----- Original Message ----- From: "phillip holmes" <[log in to unmask]> > They have a "blank" LP with time code or something on it that is fed > into the CD player. You "wicka-wicka-wicka" just like normal, but the > LP is controlling the CD player. For a while, I thought about using > just such a setup to give my CDs more "analog" like sound. Find one of > the "blank" control LPs that's pressed way off center to give that > familiar seasick affect. Then, use an outboard processor to add tube > "warmth" and tape saturation affects. EQ it with some extra midbass and > use a tube buffered DAC. All I'd have to do is discretely mix in some > crackle and pop, which is available as a loop I think. > For the most part, the "digital sound" (as opposed to an "analog sound" comes from the way XXI Jahrhundert sound engineers set up their equipment when recording material for digital issue! There IS, technically, a difference (albeit supposedly inaudible to human ears...) between a "CD quality" (44.1) digital recording and the same in analog form. A digital recording exists...HAS to...as a very large set of signal samples...or, a set of very tiny square waves which are smoothed into pseudo-analog "curved" waveforms by playback processes. For other ex-calculus students out there in Radio-land...it is possible, in theory, to approach a curve using an infinitely-large samples of VERY frequent single sample values. As I understand it, the 44.1KHz sample frequency is supposed to produce an adequate version of the actual analog signal such that our human ears and mind can't hear any identifiable difference...?! On the other hand, there DOES exist an identifiable and demonstrable difference between vacuum-tube and solid-state audio equipment! Oddly enough, this difference exists because most audio amplifiers operate with audible/identifiable distortion. Tube amplification simply decreases in efficiency is limits are approached...producing a distorted signal waveform, but one without any "sharp corners"...! Solid-state amplification, OTOH, simply reaches its limit and quits amplifying any further...leading to "sharp corners" in the waveform. I can't recall exactly, but seems to me that solid-state amplification produces an overabundance of even-order harmonics...and the fast "transient response" of solid-state devices also gets involved. I leave further explanation to those who have studied long and hard in these areas...! Steven C. Barr