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Audio Mastering, what is Best, Digital or Analog?

Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master); the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication).

The format of choice these days is digital masters although analog masters, such as audio tapes, are still being used by the manufacturing industry and a few engineers who have specialized themselves in analog mastering.

But which is the best, analog mastering or digital mastering? This is an important question, since there are many points in favour of one or the another.

Analog (or analogue) recording (Greek, ana is "according to" and logos "relationship") is a technique used to store signals of audio or video information for later playback.

Analog recording methods store audio signals as a continual wave in or on the media. The wave might be stored as a physical texture on a phonograph record, or a fluctuation in the field strength of a magnetic recording. This is different from digital recording, which converts audio signals into discrete numbers.

In digital recording, the analog signal of sound is converted into a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes in air pressure (audio) through time, thus making an abstract template for the original sound.

Sound is naturally an analog signal. An analog signal is continuous, meaning that there are no breaks or interruptions. Digital signals are not continuous. They use specific values to represent information. In the case of sound, that means representing a sound wave as a series of values that represent pitch and volume over the length of the recording.

Because analog recording methods are continuous, they are better at capturing a true representation of sound. And this is really true. High digital sampling rate can create a sound similar to the original source but it will never reach the representation analog can create.

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by: John Cooper Total views: 0 Word Count: 337 Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 Time: 1:07 PM

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