Analog vs Digital

One conversation I still dread at gatherings is whether or not analog synths are better than digital. In 2001 this might have still been a valid argument when you could compare say a Moog Model D to a Novation Bass Station, Roland JP8080 or Access Virus. At that time computers were still barely able to handle running a sophisticated soft synth and digital outboard gear was really exciting, but a lot of the digital gear had an icy character mostly due to technology limits. Today it's basically a spiritual discussion that is as metaphysically absurd as palm reading.

That is to say--the issue I take with the analog vs digital argument is that all of our ears have really been trained away from even being able to the make the distinction between the two, to the point that it doesn't matter anymore.

Many people do not understand that the perception of music is culturally trained in youth and is even influenced by development in the womb: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00572/full Humans associate many emotions with aspects of sound beyond music, and human ears are particularly capable at distinguishing differences in frequency/pitch as well as loudness and direction. You can argue that this is part of built in warning defenses of humans, but you can't deny the ability of people to distinguish even tiny variations in sound is almost miraculous. It leads to a childhood inculcated sense of what is harmonious and musical that carries through the rest of your life. I personally believe while portions of auditory brain training are set in youth, alterations continue through life as your ears change and age. I may be biased, in that I am autistic and music and audio are some of the most intense sensations I experience, but I maintain that everyone is affected by the sounds of their life.

Given this truth, it is a tragedy that the modern world is a constant bombardment of noise and manufactured music. If you live in a city not only are you constantly subject to road noise, the sounds of leaf blowers and power washers, construction noise, dogs and cats near your home, and everywhere in public you go seems to regard as a requirement to have music playing no matter how distorted or ill fitting the music is. A lot of people claim to be able to ignore this din, but I can't. My brain is forced as I move from location to location to identify all music and analyze it, as well as listen for distinctions in the playback technology. It's exhausting but I don't consider it a curse.

Ergo, If you inhabit a world where there are almost never any silences, continuously bombarded by mostly ultra processed pop music, simultaneously having at your fingertips (think iPhone & Spotify) a large portion of the world's available recorded music available 24/7, all of which uses audio compression technology and loudness maximization, then in effect you have trained your ears, even if it is in a short term on older ears, to expect certain sonorities, certain pitches and chord progressions, and specific sounds. Deviations from these sounds can sound jarring or uncomfortable, or just seem out of place.

In that context, what is the sound of analog? It is the sound of imperfection, of electronic limits and errata. It's the soft saturation of inconsistent amplification or imperfect audio jack contacts. A truly analog oscillator in the synthesizer space often struggles to stay in tune across long ranges and can vary in tune based on its temperature, therefore inconsistent pitch is analog. An analog filter removes partials but can apply a characteristic distortion based on the limits of its electronics like a diode ladder filter. And while purists will swear up and down that these are what make analog things great every modern engineer and manufacturer implements controls to prevent these analog problems from occurring.

Beyond this the very nature of recording technology prevents most people from ever experiencing a true analog sound. So where an analog synth might be quiet or have unusual dynamics and fuzz you can be sure by the time you hear it it will be noise gated, compressed and filtered/eq'd to the point that it sounds clean and rich. In fact most of the time we don't experience a truly analog sound even if we go to a concert hall to hear someone play acoustic guitar or sing. The audio equipment in the room with the performer is cleaning, compressing, mixing and equalizing to provide you a "better" listening experience. This is exclusive of the modern singers now almost always using real time digital pitch correction.

So in the end what's the difference between analog and digital? It's not a comparison of gear. For small percentage of modern people that hear it, analog is the willingness let your ears be uncomfortable and embrace the emotions that come with odd sounds, imperfect intervals and atonalities. In the electronic music world this can be experimenting turning all your gear on and twisting the knobs without judgement or analysis.

And if you want a raw analog experience go listen to something untouched by modern devices. Bang on household objects to hear how they ring out in the room you are standing in. Go sing around a campfire in the woods with an acoustic guitar you can't precisely tune. Sit on a windy beach on the coast and hear the gulls pierce the washing sounds of the surf. Try sitting in silence in the dark and experiencing the primal fear that comes when a strange sound jumps out at you.