sound that is classic Les Paul rock!

Keyboards and MIDI

One of the best things digital technology brought with it was MIDI Data.

This technology allows me to have a keyboard set up in my studio that can access an unlimited amount of sounds. By using MIDI Data I can load in sound "Samples" from the computer and assign them to the keyboard. The major benefit of this is that I don't need to have an army of synthesizers to access different sounds for myself and other artists.

Ibanez Guitars

I have a lot of different guitars but over the years I have found myself using my Ibanez RG 570 the most.

There is something about this guitar that just fits my playing style more so than all of my other guitars. My model has a Lo-TRS tremolo fitted to it, many people claim that this tremolo is inferior to the Ibanez Edge tremolo. I however would disagree strongly with this. I have used a couple of Ibanez guitars with the Edge tremolo and would prefer mine over any of them. Maybe I am just lucky, I have never had any problems with it, yet if you read the internet forum boards there are a lot of posts from people who claim they have multiple problems with the TRS from them wearing out to not holding the guitar in tune.

I have had this guitar since 1999 and it has never failed me.

Guitar technique

My guitar technique:

Guitars

Here is a video explaining the guitars we are using on the album. Enjoy...

Guitar sounds

How I get my "sound".

Rock On

With final recording almost completed Paul dropped in to finish a couple of tracks.

Progress!

Well this year has been a real roller coaster! But there has been progress. All songs for the album have been completed with the exception of the drums and a few small overdubs.

All being well these will be finished over the next few weeks and then the final mixing can begin.

More updates soon.

Rock on!

I Finally Have Twitter

Yes I have finally taken the plunge into Twitter. At this stage I still don't "get it", all it seems to be is status updates.

From my limited exposure to Twitter it seems to me that people do one of three things with it.

They either just post a status update, post a link to an article or page they have found on the web or do what I am doing. That is, realise that Twitter can't do much, so anything interesting to be said or shared is automatically linked to an external publishing site.

This last use seems to make Twitter pointless, but for whatever reason people seem to like Twitter, so I have jumped on the bandwagon. So from now on each of my blog posts will now also be posted as a Twitter update with a link back here.

So if you're too lazy to use RSS then you can follow me on Twitter: @markhamlet

Rock on!

MacBook Pro in for Repair... Again

Yes my awesomely reliable Macbook Pro has been in the apple service centre for the last two weeks again (check my earlier post "Apple or PC" for the ongoing saga).

I spoke to them today and they advised me that the screen assembly needs replacing. They said it would cost $1100 to repair, until I pointed out that the screen assembly was replaced less than 12 months ago. So now it will be done under warranty and will take at least two more weeks.

That brings the total value of all the repairs to this computer over the last 3 years to over $5000. Add that to the original $3000 price tag and it becomes one expensive notebook! Not to mention the down time every 6 months.

Be warned, if you buy an Apple computer get the 3 year warranty, because you will need it. Also buy a second computer for the six months that you won't have the Apple due to the amount of time it takes Apple to repair it.

Rock On! (just not with a Mac)

Blogging From iPhone

This is just a post testing a new application allowing me to blog directly from my iPhone.

We will see how well it works

Apple or PC?

I decided to write this post because I just got my Macbook Pro back from repair AGAIN and because people always ask me why I use a PC instead of a Mac in the studio.

Firstly here is the background to my experience with Apple products: my Macbook Pro is 2.5 years old. The first one I bought never worked so I took it back after trying everything over a period of two days and recieved a replacement. The second one (the one I have now) packed it in within two weeks.

I did some investigating and concluded it was dodgy RAM. When I took it back to Apple they didn't believe me. Three weeks later, and after their testing, I get it back with new RAM installed.

Since then the computer has been in for repair with Apple every six months on average. Considering each time it takes Apple between three to four weeks to fix it, that is a lot of downtime.

The only parts that are still the original ones I bought as part of the second computer 2.5 years ago now are the hard drive and the bottom outer casing. I kid you not, 95% of this computer has been replaced.

So why do I use a PC? Reliability. When the studio computer played up it was only the motherboard, nothing else and the downtime was minimal. I have 6 PC's constantly running in my house and the only thing I have ever replaced due to malfunction has been a charger pack for a Dell laptop.

If the two Macbooks are anything to go by I would never feel confident in having Apple products as part of my studio setup.

Of course having said that I have an iPhone and must admit it is brilliant. Too bad Apple can't do the same for their computers.

'08 Cra$h in the Studio

I had '08 Cra$h in the studio on Saturday. We spent the time puting together their new single "More Than You Should Know".

It was an interesting day as the band had used their own 8 track recorder to do the initial recording at their rehersal venue and had brought it to me to add a few extra touches. The song has a very live and raw feel to it.

Creating Guitars

Everything has been moving along really well in the studio lately so we shot this video explaining how to create the guitar parts within the songs. Enjoy...

Moving Forward

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas and looking forward to an enjoyable new year.

Things here have started to come together again, the studio has been back up and running for a little while now with brand new computers installed with Windows 7. I must say using Windows 7 really seems to make everything else run very smoothly, although it did take a little tweaking. Sorry to all those Apple fanboys, but having used both Snow Leopard and Windows 7, I have to admit that the latter is everything Apple wishes it could be but isn't in so many ways. I am very happy with my decision.

As for the album, I have been reorganizing the songs and at this stage it looks like there will be 12 songs in total for the Virtual World album. Which is great because I originally only intended for there to be 10, but sometimes you have stuff you like so much that you just don't want to let it go. Of course anything could happen and maybe something may still be dropped after we have played the songs to a select few for feedback.

Another update will be soon!

Keep on Rocking.

It Never Rains But It Pours

Sometimes I feel like I am recording Chinese Democracy (that's right, the album that took 15yrs to make). A few weeks ago all of the inputs into my desk seemed to stop working, so after spending a lot of time fault finding, re-installing things, changing cables and computers etc. (the desk controls the computer) nothing seemed to fix it. I also have a removable drive system, so I replaced the current drive with the older one that was running my Cubase SX3 system and the problem was still there. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the problem was my firewire interface card.

So I ordered a new one, which took two weeks to get here, only to install it and discover that firstly the new replacement card uses a different chip set to the old one which my system really doesn't like (thanks Adaptec!). For more information on why this can be a problem just do a Google search for "Tascam FW 1884 firewire adaptec 4300".

So after a little bit of tweaking I got it up and running again but my input problem still exists. So now I believe there is a problem possibly on the motherboard as everything worked fine when connected to my Macbook Pro. Which means I have to now go out and totally rebuild my computer as I can't buy a replacement for my motherboard anymore (it is a few years old now) and all of the internal connections/configs have changed in the last few years.

Just to add salt into the wounds I came down with laryngitis last week and I couldn't speak for 3 days! Maybe in 14yrs time I might be able to finish this album :(

Hopefully next post I will have some good news.

Keep on Rocking!