> ...good cassette recording, you basically get back what was on the source
> With MD it sounds like everything was taken apart and put back together again with slightly smaller "parts".
That's one way to put it.
Analog comes back dirty and bent, like when you loan your new car to your brother in law. Dolby gives you some choice between Bent and Dirty: Dolby gets the signal out of the noise but doubles response errors.
Cassette tape has it bad, because it was invented to be a dictation machine. It was not serious music until Henry Kloss (God rest Henry) heard the first Pro Dolby and talked Dolby into making a simple version that normal people could afford. That and the early true CrO2 tapes made music no worse than 3.75ips 1/4" tape, with no threading or tangling and much lower cost and weight.
The signal on the tape "is" the magnetic analog of the original acoustic wave. It is "real".
Compressed Digital is re-created from nothing and a few shorthand notes. Or like when your car is stolen and stripped, and some cheap mechanic fixes it with assorted parts similar to the ones that are missing. Or: A good secretary can note every third word the boss dictates and still type a proper letter. Digital compression may only take every tenth word, and isn't quite as clever as a good secretary.
For instance, I have heard "cymbals" on a complex sax solo. I figure the decompressor was made to do pop-music well, and pop is full of cymbals, and they eat bandwidth so are over-compressed. A "good pop decompressor" will fake a good cymbal from scant clues. But apparently it will fake a cymbal from bits of squeaks and clacks in a sax solo.
Note that I am not indicting un-compressed digital. I feel that Audio CD can be as good as any affordable analog format. High-speed well-tweaked reel tape can be better than consumer CD players, but who has $100/hour for tape stock and a calibration technician sitting by the recorder?
-PRR
> With MD it sounds like everything was taken apart and put back together again with slightly smaller "parts".
That's one way to put it.
Analog comes back dirty and bent, like when you loan your new car to your brother in law. Dolby gives you some choice between Bent and Dirty: Dolby gets the signal out of the noise but doubles response errors.
Cassette tape has it bad, because it was invented to be a dictation machine. It was not serious music until Henry Kloss (God rest Henry) heard the first Pro Dolby and talked Dolby into making a simple version that normal people could afford. That and the early true CrO2 tapes made music no worse than 3.75ips 1/4" tape, with no threading or tangling and much lower cost and weight.
The signal on the tape "is" the magnetic analog of the original acoustic wave. It is "real".
Compressed Digital is re-created from nothing and a few shorthand notes. Or like when your car is stolen and stripped, and some cheap mechanic fixes it with assorted parts similar to the ones that are missing. Or: A good secretary can note every third word the boss dictates and still type a proper letter. Digital compression may only take every tenth word, and isn't quite as clever as a good secretary.
For instance, I have heard "cymbals" on a complex sax solo. I figure the decompressor was made to do pop-music well, and pop is full of cymbals, and they eat bandwidth so are over-compressed. A "good pop decompressor" will fake a good cymbal from scant clues. But apparently it will fake a cymbal from bits of squeaks and clacks in a sax solo.
Note that I am not indicting un-compressed digital. I feel that Audio CD can be as good as any affordable analog format. High-speed well-tweaked reel tape can be better than consumer CD players, but who has $100/hour for tape stock and a calibration technician sitting by the recorder?
-PRR