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Topic: When vinyl was digital friendly (Read 2295 times) previous topic - next topic
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When vinyl was digital friendly

Early 80s, before the existence CD, was when some vinyl proudly displayed that all tracks were recorded and mixed digitally, wow! After, the CD took over and digital became a bad word. Remember the "But the sound is like a staircase !"  :D

I remember that LP. But there is no trace of digital in its Wiki.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N85mtGZ9JkY

The funny thing is that three "tape operator" are cited. Why ? No mention of this in the previous or next LP.

Keith 'Richard' Nixon – tape operator
George Chambers – tape operator
Francis Xavier Gallagher – tape operator

So I'm not sure. I have another LP in the head but can't recall the name.


DDA  :D

Re: When vinyl was digital friendly

Reply #1 –
I remember this very well. Looking back all we can say it was all about marketing of course, nothing has changed really. They just swapped the words analog and digital somewhere along the line...

Re: When vinyl was digital friendly

Reply #2 –
Quote
Early 80s, before the existence CD, was when some vinyl proudly displayed that all tracks were recorded and mixed digitally
And CDs were marked with a 3-letter code like AAD, which meant Analog recording, Analog mixing, and Digital Mastering.   And with analog recordings there was sometimes a disclaimer that you might hear tape hiss.

Quote
After, the CD took over and digital became a bad word.
Not among normal people.    A LOT of us replaced our records with CDs for the better sound!    It was great for the record companies re-selling so many old albums.   I'm pretty sure that in the early CD days they were selling more old albums than new albums, and most of these were vinyl replacements.  

Audiophools never gave-up on vacuum tubes & records.  

Quote
The funny thing is that three "tape operator" are cited. Why ?
Digital tape recorders came before CDs or recording to hard disc.

Re: When vinyl was digital friendly

Reply #3 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on

Digital tape recorders came before CDs or recording to hard disc.


No CPU, memory or hard drive could have at the time deal with a rate such as 2*16*44100

So mixing was from tape to tape with with some discrete logic between. I suppose as I have no idea  :))


Has anyone ever seen a "DAD" CD in the very early days?

 

Re: When vinyl was digital friendly

Reply #4 –
Quote from: biloute on
No CPU, memory or hard drive could have at the time deal with a rate such as 2*16*44100

So mixing was from tape to tape with with some discrete logic between. I suppose as I have no idea  :))

The SPARS code referred to the storage medium, not to whether processing was analog or digital. For example, Brothers in Arms - famously released as an early "DDD" - went through D/A->mixer->A/D.

(Digression: once one could timestamp recordings, it would be possible for a mixing desk to remember the knobs turned and faders pushed; rather than applying it and record on target tape, you could listen to it by starting the source and it would apply servos to move the knobs and faders. Commit when you are satisfied, without generation loss. I don't know when such mixing desks became commonplace - must have been quite some time before they turned digital.
Now, in principle even if no digital machine could process this in real time, it could have been done still - by running the final commit digitally overnight. I have no idea if that ever came to be a thing. I'd bet that in the history of audio recording, at least one nerdy musician must have tried to do it at least once.)

Quote from: biloute on
Has anyone ever seen a "DAD" CD in the very early days?
Of course, Danish hard rockers D-A-D made sure to make a DAD recording, but the earliest example you find at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARS_code is ABC: How to Be a ... Zillionaire! In 1985, which is indeed "very early" when the triple-letter SPARS codes came about in 1984.

There could have been earlier ones, if if any of them pre-CD digital tape recordings (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_recording#Timeline ) were digitally mastered for CD from the analog mixes. ("earlier" could depend on whether you ask for earlier recording, earlier recording&mixing, earlier recording&mixing&mastering or earlier release.)

Re: When vinyl was digital friendly

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Porcus on

even if no digital machine could process this in real time, it could have been done still - by running the final commit digitally overnight.

At the time a 68000 4MHz used more than 10 cycles for moving a int16, it would have take weeks for an album. The hard drives were also to slow and it'll take 15 * 40MB HD for a CD. The only real time solution would be "digital tape" => logic, mul, add, etc.. in 74LS => "another digital tape".

Now a $40 Raspberry must be capable of mixing in real time 32 albums with 48 tracks each in memory or RAM drive (if its RAM was more than 8GB)  :D


Quote
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_recording#Timeline

"September 5, 1982: Peter Gabriel releases his fourth studio album (titled Security in North America and Peter Gabriel IV elsewhere).When released on CD in October 1984 it becomes the first full-digital DDD release. It was recorded on Sony's Mobile One digital studio and mixed with a Sony PCM-1610."

I got the vinyl at the time and I don't recall any mention of digital on the album / cover.

I saw him on the South Bank Show recording this album in his studio.
Many digital gadgets but no trace of digital recording but I probably miss it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scmYG1Pv1_Q

The journalist: "He spends £100,000 on building and equipping his own studio"  

You could by a street in London with that kind of money in 1982. Now just a parking space.