44.1 kHz or 48 kHz?

[kritikon]

There's a name for that, I'm sure...

[jamcat]

It's not actually difficult to understand the concept that someone might want "analogue" distortion but not digital distortion.

[PatchAdamz]

It's not actually difficult to understand the concept that someone might want "analogue" distortion but not digital distortion.

I prefer Social Distortion to digital distortion.

[vurt]

It's not actually difficult to understand the concept that someone might want "analogue" distortion but not digital distortion.

fuzz.

[sQeetz]

It's like talking with audiophiles who assure you that those cable lifters for $500 a piece do add sparkle and an audible tingle to the sound.

It's not actually difficult to understand the concept that someone might want "analogue" distortion but not digital distortion.

It is if the difference is in the context of a fully mixed song negligible

[kritikon]

No, I find it difficult to understand wanting distortion on everything. Going back many years when I was doing it entirely in the analogue realm, one of THE main aims was to avoid distortion in most cases, especially in recording. I and everyone I knew did not deliberately run everything hot so as to distort, did not saturate everything on tape. We ran as hot as possible close to distortion levels (but NOT AT distortion levels) to MINIMISE noise. Of course distortion has its uses. Generally not in recording though.

[vurt]

yup, and then gate everything again during mixing, just to be sure it was gone!

[sQeetz]

I distort the shit out of everything... tape, amp, saturation, decimation... one thing I never worry about is aliasing.

[jamcat]

It costs me nothing to record at 96kHz. I have TBs of SSD space. My audio converters go up to 96k and 192k depending on the device, and Studio One lets me run 96 audio at 48 during playback, so there isn't even a CPU hit. At this point, I would be going out of my way to record at a lower sample rate.

If you're complaining about recording high resolution audio in 2023, either your computer is ancient or your DAW is lacking.

[sQeetz]

I don't need to, because I'm going to be compressing and using distortion to it anyway.
I don't see the point. Even if my machine and everything else is pretty capable

[jamcat]

No, I find it difficult to understand wanting distortion on everything. Going back many years when I was doing it entirely in the analogue realm, one of THE main aims was to avoid distortion in most cases, especially in recording. I and everyone I knew did not deliberately run everything hot so as to distort, did not saturate everything on tape. We ran as hot as possible close to distortion levels (but NOT AT distortion levels) to MINIMISE noise. Of course distortion has its uses. Generally not in recording though.

Yes, but you never could eliminate all of the distortion. Everything that an analogue signal runs through adds some level of noise and THD. You shouldn't assume I'm overcooking everything, though. I'm all about subtle layers, just enough to give the impression it was touched by analogue gear. I do often like sending drums hot to "tape" though, and sometimes a little bit of preamp distortion on the loudest part of a vocal.

yup, and then gate everything again during mixing, just to be sure it was gone!

That's part of the analogue recording process, so yes. Gating sounds different than it never being there in the first place.

I distort the shit out of everything... tape, amp, saturation, decimation... one thing I never worry about is aliasing.

But that's exactly when you should be worrying about aliasing.

[sQeetz]

I distort the shit out of everything... tape, amp, saturation, decimation... one thing I never worry about is aliasing.

But that's exactly when you should be worrying about aliasing.

Not if you choose your plugins right. And that's the point the loop restarts.

[jamcat]

One thing you need to understand about where I'm coming from is that I love the sound of '70s and '80s records. All of it. The noise, the distortion, the compromises, the limitations, and, the techniques that were used to try to get around all of it, too.

You can hear the process of making the record in the record. It's what makes it sound alive, like a moment in history. Unless you go out of your way to recreate that, modern recordings have none of that. Most are just a lifeless collage of sounds, not a unique moment in time.

There is a parallel between this and film effects. There's something tangible and visceral about practical effects compared to CG. Give me a giant puppet over a computer generated cartoon anyday.

[sQeetz]

There is a parallel between this and film effects. There's something tangible and visceral about practical effects compared to CG. Give me a giant puppet over a computer generated cartoon anyday.

My dad (76) insists on how matte painting and people in latex suits look more real than CGI... I disagree and it's a joy to talk with him about it.. There was a time CGI looked terrible, but nowadays it's on a whole different level.

[donkey tugger]

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