Steve Albini Recorded All Wave Movement

[Patrick McAnulty]

When albini himself showed up here and told one of us to go f**k himself for having an opinion about the all-wave thing, some of us (at least I speak for myself here) lost a bit of respect for the whole thing perhaps?

A few posts back from the guy in austin, that all makes sense. And I agree that many of us have been all-wave at times in the past before albini and deal co-opted it and drew up a phallic logo. Which is another reason to bust on it. Maybe not the greatest reason, you be the judge.

He told that guy to go fuck himself for posting that Albini was into analog for the wrong reasons, ie it being trendy and whatnot. If I had people who I've never met bash me on something that's not even true I would tell them off, too.

ugh, I probably could have written that better.

[radical recording]

analogue recording and digital recording are both electronic means of capturing and storing representations of sound pressure changes.

+1 and then some.

let's compare cd to a vinyl record. the vinyl record stores physical energy, the limitations (in terms of how much bass you can cram in vs how many songs you can put on, etc) are purely physical. when you play it back, the needle responds to the physical changes. the fact is you can play a vinyl record without electricity and it will produce sound. you could build an acoustic record player if you wanted to.

And you can record something 100% digitally, master it to vinyl and then play it back without electricity. Does that make it analog? The information medium (vinyl, CD, tape, etc) doesn't care about the recording process (analog tape, digital ones and zeros, wire recording) Different things entirely.

I love tape, I love digital. They're different types of getting the same result: (hopefully) good recordings of well played music.

[donny]

analogue recording and digital recording are both electronic means of capturing and storing representations of sound pressure changes.

that's about it.

analog does not necessarily have to be electronic, although it sounds better when it is, which i suppose is the basic point i was trying to make. the analog storage medium physically stores the sound waves and digital stores numbers (information) that represent the sound waves.

[Jay Reynolds]

When albini himself showed up here and told one of us to go f**k himself for having an opinion about the all-wave thing, some of us (at least I speak for myself here) lost a bit of respect for the whole thing perhaps?

I seems to me that Steve invited that member to go have sex with themselves not because of an opinion re:AWRM, but because of that member's opinion re:Steve's refusal to record digitally. And, according to what I read in the infamous Steve Albini Poker Thread From Hell, his stated reasons for staying with analog have to do with legacy issues, not because he says it's "cooler" to use tape.

[donny]

analogue recording and digital recording are both electronic means of capturing and storing representations of sound pressure changes.

+1 and then some.

let's compare cd to a vinyl record. the vinyl record stores physical energy, the limitations (in terms of how much bass you can cram in vs how many songs you can put on, etc) are purely physical. when you play it back, the needle responds to the physical changes. the fact is you can play a vinyl record without electricity and it will produce sound. you could build an acoustic record player if you wanted to.

And you can record something 100% digitally, master it to vinyl and then play it back without electricity. Does that make it analog? The information medium (vinyl, CD, tape, etc) doesn't care about the recording process (analog tape, digital ones and zeros, wire recording) Different things entirely.

I love tape, I love digital. They're different types of getting the same result: (hopefully) good recordings of well played music.

that makes the storage medium analog, yes ... which is what we are talking about, it's all storage media. because when it was "mastered to vinyl", it had to be converted back to analog to be put on the vinyl.

[johnnydove]

I love tape, I love digital. They're different types of getting the same result: (hopefully) good recordings of well played music.

+1
you can record on both mediums without altering anything. i would much rather the band be able to play the parts correctly without having to copy/paste from one section to another, and my digital rig is much more portable than my analog one, so i use digital in an "analog" fashion, if you will.

this whole debate is entertaining.

[Electricide]

analogue recording and digital recording are both electronic means of capturing and storing representations of sound pressure changes.

that's about it.

analog does not necessarily have to be electronic, although it sounds better when it is, which i suppose is the basic point i was trying to make. the analog storage medium physically stores the sound waves and digital stores numbers (information) that represent the sound waves.

analog and digital is about the processing of the info, not the storage of it. You could record a digital signal onto a piece of rotaing vinyl if you really wanted to.

analog arranges the metallic particles on a substrate by using voltage. Digital sets a number of switches depending on voltage.

If you wave a low power magnet over tape, maybe you move around the particles to create some cool effect. You can also manipulate the numeric representations of a sequence to change its resulting voltage (when processed). Digital just allows for precision, repeatability, and predictability (not accounting for bugs and crashes of course).

This whole thing is about a WAY of working, it *should* have nothing to do with analog versus digital.

[Jay Reynolds]

I wonder if donny knows just how many Lebowski fans are on this forum?

[johnnydove]

I wonder if donny knows just how many Lebowski fans are on this forum?

..."like a child that walks into the middle of a movie"...

[Judas Jetski]

Go donny! If I werest more articulater then what I is, I wooda sayed them things what yer sayd two.

Listen, I'm dead fxxxing poor, as busted as anyone else on this page and in a part of the world with less of a future than most, and I buy gear whenever I can. What I don't buy is computers and expensive software, because computers break and software goes obsolete. Gear is something I can sell if I have to.

As I read it, there's nothing about this "movement" that suggests that Albini et. al. are saying anything bad about digital. They just want to do things some other way. I don't care about the silly logo or anything. If they want to call it that, I think it's great. It's some welcome affirmation in a world where posters on a messageboard called "Tape Op" can spend 9 pages mocking and vilifying a well-known producer for daring to work exclusively in analog media. So I'll say it again. Thanks, Steve, Kim, and the rest of you guys. I appreciate it.

Um, and FWIW, I believe Mr. Albini requested that the offending poster perform oral sex, rather than engaging in autocoitus.

For further information, please reference O-it-hz's comments on the following thread

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... &&start=15

EDIT: +1 on the Lebowski.

[donny]

analog and digital is about the processing of the info, not the storage of it.

This whole thing is about a WAY of working, it *should* have nothing to do with analog versus digital.

this is i think where my statements are being misinterpreted. i am talking specifically about the storage medium. processing the "information" occurs on many many levels, my original statement is that many people are continually glossing over (or as in this case, dismissing) the storage medium itself, which is what it is all about to me and i believe some others as well. it is physical storage and working with something that physically captures and reproduces sound demands a certain way of working.

[JGriffin]

I wonder if donny knows just how many Lebowski fans are on this forum?

ever wonder what "dwlb" stands for?

[0-it-hz]

Analog smells like thrift stores.

Digital smells like tiny hands from far away.

Place your bets!

I do have one speculation. When we're talking about magnetic information on, for instance, magnetic tape: although the particles on the tape are discrete the resulting magnetic information (as seen by the PB head) is not, right? In other words it's like a magnetic "Field" as opposed to each little particle having magnetic "information" that isn't affected by it's neighboring particles...right?

I only think of this because if you zoom in far enough you'll see little iron bits on tape which could be seen as a kind of "sample rate" limitation, but I suspect it doesn't actually work that way.

As to the whole acoustic record business: We could design a giant steel cd with little holes and a pin that measured the holes and then a mechanical buffer that would read the information from the pin (in blocks of 16) and then relay that to a belt-driven speaker (like a servo-motor driver) in the form of amplitude information...and the whole thing would be driven by a waterwheel.

It's not the electricity. It's just another way of getting it down.

[Jay Reynolds]

I wonder if donny knows just how many Lebowski fans are on this forum?

ever wonder what "dwlb" stands for?

d.... w.. l.... b...... . And so, Theodore--Donald--Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, which you loved so well. Goodnight, sweet prince.

[JGriffin]

I wonder if donny knows just how many Lebowski fans are on this forum?

ever wonder what "dwlb" stands for?

d.... w.. l.... b...... . And so, Theodore--Donald--Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, which you loved so well. Goodnight, sweet prince.

Not everything's about Viet Nam, Walter.