The Quality of Analog Recording is Still Recognised and Used by Professionals

Analog recording, which has its own particular sound, is alive and well and extensively used by many of the top producers on their projects today. Many say that it is the sound that defined modern recording techniques, but these projects have one thing in common, the best engineers using top quality equipment.

Because of the unique sound qualities, the sound on playback is almost identical to the original sound recorded, professional analog tape recording can add character to music recordings that some artists and producers find more desirable than what some say is the sterile sound of digital recordings. However, if cost and flexibility comes into the equation at the expense of sound quality then the improvements made in digital recording technology may suffice.

Although, analog recording has been around for decades, it was the 1960's that saw a surge in its development. With the introduction of three and four track tape recorders and one-inch recording tape at the beginning of the decade and high-quality four-track recording by the end of the decade, this new technology encouraged artists to develop new sounds in popular music. Not only the music itself, but the recording and processing of music was emphasized with albums such as The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Cassette tapes, which were the most popular format until recently, have virtually been eliminated from common use and replaced by inexpensive digital formats. Professional quality analog tape, however, has returned to be the format of choice for professional recording and a high count of the studio music released today continues to be recorded in an analog environment.

Why has analog recording remained popular after lifespan of decades? We hear sound as vibrating changes in air pressure, travelling in continuous waves causing similar vibrations in our eardrums. Those continuous vibrations, using the grooves of a record, or the tracks of a magnetic tape passing through a tape recorder, is duplicated by analog recording and is a more natural sound to the human ear.

Digital recording, however, separates the sound waves into individual pieces of information in binary code called samples and then stores them as digits in a computer. Whereas analog recording is a series of waves, digital recording is a series of steps and some information is lost during playback.

The main advantage with digital systems is lower costs and ease of use and accurate, high quality sound reproduction is possible with both systems. With analog recordings, the main disadvantage is that users must utilise high-quality playback equipment to separate the signal from the background noise precisely.

However, digital technology is constantly trying to emulate the sound of analog and is improving at a rapid rate and there may come a day when even the purists will not be able to distinguish the difference in sound playback. That day, coupled with the ease of use of the digital format, may see the demise of analog recording. But analog recording is the oldest standard in audio recording and is a different experience, entirely and until that day arrives the analog format will still remain the first choice for many.

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