---
title: "Analog vs. Digital — Which Is Better and Why?"

description: "Let's talk about analog color (analogue colour if you're fancy) and how digital emulations have grown over the years. I'll dig into my own process and thinking behind the two camps and how I use them in my mixing."

status: complete

date: 2023-02-28

kind: solo

guestSlugs: []

listenUrl: "https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lovemusicmore/episodes/Analog-vs--Digital--Which-Is-Better-and-Why-e1vck45"
appleUrl: "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analog-vs-digital-which-is-better-and-why/id1567355195?i=1000602112945&uo=4"
spotifyUrl: "https://open.spotify.com/episode/3dg1nUIezaPcxsz9W31poq"

topicsDiscussed:
  - "Analog"
  - "Mixing"
  - "Music production"
  - "Plugins"
  - "Digital emulation"
  - "Color in music"
  - "Impact of technology"
  - "Historical perspectives"
  - "Musical warmth"
  - "Trends in audio production"
  - "Understanding sound waves"

hostNote: |
  Every piece of analog gear changes the signal, it's all additive. A preamp, a compressor, a tape machine: each one imparts its own color, and the warmth people associate with classic records is the cumulative effect of running audio through a chain of colorful things. When early digital recording stripped that out, you could hear the absence.
  
  I get into what "color" actually means in audio terms, why digital emulations have gotten genuinely good at modeling it, and how I use both in my own mixing. The analog vs. digital debate is mostly settled now, the interesting question is how you combine them and why.
  
  At the end of the day, you can assess it for what it is, it's music. The format serves that, not the other way around.

selectedMoments:
  - label: "The characteristics of analog sound"
    startSec: 46
    note: "I discuss the fundamental properties of analog sound using classic examples like The Beatles."
  - label: "Color in audio processing"
    startSec: 141
    note: "I explain how each piece of analog gear imparts its own 'color' to sound, similar to Instagram filters."
  - label: "Transitioning from analog to digital"
    startSec: 184
    note: "I describe the loss of color when transitioning to digital formats and how early digital recordings sounded sterile."
  - label: "Advancements in digital technology"
    startSec: 273
    note: "I point out how improvements in digital technology are allowing for better sound modeling."
  - label: "Comparing analog warmth to digital replication"
    startSec: 361
    note: "I discuss how different pieces of analog gear add warmth to recordings compared to digital."
  - label: "The role of digital plugins"
    startSec: 454
    note: "I discuss how modern plugins aim to replicate the warmth of analog without the hassle."
  - label: "Using reverb in music production"
    startSec: 1111
    note: "I present his use of digital reverb plugins to recreate rich sound environments."

excerptQuotes:
  - text: "When you listen to classic records, let's take The Beatles going back to the 60s, everything is analog."
    startSec: 88
    reviewed: true
  - text: "Everything analog has some amount of change to the signal,... it's all additive."
    startSec: 145
    reviewed: true
  - text: "You end up losing a lot of color, which at first I think was a really bad thing."
    startSec: 180
    reviewed: true
  - text: "There's just this like loss of vibe because it's more sterile."
    startSec: 229
    reviewed: true
  - text: "It's not about one bit of gear; it's about the additive effect of running it into a bunch of colorful things."
    startSec: 359
    reviewed: true
  - text: "I can take my input through a clean digital channel and then apply a million different delays to it."
    startSec: 1126
    reviewed: true
  - text: "You can assess it truly for what it is — it's music."
    startSec: 1398
    reviewed: true

faq:
  - question: "What are the benefits of analog recording over digital?"
    answer: "Analog recording provides a warmth and depth that many find appealing, as it imparts a natural color to the audio that can be perceived as richer and more vibrant."
  - question: "How has digital technology improved music production?"
    answer: "Advancements in digital technology now allow for more sophisticated modeling of analog signals, giving digital recordings a quality that can often match or even surpass analog in certain contexts."
  - question: "What do I think about the future of music production?"
    answer: "I believ that the gap between analog and digital is closing, with new technologies allowing for greater creativity and expression in digital music production."

transcriptPublished: false

draft: false
---