The Proud Meeting of Analog, Digital, and Low-Fi!
The proud meeting of analog, digital, and low-fi!
The above was lovingly filmed by a 2004 Fuji camera, featuring a Bush long-player late 1960s radio. It was tuned to ‘BBC Introducing’ with Jericho Keys on Radio York at 8.10pm on 6/1/18, on 666 khz , medium wave band (AM). The track being played is D-Ni-L, “New Bruise”, (one of the releases on Tang Hall Smart’s Musication record label) which was mastered using digital technology, and composed on Fruity Loops software. Why? Well we thought it would be amusing to have something so cutting-edge and brilliantly mastered, played through the little Bush radio!
There is a world of debate around the merits and drawbacks of analog versus digital which has raged ever since the first digitally recorded album in 1979: Ry Cooder’s “ Bop till You Drop” . Analog supporters argue that digital recording means “…staring into a screen, at a sea of waveforms and parameters instead of closing your eyes and listening.” (What We’re Missing in the Analog, Digital Debate) And proponents of digital would point to the flexibility, range and accuracy – as well as the accessibility for those working on home-computers. For an expert and very thoughtful account: The New Analog -Listening and Reconnecting in a Digital World – by Damon Krukowski, is a very good read around the subject!
But I would like to expound my personal view here which is far from expert! And there are no prizes for guessing that I am an analog and low-fi fan! I was exposed to the wonders of analog sound from the early 70s, when my dad started his own record shop with stock consisting of his personal vinyl collection supplemented by bootlegs and white labels (record-shop speak for low-fi and very cheap recordings). I grew up admiring the rawness of punk and, later on, rap, and loved how these musical forms were for everyone; no need for expensive instruments and training – and when I began to compose music myself in the mid 80s, I would use two portable tape players to multi-track, ending up with 10 tracks. I guess old habits die hard, because I was absolutely thrilled recently to discover that there is a whole genre out there of Downtempo, Hip-Hop, NuJazz, Lo-Fi, Trip-Hop with specialist channels on YouTube!
An avid music fan all my life, I still listen to the charts, (all of them when I get the time), and I have been intrigued recently by a new direction, for example Martin Garrix & Dua Lipa - "Scared to be Lonely" that sounds to my analog-favouring ears like a collection of sounds playing backwards. Am I showing my age when I ask, why? What is the point? Then there is the use of auto-tune. Personally I don’t like to hear the human voice being ironed away, and think people should keep practising until they get it right! Similarly I dislike how people use photo-shop etc to present an idealised version of themselves, I like to see the wrinkles and blemishes that make us different … and I think that these differences should be honoured! Thus, the sound of crackle and hiss, the 3-D quality of 78 rpm recordings, the little imperfections that make a recording sound emotional … well to me they are like the raw, untouched photos in that they signify that life has taken place, and that individuals not clones or robots were involved. I am definitely not one of those people seeking perfection in my music, but rather, something that communicates, entertains and moves me. I would not use auto-tune at all if I had my way but I do realise this is a minority view so don't impose this upon Neil or Mike when they are producing/mastering!
Often musicians and engineers today will combine both analog and digital recording. They might record some layers with real instruments, perhaps a guitar, plugged into the machine, combined with other, computer-generated sounds - recorded digitally and then mixed down to a half-inch two-track machine. Or they could record on analog tape and edit on Pro Tools or another DAW. I guess this is the best of both worlds? What do you think?
Sue Williamson
