Posted by Romeo Rondeau on 04/22/06 02:30

> Analog tapes don't build up crackles and pops with age like us old guys
> do, and their distortion and background noise levels (other than from
> magnetization) don't increase. All of the problems are mechanical in
> nature.

This is true, but crackles and pops are a lot easier to fix, and they can
usually be done on a cheap editor.

>
> Digital is a little different. There's really only one failure mode,
> and that's loss of more data than your error correction system can
> handle. While the change of one bit, if not caught, might cost your
> bank millions of dollars, nobody's going to complain about the loss of
> a single sample. In order for it to be a problem with audio, you need a
> long string of sequential failures. That can be a result of media
> failure. If it's something you can edit around, no problem. But if you
> have enough errors so that you have continuous crackling or muting,
> that's something that doesn't have a parallel to analog problems, and
> you have to fix the source (what the data is read from) in order to fix
> the problem.

Even continuous crackling can be fixed. The Sonic Solutions system is great
for that. We used to get quite a bit of damaged audio to fix on our Sonic
system. Muting is another story. But muting is only a problem on linear
storage digital media, like tape. On CD's, HD's and DVD's, there isn't the
problem of muting, it's the file that doesn't come back right. There are
software solutions that will attempt to read the data over and over, compare
the results and make an educated guess as to the true numerical value that
isn't reading correctly. Also the error correction on random access type
media is a lot better than on digital tape. If anything you can still read
the file in raw mode and see what you have to deal with instead of the usual
approach which is for the computer to give up if the file isn't perfect.

>
> There are standard and devilishly clever data recovery techniques.
> Sometimes they work, sometimes the don't, and sometimes you can recover
> some, but not all, of the project. You have more apporaches with
> digital, which means you have more chances of performing a miracle, but
> you also have more opportunities where you NEED to perform that
> miracle.

Yeah, that's one of the disadvantages of digital... there's lot's of ways
shit can happen :-)


>
> But basically youre right on - shit happens, you fix what you can, and
> you move on. Maybe someone a generation later can do more. One
> advantage of digital is that you can always clone it in whatever state
> it's in, so for as long as you want to keep fooling with it, it won't
> deteriorate further, which analog media will almost certainly do,
> eventually.

That's a great point, I don't hear anybody talking about archiving for the
sake of being able to fix it later.

>
>> Point is, if
>> you throw the CD in the drive and it doesn't read, find out why, then fix
>> it... if you can't fix it, get as much as you can salvage and try to make
>> it
>> inaudible (easier than you think), if you can do it, hire it out to
>> someone
>> that can. Anything less is unprofessional at best.
>
> And, true, level of professionalism is important. Most "ordinary"
> people like me don't really know much to do in order to fix a CD, and
> most of us don't feel sufficiently committed to hire a professional to
> give it a try (no guarantees from any of them either), but it's
> certainly easy to whine about it. Thing with a CD is that there are
> certain forms of damage that will keep any of it from playing until you
> try to extract the data and make a new CD. With analog tape, you might
> cringe because you know that quarter-note dropout in the middle of your
> favorite trumpet solo on the tape is coming and there isn't a darn
> thing that can be done about it since he never played that note again,
> but at least you can enjoy the rest of the tape.
>
> So which is superior? Whatever.

I agree, I don't think that either is superior, I really love the sound of
analog tape. I also really like the convenience of digital media. I did
however want to comment on the fact that just like there are gurus like
yourself and people like Scott Dorsey who really know their way around
analog machines and specifically how to cope with things when they don't go
right, this also exists in the digital realm (although to a lesser extent
with the complexity of electronic circuits these days). An experienced
engineer really shines in this business whenever something goes wrong and
it's up to him to make it work. Anybody can learn how to plug in mikes, set
levels and ride faders all day. You have something go wrong (assuming that
it's not your fault!), fix it up for them and get them back on track and
you've got a client for life.

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