So much of the snowstorm of technology leaves one isolated in a limbo of open ended twitter that has only bytes to substitute for human feeling. Technology has substituted pushing a cold digital mouse for the warmth of personal contact. Almost everywhere we now go we find people walking around talking to themselves in the illusion that they are interacting with the rest of the world. The rise of books as living friends is a measure of the lifelessness of the digits parading across our cold electronic pages.
2
"Ah-Ha, Tramps!"
Not everyone is going along with the new Paradigm.
(Is that the correct term?)
Not everyone is going along with the new Paradigm.
(Is that the correct term?)
In my small Montana town, I receive a digital television signal from a translator system on a hill a few miles from here. We get four commercial stations and five PBS stations, but the digital signal, especially for PBS channels, is often scrambled or totally interrupted -- especially when there's a program of interest. I don't know what causes these irritating outages, but I do recall that in days of yore when the signal was analog, few such problems interfered with viewing. A substantial amount has been spent to convert signals from analog to digital, but where our viewing is concerned, the old way was the better way.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
dougcatz(at)itstriangle(dot)com
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
dougcatz(at)itstriangle(dot)com
2
In the late 90's there were also a set of pronouncements in the media about the return of vinyl. There was a run on vinyl in thrift stores and garage sales and new records of old and new music were pressed. I'm confused why nobody remembers this.
3
*
Some years ago, I took part in a "Digital vs Analog" argument about a satellite communication system at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. As an old analog engineer, I argued that, owing to the limited power in the spacecraft, the long distance involved and the limited antenna size, the communication system should be analog. A younger digital-thinking engineer argued that, for the same reasons, the system should be digital. He then used an argument that I had never heard before:
"Communication should be digital – it's in the Bible."
He quoted Matthew 5:37 – "Let your communication be yea, yea [or] nay-nay, for whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil."
Some years ago, I took part in a "Digital vs Analog" argument about a satellite communication system at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. As an old analog engineer, I argued that, owing to the limited power in the spacecraft, the long distance involved and the limited antenna size, the communication system should be analog. A younger digital-thinking engineer argued that, for the same reasons, the system should be digital. He then used an argument that I had never heard before:
"Communication should be digital – it's in the Bible."
He quoted Matthew 5:37 – "Let your communication be yea, yea [or] nay-nay, for whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil."
2
There have been several comments about the compression of the HD signal coming thru the cable box as opposed to direct via antenna from the broadcaster.
I'm wondering if watching delayed episodes via Hulu or on the network websites is compressed or not. If not, that in itself would be another reason to "cut the cord". I did so last summer. The only thing I miss is BBC World (best newscasts anywhere), and I watch the network stuff on my pc, which runs at 300Mbps. When I watch Netflix or Hulu the TV is LAN cabled to the gigabit router. Might this might explain why the picture does indeed seem better?
I'm wondering if watching delayed episodes via Hulu or on the network websites is compressed or not. If not, that in itself would be another reason to "cut the cord". I did so last summer. The only thing I miss is BBC World (best newscasts anywhere), and I watch the network stuff on my pc, which runs at 300Mbps. When I watch Netflix or Hulu the TV is LAN cabled to the gigabit router. Might this might explain why the picture does indeed seem better?
I work in the electronics industry but still enjoy reminiscing about the old "analog" equipment.
One can buy an old turntable for $35.00 on Craigslist, take it home, and use it to appreciate how well, and cleverly, some were made. For example, an old Sony turntable I picked up recently (made in the 80's) was designed to sense the record size via slits in the rubber mat that pulsed light to photo detectors under the platter.
The analog hi-fi era had many founders' names attached to the products, Fisher, Scott, Marantz, Shure, Pickering (obituary in today's Times) and McIntosh were real people.
While I am amazed at what has occurred in HDTV (as in a 90" display I recently saw hauled into work) and what this implies about the production process and factory that was required to make it, one can still appreciate old analog products.
And it is easy to see why physical books are still popular. One can send a PDF to someone to read, but that does not have the powerful physical statement of handing someone a real paper book to read. If the paper book is "loaned", then there is an additional reason to inquire about the progress of reading the book.
I believe, an electronic format book is more likely to end up in the person's unread "bit bucket".
One can buy an old turntable for $35.00 on Craigslist, take it home, and use it to appreciate how well, and cleverly, some were made. For example, an old Sony turntable I picked up recently (made in the 80's) was designed to sense the record size via slits in the rubber mat that pulsed light to photo detectors under the platter.
The analog hi-fi era had many founders' names attached to the products, Fisher, Scott, Marantz, Shure, Pickering (obituary in today's Times) and McIntosh were real people.
While I am amazed at what has occurred in HDTV (as in a 90" display I recently saw hauled into work) and what this implies about the production process and factory that was required to make it, one can still appreciate old analog products.
And it is easy to see why physical books are still popular. One can send a PDF to someone to read, but that does not have the powerful physical statement of handing someone a real paper book to read. If the paper book is "loaned", then there is an additional reason to inquire about the progress of reading the book.
I believe, an electronic format book is more likely to end up in the person's unread "bit bucket".
1
It used to be that when first visiting a friend's home, you could look through their books and records to learn more about that person, finding common and differing interests that informed the relationship. One might discover a shared favorite author, or interest in certain genres of music.
In today's digital world, this is impossible. What do you do? Look through their kindles and music downloads?
In today's digital world, this is impossible. What do you do? Look through their kindles and music downloads?
8
Now all you can do is look through their medicine cabinet when you pretend you have to go to the bathroom. :)
4
Very interesting article that elegantly illustrates that many old things---like seniors---continue to stay around. However, his title is inaccurate. What he receives through his antenna is also in a (different) digital format. We are NOT going back to analog, rather we are rediscovering earlier innovations.
As I always tell my students, the only thing that will always remain analog are our subjective sensors of quality---eyes, ears etc. Everything else became digital because it is technically more efficient.
As for cord cutting, it is not digital versus analog; it is society changing over to customized content rather than an ensemble chosen by some nameless executive in a broadcast company.
As I always tell my students, the only thing that will always remain analog are our subjective sensors of quality---eyes, ears etc. Everything else became digital because it is technically more efficient.
As for cord cutting, it is not digital versus analog; it is society changing over to customized content rather than an ensemble chosen by some nameless executive in a broadcast company.
6
Filmmaking - an example coming up is Quentin Tarantino's release of "The Hateful Eight" in SuperPanavision 70 (mm) in over 100 theaters. Projectionists are being called back to work, an younger ones trained in the art of projection. Analogue is more relaxed to the eye. I find digital to be less user-friendly to the eye. Regarding recordings, human beings like working with their hands. Mpeg 3s sound terrible - the sound is compressed. Over the air broadcast television is not compressed; you get a much better image than on cable. Digital can exist to serve analogue. They can co-exist without bringing the snob aspect into it.
4
Vinyl DOES sound better! No matter what new format comes out, it never compares to vinyl. I think the only reason young people today like what they hear digitally is because they have never heard quality vinyl. That is sad. Newer is not always better. Although, it may be easier to use or access and, of course, much more profitable for the makers.
3
A reason why I retreat to listening to an actual record (vinyl) or reading an actual book in my hand or walking in the woods rather than engaging with "The Computer" as a replacement for any or all of these things?
A lot of it has to do with privacy and beauty and truth. "Computer world" is not much more attractive than "TV world" with its disjointed and disruptive and annoying process, and rather than the computer promising a royal road to beauty and truth (true improvement on Gutenberg) it seems rather to be a device fulfilling television science-fiction/horror scenarios: The TV which talks to you, anticipates your every move, gets in your head, sells you what you do not need and parcels out what you value for a price. Not to mention censorship, outright spying, toying with individuals...All just a fun game, right? "We have him where where we want him".
Recently I walked into a thrift store and found a copy of "The symbolist movement in literature" by Arthur Symons--the book on French symbolist poets which inspired Yeats. For one dollar. I have been getting vinyl records for a dollar or less as well. I even got a record of a Mozart quintet with Alfred Brendel at piano backed by the Hungarian quartet though the record had no sleeve and was sitting loose...It was in good shape (I noticed classical records especially seem in good shape--I guess few people care for classical music).
I trust old methods still toward beauty and truth. New methods have yet to convince me...
A lot of it has to do with privacy and beauty and truth. "Computer world" is not much more attractive than "TV world" with its disjointed and disruptive and annoying process, and rather than the computer promising a royal road to beauty and truth (true improvement on Gutenberg) it seems rather to be a device fulfilling television science-fiction/horror scenarios: The TV which talks to you, anticipates your every move, gets in your head, sells you what you do not need and parcels out what you value for a price. Not to mention censorship, outright spying, toying with individuals...All just a fun game, right? "We have him where where we want him".
Recently I walked into a thrift store and found a copy of "The symbolist movement in literature" by Arthur Symons--the book on French symbolist poets which inspired Yeats. For one dollar. I have been getting vinyl records for a dollar or less as well. I even got a record of a Mozart quintet with Alfred Brendel at piano backed by the Hungarian quartet though the record had no sleeve and was sitting loose...It was in good shape (I noticed classical records especially seem in good shape--I guess few people care for classical music).
I trust old methods still toward beauty and truth. New methods have yet to convince me...
4
This caught my eyes (which are bothering me )
http://www.contactlenses.fr/contactlensesnews/article50573/sony-boss-poi...
"Most of the really exciting stuff is out there in the R&D area at the moment like having contact lenses with cameras and sensors built-in so that everything you see can be augmented with useful data," he added.
Futuristic contact lenses may not be a complete pipe dream, according to engineer and futurologist Ian Pearson, who recently predicted that people may be able to use their contacts to read emails by 2030.ADNFCR-1853-ID-800604116-ADNFCR
http://www.contactlenses.fr/contactlensesnews/article50573/sony-boss-poi...
"Most of the really exciting stuff is out there in the R&D area at the moment like having contact lenses with cameras and sensors built-in so that everything you see can be augmented with useful data," he added.
Futuristic contact lenses may not be a complete pipe dream, according to engineer and futurologist Ian Pearson, who recently predicted that people may be able to use their contacts to read emails by 2030.ADNFCR-1853-ID-800604116-ADNFCR
For many there is a distinct and noticable difference between the sound of a CD and a LP. There is a distinct and noticable difference between an LP or a CD and an MP3 (science actually bears this out if you look at the wave forms of each).
Can you tell a difference? Try it sometime. You may be surprised.
There is something equally different and engaging about the practice of pulling an LP from the shelf, pulling the vinyl disc from it's sleave, cleaning the LP and setting the needle down that may require a few more seconds but is soothing in its slightly slower pace all by itself. Then the music starts.
I listen to MP3, wave files, fat files I record of my own music and lots more. For some reason few things make me feel more civilized than lowering the needle on a clean Mosaic Johnny Hodges record. Am I fooling myself by thinking an analog rendition of is music is superior?
I recently heard FLAC files of Grateful Dead recordings. You can hear Jerry's fingers on the strings. His feet shuffling on the floor. His RONCO smokless ashtray at work on his rig (well maybee...). In an AB comparison of music that I am waaay too famliar with, the higher quality was jaw dropping. Do not underestimate the increae in enjoyment you may find from great audio quality. This is not a trending topic-it is real.
Can you tell a difference? Try it sometime. You may be surprised.
There is something equally different and engaging about the practice of pulling an LP from the shelf, pulling the vinyl disc from it's sleave, cleaning the LP and setting the needle down that may require a few more seconds but is soothing in its slightly slower pace all by itself. Then the music starts.
I listen to MP3, wave files, fat files I record of my own music and lots more. For some reason few things make me feel more civilized than lowering the needle on a clean Mosaic Johnny Hodges record. Am I fooling myself by thinking an analog rendition of is music is superior?
I recently heard FLAC files of Grateful Dead recordings. You can hear Jerry's fingers on the strings. His feet shuffling on the floor. His RONCO smokless ashtray at work on his rig (well maybee...). In an AB comparison of music that I am waaay too famliar with, the higher quality was jaw dropping. Do not underestimate the increae in enjoyment you may find from great audio quality. This is not a trending topic-it is real.
4
Properly done digital musical storage (CDs and MP3 at 256 sample rate) is far superior in every regard to vinyl - less distortion, better dynamic range and frequency response, more reliable and cheaper. Of course, that doesn't mean that people always subjectively feel that way - placebo effects, social pressure, unconscious biases, need to feel special and "in the know".
Try Imogen Heap's latest in vinyl (if you can find it). To reproduce the deep, loud bass, enormous transients and dynamic range of a recording like this is impossible with an LP.
Your point about the sleeves is good - album covers are a great commercial art form.
Try Imogen Heap's latest in vinyl (if you can find it). To reproduce the deep, loud bass, enormous transients and dynamic range of a recording like this is impossible with an LP.
Your point about the sleeves is good - album covers are a great commercial art form.
1
Forget about vinyl records and watch for the resurgence of cassette tapes.
1
The best reason for embracing the "old" TV antenna, is that after a modest initial outlay, it's free. The bonus is that glorious HD TV broadcasts are unencrypted, and better than any dish or cable signal. There's less channel choice, of course, but you'll get the major networks at least, and best of all the PBS.
As for actually buying an antenna, the writer overthinks the issue. If you live in or near a metro area, where the transmitters are, a coat hanger will pull in a signal - just google "simple DIY antenna". There's no "degree of quality" issue, because a digital signal either works or it doesn't - no ghosting, or tinfoil tuning. As a practical matter, the least expensive amplified indoor antenna from a big box store will do very well, for about thirty dollars - after that - nothing to pay ever!
As for actually buying an antenna, the writer overthinks the issue. If you live in or near a metro area, where the transmitters are, a coat hanger will pull in a signal - just google "simple DIY antenna". There's no "degree of quality" issue, because a digital signal either works or it doesn't - no ghosting, or tinfoil tuning. As a practical matter, the least expensive amplified indoor antenna from a big box store will do very well, for about thirty dollars - after that - nothing to pay ever!
10
Of course, it depends on where you live - is there a clear path to a fairly close broadcast tower, or not? Typically, only urban customers can use antennas. And the author's claim that antennas have gotten better is not relevant - distance, signal strength, and wavelength of the broadcast are what determines the size of the antenna you need and whether an antenna will work at all.
Ugh, it's just a thing... Casettes even became a thing again for awhile... Don't read (write) so much into it.
3
Writing on clay tablets has long been gone. Parchment scrolls live on in Judaism, but do quill pens and ink wells survive anywhere else? If you call it vinyl you are too young to understand that those discs are records, not vinyl, and you miss the lovely sense of something being or having a flip side, as does much of life.
Recently I was walking down the street and a teenager stopped to ask me the time. She'd left her phone in school. I told her it was a quarter after three but she had no idea what I was talking about. An interesting conversation led to the discovery that she had never seen, or perhaps noticed, a round clock with hands and had no idea how to tell time, only how to read it - 3:15.
Darkrooms are almost entirely gone, the chemicals and papers no longer manufactured. And soon, it seems to me, all of us will be gone too, our objects and gadgets left for extra-planetary archaeologists.
Recently I was walking down the street and a teenager stopped to ask me the time. She'd left her phone in school. I told her it was a quarter after three but she had no idea what I was talking about. An interesting conversation led to the discovery that she had never seen, or perhaps noticed, a round clock with hands and had no idea how to tell time, only how to read it - 3:15.
Darkrooms are almost entirely gone, the chemicals and papers no longer manufactured. And soon, it seems to me, all of us will be gone too, our objects and gadgets left for extra-planetary archaeologists.
2
I prefer paper books. One advantage of the internet is the ability to find fairly good copies of old fashioned paper books, even if you live are from any major metro. Just today, I opened up a package with a copy of Dickens's 'Little Dorrit', that is truly the best of both worlds. Let search technology find the book, but that book is PAPER not photons or digits.
1
For those of us from pre-CD age, the funny thing about the revitalized LP fad is the new LPs are sold alongside turntables that convert the analog recording into a digital signal that you plug into your computer or play through a tiny pair of tinny speakers! All that classic high fidelity LP technology gets turned into an MP3 file! Hopefully the next wave will be the revival of real receivers and speakers!
2
We have at our disposal incredibly powerful digital tools which bring the world, both beneficial and destructive, into our homes, even to carry around in our pockets. When digital technologies make things easy, interesting, and ultimately indispensible we use it. Despite Marshall McLuhan’s declaration that “the medium is the message”, however, our gravitation toward manually handling and using actual things persists.
As long as the governmental structures that support the bringing of new technologies to mass production favor the cheap, fast and disposable over what is most efficacious and culturally beneficial, there will be churning in the not-so-free market toward production for the sake of production. Our relationship with online purchasing would likely be very different if sales taxes for online purchases mirrored those of brick and mortar shopping. Cheap gas also helps fuel the offers for online purchases through offers of free shipping.
Those who have the time and money to choose value and quality over expediency and instant gratification will do so, using whatever means available, whether online or off.
As long as the governmental structures that support the bringing of new technologies to mass production favor the cheap, fast and disposable over what is most efficacious and culturally beneficial, there will be churning in the not-so-free market toward production for the sake of production. Our relationship with online purchasing would likely be very different if sales taxes for online purchases mirrored those of brick and mortar shopping. Cheap gas also helps fuel the offers for online purchases through offers of free shipping.
Those who have the time and money to choose value and quality over expediency and instant gratification will do so, using whatever means available, whether online or off.
As to the issue of off-air broadcast antennas, the main reason that “… the new generation of TV antennas…provide better imagery…” is because off-air HDTV is not compressed.
According to hamuniverse.com “…HDTV direct over the air…is visibly better [because] you are getting it direct from [station] transmitters and…not [from] satellites where it is compressed and then retransmitted back down to earth to the cable companies and then distributed over poorly maintained cable lines [the inherent cheapness of mass marketing].”
If digital is a good thing it’s mainly because it makes accessing “artisanal” objects easier to find and purchase. Earlier today I ordered a couple of little known CDs by a little known ensemble sold by a little known company in Finland from my living room in small town central California.
According to hamuniverse.com “…HDTV direct over the air…is visibly better [because] you are getting it direct from [station] transmitters and…not [from] satellites where it is compressed and then retransmitted back down to earth to the cable companies and then distributed over poorly maintained cable lines [the inherent cheapness of mass marketing].”
If digital is a good thing it’s mainly because it makes accessing “artisanal” objects easier to find and purchase. Earlier today I ordered a couple of little known CDs by a little known ensemble sold by a little known company in Finland from my living room in small town central California.
1
Mr. Walker’s discussion of antennas is way off base. The signal that is picked up by current-generation TV antennas is just as digital as the signal that comes over the cable, either directly or through Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services. People use both antennas and streaming not because they want an “analog experience” but because streaming services usually do not provide access to local channels.
1
Yesterday's necessities = today's luxuries. Boats, horses. Not new.
Steve
Steve
So, my idea of downloading my consciousness to a 78 is not as far-fetched as I thought.
Film cameras! Remember them? In many parts of the US it's hard to find decent film processing, so I've finally gone digital. But on a recent trip to Japan, I brought along a classic film camera as a backup for my digital wonder. And one day I picked up a roll or two of 35mm film and loaded it up.
The pictures are different. With digital you shoot, review, re-compose, and shoot again. Repeat as needed, because bits are cheap. With film, each click of the shutter creates a physical artifact -- a negative -- which lasts indefinitely. Pressing the shutter is a commitment; you think hard before each shot. If you're shooting street scenes, you think fast as well as hard. And you move on, because review is impossible until you see the prints.
It's a different esthetic. Less control, more zen. Not practical for working pros, who need to "get the shot" and upload it to the customer's server ASAP. But just maybe, once in a while, a more personal vision comes through...
The pictures are different. With digital you shoot, review, re-compose, and shoot again. Repeat as needed, because bits are cheap. With film, each click of the shutter creates a physical artifact -- a negative -- which lasts indefinitely. Pressing the shutter is a commitment; you think hard before each shot. If you're shooting street scenes, you think fast as well as hard. And you move on, because review is impossible until you see the prints.
It's a different esthetic. Less control, more zen. Not practical for working pros, who need to "get the shot" and upload it to the customer's server ASAP. But just maybe, once in a while, a more personal vision comes through...
3
If you actually have the film processed into palpable photos then there is a good chance you might actually look at them from time to time. Taking a million pictures with an iPhone pretty much guarantees they are lost to memory. Yes, they might exist in the cloud for an eternity but chances are slim that you or anybody else will ever review them. Oh well, maybe on your deathbed.
1
There is nothing like dropping the needle on a vinyl record on a Technics turn table and hearing the slight pop and hiss as it begins it's journey across the black wavy landscape.
5
I purchased hundreds of LPs in the '70s and '80s. I returned a good many of them because of excessive surface noise, clicks, pops, skipping, and inner grove distortion. Good riddance I say.
I live in a place with very slow internet, so streaming video services like Netflix come down as a lower resolution 2-channel only sound. My complaint about the new technology is how slow it is. Ten years ago, with a high-end CD player, you punched the power button, then the open button, dropped your disc in and in 3 seconds your music was playing. Today's players take 15 seconds or more to "boot", another 5 seconds for the tray to open and another 5 seconds for the HDMI to sync up, losing the first several seconds of music. And don't get me started on Blu-Ray discs. You are lucky to start watching movie in 10 minutes after taking a minute or more just to "load" and then being forced to watch a bunch of ads that you aren't allowed to skip.
I live in a place with very slow internet, so streaming video services like Netflix come down as a lower resolution 2-channel only sound. My complaint about the new technology is how slow it is. Ten years ago, with a high-end CD player, you punched the power button, then the open button, dropped your disc in and in 3 seconds your music was playing. Today's players take 15 seconds or more to "boot", another 5 seconds for the tray to open and another 5 seconds for the HDMI to sync up, losing the first several seconds of music. And don't get me started on Blu-Ray discs. You are lucky to start watching movie in 10 minutes after taking a minute or more just to "load" and then being forced to watch a bunch of ads that you aren't allowed to skip.
1
The secret is out! I have refused to get cable service for our TV nor have I ever subscribed to its related scam of satellite service. Both services are the snake oil boondoggles of our era. (Why does anyone pay for programs that they don't like let alone need?) For years I have used an outside TV antenna and I get excellent HD reception for free in spite of the fact that the closest TV station to our home is thirty miles away. For years my relatives have thought of me as something of a Neanderthal when it comes to watching TV. Buy hey, do I care? TV--it's free!
1
"Could there be a more symbolic manifestation of the analog life than buying a contemporary version of rabbit ears?" Absolutely. If the author had cared to, he could easily have built his own antenna, using only a few inexpensive materials (Google, e.g., "DIY OTA Antenna"). Having a modicum of agency in the production of the things we consume: that's cutting the cord.
I own my grandparents' hi-fi from the early 1960s. It's a beautiful piece of furniture and the sound is fantastic from my old 70s vinyl of Led Zeppelin, Bob Seger, etc or Gramp's albums which range from The Beatles and Rolling Stones to New Orleans jazz. I particularly enjoy playing those old vinyl "Firestone presents..." Christmas carol albums and The Messiah on it. The AM/FM radio works great too, and the knobs and dials and big chunky buttons are an aesthetic delight.
I also inherited a tall oak 1917 RCA victrola in mint condition and a big box of records. People love to wind it up and marvel at the clever technology.
I also inherited a tall oak 1917 RCA victrola in mint condition and a big box of records. People love to wind it up and marvel at the clever technology.
4
How much of this desire for physicality Is really adult show and tell?
2
This is a complex and multi-faceted topic that can lead to dangerously over-extended generalizations and analyzing. The drop in ebook sales, for example, has nothing to do with digital fatigue but rather is a result of the destructive pricing strategy of publishers that are making ebooks as expensive as print (smart readers know to wait just a few months and they can get the remaindered or used print version for a fraction of the price of the ebook).
The main reason for "analog fever" is simply that for many people moving into a fully digital world is too novel and too complex for them. We are truly moving into a 'digital divide' society, with those who are technologically literate possessing distinct advantages over those wishing to remain 'analog'. Technology has always provided significant advantages in making us more efficient and our lives easier, even though it often is not apparent initially. This was certainly the case with the first generation of automobiles, for example. At some point, however, insisting on continuing to get around with 'ol Nelly, that trusty horse, increasingly looks silly, indeed bizarre...
The main reason for "analog fever" is simply that for many people moving into a fully digital world is too novel and too complex for them. We are truly moving into a 'digital divide' society, with those who are technologically literate possessing distinct advantages over those wishing to remain 'analog'. Technology has always provided significant advantages in making us more efficient and our lives easier, even though it often is not apparent initially. This was certainly the case with the first generation of automobiles, for example. At some point, however, insisting on continuing to get around with 'ol Nelly, that trusty horse, increasingly looks silly, indeed bizarre...
2
Back in the 80s digital speedometers were tried out, and were really disliked. My recently purchased Chevy Impala has both analog and digital speed indicators. I still prefer the analog version. I would also like an in dash analog clock that i can read at a glance , any suggestions?
I love my books, but I have so little space in my apartment that whenever I buy a new one, I find myself looking over all the books I have for one I can give away just to make room for the new. And there's all that dusting that in theory I should be doing to keep them clean. So there's that. But point sort-of taken, if you have the money and space, analog does has its charms. Now excuse me while I go see what I can pick up on my shortwave radio.
(Speaking of which, when was the last time the New York Times ran a piece on the state of shortwave radio? It has been eviscerated by streaming audio, especially insofar as North American listeners are concerned.)
(Speaking of which, when was the last time the New York Times ran a piece on the state of shortwave radio? It has been eviscerated by streaming audio, especially insofar as North American listeners are concerned.)
There's nothing nicer looking and more convenient than to write something on a piece of paper. I'm in my 40's the generation old enough that we once lived the world of analog, yet young enough to have made the switch to digital, by force. I use both, however, I don't respond to mass emails. I don't attend parties through evite, a condolence through text or a thank for something I went out of my way to help a person with, if it isn't a phone call or a handwritten thanks, it's the last favor from me. Sound harsh? It's the only way to try and stem the flow of a building rude, ill mannered population of ingrates who lack the human touch, the trait that bonds us and keeps humanity special, unlike other living creatures. I call it a heartfelt activism.
2
I am a 67 year-old baby boomer who shares your sentiment and applauds your stating it so eloquently. A few of my friends and I joke that we are a dying breed who still write notes, especially thank you ones, in cursive (no longer being taught) and mailing them at the post office. The physical act of selecting the stationery or card and even the stamp to affix to the envelope, then writing a thoughtful response gives me pleasure. I know that the recipients derive pleasure, too. Where do I find the time? By deliberately eschewing all social media, the new narcotic of the masses. Life is full of choices.
2
Except for the packaging CD's kill records. Better fidelity, much more scratch-resistant, much better dynamic range, and this is coming from an audio aficionado. Plus, have you ever tried playing a record in a moving car? Jeez!
That said, CDs are really obsolete. Full fidelity music, WAV format not MP3's, should be sold on SD cards. Smaller, no moving parts, even less resistant to damage, same full fidelity, even worse packaging. Cover art? What's that?
That said, CDs are really obsolete. Full fidelity music, WAV format not MP3's, should be sold on SD cards. Smaller, no moving parts, even less resistant to damage, same full fidelity, even worse packaging. Cover art? What's that?
Missing in the article is the fact that digital cuts off the highs and lows and presents altered sound, whereas analog is a more authentic reproduction. If vinyl records are making a comeback it's not just nostalgia it's because the sound is better and warmer. If there are string instruments they sound better with analog.
1
There's certainly a robust move back to the virtues of the analogue in photography, an acknowledgement that digital processes simply aren't as satisfying from psychological, tactile and aesthetic perspectives. A blog that's been speaking to these issues for some time is leicaphilia.com.
1
When the CD replaced the vinyl album as the means to deliver recorded sound - both cover art and liner notes shrunk in size. With today's downloading, MP3's and USB sticks - these once staples of the albums overall package have now vanished altogether. Who can forget coming back from the record store with your newly purchased album ... tearing the shrink wrap off, placing the disc on the record player? You then held the album jacket in your hands throughout the playing of the recording ... viewing it's graphics, reading related notes or lyrics specific to the recording - and all was right with the world. It was called communicating, a feature has been lost on so many fronts - but a feature nonetheless that is still craved by many as we strive to get back to life's most essential necessity - people interacting with people - and not machines.
29
People like variety. People like Artifact.
That is why most of us have not gone in for those digital pants.
That is why most of us have not gone in for those digital pants.
Analog audio sounds better than digital audio (in most cases) because analog contains the full spectrum of the sound, while with digital audio an 8-bit sample (or snapshot) is taken 56,000 times per second (8-bit, 56k with standard CDs) which fails to capture all of the material. There is something missing. Those in the field of music healing and Vibroacoustic Harp Therapy (VAHT) know this. With analog LPs the human brain filters out the clicks and pops.
1
Is it about true functionality or just nostalgia? Who knows? But the reflections on the not so long ago past, like this and "Vinyl is Back" on the resurgence of interest in vinyl records are certainly an interesting ride down memory lane. http://www.wsj.com/articles/vinyl-is-backbut-not-the-goody-old-days-1437...
With a fine view of the Empire State building from my East Village window, I have never given up on analog TV. I use cable for my phone and internet but have never bought cable TV. With a digital converter my 12 year-old 20 inch flat-screen Sharp high resolution TV brings in all the broadcast stations and too many UHF stations. With Netflix, Hulu and Amazon on my computer, all my video needs are met. For the past six years all my books (over 600) are digital. In 1987 I sampled a Sony digital camera prototype and predicted by 2015 film-technology would virtually disappear. I have never believed that vacuum tubes were superior to transistors or vinyl warmer than digital. I am 82 so what do I know?
2
Objects that seem to be non-objects frightened people who believe only of what they see and touch. Are religions in danger of disappearing?
Analogue has grain, digital has jitter. Any channel will be pushed to its limits by the exigencies of the market. When this happens, the message (signal) will distort prior to failing. The prime example of this for most of us is digitally transmitted voice phone service, which is terrible. Digital jitter is unintelligible. Digital system do not fail gracefully, nor do they recover well from failure. Service providers of digital services - especially the quasi-utilities like cell phone companies, ISP's and cable companies, provide poor, under-regulated, services.
1
Just to clarify, over-the-air TV broadcasts are digital, not analog. So while it may be symbolically analog to buy an antenna, it's not actually.
Thomas Edison once said that he would make electric light so cheap that only the rich would want candles. Turned out he was right. Part of the explanation for the reversion to analog models is the natural process of commodification, coupled with the human inclination to nostalgia and the grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side-of-the-hill syndrome (aka GIGOTOSOTHS). Over time the issue of analog vs digital will be sorted out in the marketplace on a case-by-case basis. May the best medium win each time!
5
Don't forget about analog photography. Many serious photographers are still using (or returning to) film. I use large format film for my most serious portrait work. For one thing, it's a slower mode of working (more opportunity for "mindfulness"). For another, it's a chance to use my hands (rather than a machine) to develop and print the pictures. Each image is, thus, unique.
"Antiquarian" photographic methods, AKA alternative imaging techniques, have been making a comeback for at least the last decade. Examples are cyanotypes, platinum prints, salt prints, bromoil, wet plate collodion, and many others. All provide the beautiful alternative of a physical art object that one can actually hold in one's hand rather than a digital file to be viewed on a screen.
"Antiquarian" photographic methods, AKA alternative imaging techniques, have been making a comeback for at least the last decade. Examples are cyanotypes, platinum prints, salt prints, bromoil, wet plate collodion, and many others. All provide the beautiful alternative of a physical art object that one can actually hold in one's hand rather than a digital file to be viewed on a screen.
4
A person invented "digital drums" to replace real ones; didn't fool any drummer. A person invented a "B3 in a chip;" didn't fool anyone. As for vinyl played on tube equipment, it is IMPOSSIBLE to duplicate digitally regardless of what anyone says. The inventors of digital drums and B3's thought that they could do so; they were wrong. One does not have to have "golden ears" to hear the differences; one simply has to have the ability to go listen to music played live vs recorded. I know many people (Mr. McGrath, for one) who believe that they can "accurately" record music using all kinds of equipment, tricks, placements, meters, etc. Sorry to break their bubble, but it is not possible to duplicate live music accurately with any recording device, analog (Stellavox?) or digital (even with no compression algorithms.)
Having stated the facts, one can clearly see why analog is on the rise. Not only is the sound a million times better (more accurate), but also it enables the listener to hear the entire piece, not every 5th bit that isn't compressed to save space or bits. I don't care if YOU think we can't hear the difference. Double-blind tests conducted for many, many years show that WE can. Now, if the recording (encoding) process uses compression, is digitally altered, what you get in any playback mode will not be accurate. Even in the '50s, engineers mixed pop records on radio speakers so that they sounded good in a car. Hearing those acts live was a revelation. LISTEN!
Having stated the facts, one can clearly see why analog is on the rise. Not only is the sound a million times better (more accurate), but also it enables the listener to hear the entire piece, not every 5th bit that isn't compressed to save space or bits. I don't care if YOU think we can't hear the difference. Double-blind tests conducted for many, many years show that WE can. Now, if the recording (encoding) process uses compression, is digitally altered, what you get in any playback mode will not be accurate. Even in the '50s, engineers mixed pop records on radio speakers so that they sounded good in a car. Hearing those acts live was a revelation. LISTEN!
2
Another example of a media you would have thought the web would have wiped out long ago is the catalog. However, as a small store owner, I can tell you that the catalog we send out four times/year is by far the most efficient marketing tool we have.
Theories abound as to why, but it is simply a fact: They still work. Check your mailbox if you don't believe me.
Theories abound as to why, but it is simply a fact: They still work. Check your mailbox if you don't believe me.
1
Consider that the phenomenon described may be little more than the “dead cat bounce” one sees in a stock market of a brief resurgence during or following a severe decline. It may not herald the strategic return to more familiar, less complex forms of entertainment but simply that we’d changed so rapidly and dramatically that a reaction among the growing hordes of boomers was inevitable.
But we boomers aren’t forever and, beyond that, a lot of us who find a fascination with the familiar analog likely will return to the more puzzling but richer choices that digital offers.
I won’t be investing in space-age rabbit-ears.
But we boomers aren’t forever and, beyond that, a lot of us who find a fascination with the familiar analog likely will return to the more puzzling but richer choices that digital offers.
I won’t be investing in space-age rabbit-ears.
Hipster authenticity fetishes. At least the author does note that analog TV is gone.
Obama won the last election with the slogan, " forward, not backward." But perhaps we need to go backward and slower in some areas of our lives, in order to remain sane and in control.
Maybe the interest in old fashioned analog devices is because we must slow down for our own mental health and to avoid endless addiction to the media.
I recommend the doc. film "Web Junkie" which can be found on YouTube.
================================================
THANKS SO MUCH
Maybe the interest in old fashioned analog devices is because we must slow down for our own mental health and to avoid endless addiction to the media.
I recommend the doc. film "Web Junkie" which can be found on YouTube.
================================================
THANKS SO MUCH
1
Typewriters.
Welcome to the new world. Same as my old world.
I hope the world reignites with the joys of unmodulated non-commercial communications. During a sound design project, I tripped over the pirate channels during the night of a hurricane that drove everyone indoors. I roamed the city, and even recorded and analyzed later, that I had picked up an A.M. signal from across the country that I had initially thought was a contested channel of multiple pirates. I do love pulling down free a.m.,f.m.,UHF and VHF TV. I was an early adopter of iTunes, and then Pandora etc and early abandoner of same, due to my wish to enjoy music that does not feed some marketing profiles on me that are dutifully managed by Acxiom et al. I love records and gramophones, having grown up with my grandmothers working gramophones and my own inherited 45's spanning decades of pop music. From there it gets even nerdier, Shortwave, HAM or Single Side Band anyone? It's all way cooler than any algorithmically retouched selfie that gets madly thumbed up for being taken at a supposedly happening spot.
1
I tried out a fancy antenna maybe 8 years ago, as a way to try and cut the cable cord. But alas I had to admit that it just didn't really work. So I went back to (basic) cable for a bit. Now I'm at the point where I have cable for internet only. I have no more 'live' TV....just streaming TV.
1
If you want to find a particular phrase in a book, you are much better searching in a digital copy if this is a PDF, and you have access to Acrobat.
I am a guitar maker. Very analog one...sometimes it feels like I live in the 19th century. Chisels, planes, scrapers....carving, shaping and coaxing wood into musical instruments. And then....things get interesting, just as Mr. Walker points out in his article. These wooden guitars are recorded, by the thousands, and perch themselves onto YouTube video streams, Facebook posts, etc.. Sure it is easier to click a "play" icon....but the guitar will never sound as good as it does when you hear it played in a live venue. If you can, nurture the analog in your life, especially when it comes to music.
6
I have a 1930s vintage, non-working upright player piano and a bunch of player rolls in my house. It's free to anyone who is willing to come pick it up and give it a good home. Just reply below and leave your email address.
Well, vinyl DOES sound better. Even CD's are preferable over mp3s. Most important is that humans enjoy having something TANGIBLE to hold and to show. What you enjoy is a reflection of yourself. Who wants to see your books or your music or your movies on your hard drive? Having a physical version shows that it is actually important to you.
13
Carbon paper? Ubiquitous in Uruguay in 2015! Chariot components less so, especially if you drive a cheap Chinese chariot.
In the realm of photography, tablets and smartphones render images nicely and make it easy to share photos. Having said that, nothing...and I mean NOTHING...beats a beautifully made print.
1
This really isn't about nostalgia, for any of...
> Digital vs analog
> Electronic vs mechanical (e.g. videogames vs pinball machines)
> Electronic vs chemical (e.g. flash memory chips vs camera film)
...the last time I looked, my (printed) newspaper wasn't:
> Looking back at me, or listening to what I said
> Putting ads right on top of what I was reading - or pushing it aside with obnoxious graphics, pretending to be cute
Likewise for my record jackets - whether for vinyl or CD
Yet - all of my concerns go on hold, when I binge on Tull or Mac or Van Halen or Hendrix, on YouTube
> Digital vs analog
> Electronic vs mechanical (e.g. videogames vs pinball machines)
> Electronic vs chemical (e.g. flash memory chips vs camera film)
...the last time I looked, my (printed) newspaper wasn't:
> Looking back at me, or listening to what I said
> Putting ads right on top of what I was reading - or pushing it aside with obnoxious graphics, pretending to be cute
Likewise for my record jackets - whether for vinyl or CD
Yet - all of my concerns go on hold, when I binge on Tull or Mac or Van Halen or Hendrix, on YouTube
Are you talking about senseless luxury items like a print edition of the NYT?
Well that said, one of the problems with the digi-verse is that nobody owns anything, or Google, Amazon, FB and so on own everything. You know, if you don't pay for the product, you're the product.
Also, digitalia has degenerated, is suffering from lots of entropy. Noise everywhere, very hard to decode. "My" devices and apps update themselves and mutate beneath my forgetful gaze. Constantly having to relearn, or hunt, again, for hidden features. Was it a dream?
Horrible, horrible customer service everywhere. Or just horrible service. I mean, people text because cell phone service is wretched and VOIP based "land lines" aren't much better. As methods of messaging proliferate the quality of the signals degrade. The Second Law cannot be denied. Adding more features, or the Internet of Things, just demonstrates it.
At least, I can open a book, put on a record or that quaint artifact, the CD.
Well that said, one of the problems with the digi-verse is that nobody owns anything, or Google, Amazon, FB and so on own everything. You know, if you don't pay for the product, you're the product.
Also, digitalia has degenerated, is suffering from lots of entropy. Noise everywhere, very hard to decode. "My" devices and apps update themselves and mutate beneath my forgetful gaze. Constantly having to relearn, or hunt, again, for hidden features. Was it a dream?
Horrible, horrible customer service everywhere. Or just horrible service. I mean, people text because cell phone service is wretched and VOIP based "land lines" aren't much better. As methods of messaging proliferate the quality of the signals degrade. The Second Law cannot be denied. Adding more features, or the Internet of Things, just demonstrates it.
At least, I can open a book, put on a record or that quaint artifact, the CD.
16
Going really fast at 78 rpm there is more down in that groove than any magnetic tape, microgroove disc or digital file. More than they knew when a gramophone was the only way to transcribe. But we now know because we can use a big diamond stylus that gets every scintilla of what's in there, and nothing is better.
3
All things digital have two fatal flaws, they fade away or one day may be erased by an EMP. Vinyl however with limited fidelity can last centuries and a stainless steel disk can have ones and zeros almost forever! Eventually all of us will have a recording device to save what matters and digital for things not to important.
1
Consider the fact that the distributor's of Adele's new album - which is NOT available via any streaming source and still has shattered all previous records for first-week - have also released a version of "25" in vinyl -- which I would buy in a second to play on my turntable at home through my large component stereo system --
Also -
Over the past 12 -to-18 months, I've seen a noticeable decrease in the number of New Yorkers on the subways, buses, in cafés and on park benches...using e-readers - while observing an up-tick in books, magazines and newspapers -
This is not a fad - it's simply the discovery and realization that music sounds better when played on a vinyl recording, mastered on twenty-four tracks, through large stereo speakers -- along with the fact that the reading experience is more friendly and enjoyable with a good book...rather than a good Kindle -
Also -
Over the past 12 -to-18 months, I've seen a noticeable decrease in the number of New Yorkers on the subways, buses, in cafés and on park benches...using e-readers - while observing an up-tick in books, magazines and newspapers -
This is not a fad - it's simply the discovery and realization that music sounds better when played on a vinyl recording, mastered on twenty-four tracks, through large stereo speakers -- along with the fact that the reading experience is more friendly and enjoyable with a good book...rather than a good Kindle -
1
As wel, books are worry-free in terms of durability and theft-proof-ness. With a book, you toss in briefcase and go. With an e-reader you have to think about whether it's charged, could be damaged or stolen, etc, etc. As rough as commuting around the city is, I've never quite understood why anyone would want something else to think about.
1
A nice take on things, and generally right I think. However, I think it's pretty easy to name technologies that have gone totally extinct - e.g. Digital Audio Tape (officially decommissioned, no longer supported), analog laserdisc movies, 8" floppy disks, records cut in Quadraphonic? Another example of the analog fever, though, is the revival of 70mm celluloid film projecting being carried out for the opening of Tarantino's new movie.
There is definitely satisfaction to be had in actually holding a product in your hands. I own maybe 3,000 LP's (leftovers from the '60's and '70's) and several thousand CD's, but most of my listening these days is done on a Pono music player, Neil Young's foray into high resolution audio. Same with books. Tons of those, but everything I read now is on my Kindle. Point being, let's acknowledge the resurgence of the tangible, but let's not get too caught up in it.
1
Back in the 80s when Sears had its own record department there definitely were heavyweight virgin Japanese vinyl records. Especially Dark Side Of The Moon, but also some Styx selections if memory serves. They were twice the price or thereabouts of regular records.
2
I had given up my analog cameras and darkroom with the idea that digital photography was the future. But I have since gone back to a black and white film camera. But I no longer do any printing in the darkroom. After scanning the negatives, I make use of Photoshop to prepare the photos for the Internet. If I need prints for an exhibition, I have them made at Costco.
"Photo Essays in Black and White",
http://members.efn.org/~hkrieger/
"Photo Essays in Black and White",
http://members.efn.org/~hkrieger/
OK, here's the deal. Vinyl sounds better than digital for many reasons, but occasionally, digital sounds better than vinyl. The reasons vinyl often sounds better are 1) you get more highs, lows and overtones on records, 2) many records, including all the-native to-vinyl Rolling Stones records of the 60's, 70's and early 80's—in other words, all the good stuff—were poorly remastered as CD's. And then you lose even more sound as they're transferred to mp3. Otis Redding's the same, many PFunk CDs sound like they were taped off the records, and the list goes of poorly remastered stuff goes on and on.
The places where digital sounds better are 1) where the recording is native to digital and 2) when you compare average CD quality sound, on an average system to average analog sound on an average system. Here CD's tend to beat vinyl unless, as discussed above, the stuff was just poorly remastered. MP3's almost always sound worse than everything; the comparison would be the print of a painting to the painting itself.
However . . . if you have a good, and usually costly analog system, records of native-to vinyl-sound, almost always sound better than digital. This is not necessarily the reason for the vinyl renaissance; in my opinion that's more about hipsters and their predilections, but it is probably the original impetus behind it.
The places where digital sounds better are 1) where the recording is native to digital and 2) when you compare average CD quality sound, on an average system to average analog sound on an average system. Here CD's tend to beat vinyl unless, as discussed above, the stuff was just poorly remastered. MP3's almost always sound worse than everything; the comparison would be the print of a painting to the painting itself.
However . . . if you have a good, and usually costly analog system, records of native-to vinyl-sound, almost always sound better than digital. This is not necessarily the reason for the vinyl renaissance; in my opinion that's more about hipsters and their predilections, but it is probably the original impetus behind it.
4
Many claims, no evidence. Some blind testing is in order. When you do that you find that no one can tell a difference between CD, MP3 at 256K, FLAC, whatever. Of course, LPs can be distinguished due to the noise, distortion, and lack of dynamic range of LPs.
Forget the snobbery, there is no digital equal to the simple turning on or off of a light switch, or other simple appliance. Function and utility get lost in fashion and politics. So does elegance.
5
Analog has always sounded better than digital because it picks up the overtones the undertones, the ambiance of the hall or studio, everything that digital misses, and this just makes it sound warmer and more mellow. It is also more expensive and troublesome to reproduce in digital format, which discourages digital piracy, which, of course, is good for the artists and record companies.
1
Many cable systems actually seem to be downgrading HD video transmissions, both those from local television stations and national cable channels. You can check this yourself. Plug in an antenna to your reception device (television set) and switch between cable and free, over-the-air transmission. It is easy to notice the improvement away from cable.
Switching to receiving the signals directly is a smart move. For one thing, if you still use cable and it goes out, as happens not infrequently, you will not be denied access to major news video or sporting event just because the cable is down.
It shocked me a few years ago to realize that cable is downgrading HD channels. (We used over-the-air reception for years following the introduction of digital.) Taking anything away from HD seems like technological sacrilege. We wait for years to get the highest quality signal and then the cable company has the nerve to take away some of that quality by re-encoding the signal at a lower data rate? What seems to be missing the most is the brightness, referred to as luminance by television engineers.
The only reason I can imagine that cable companies would strip away some of the quality is to cram more channels into their systems. The more channels they offer, the more money they make because every channel, no matter how obscure, appeals to some. Lower quality could be encouraging some to switch away to free service through antennas.
Switching to receiving the signals directly is a smart move. For one thing, if you still use cable and it goes out, as happens not infrequently, you will not be denied access to major news video or sporting event just because the cable is down.
It shocked me a few years ago to realize that cable is downgrading HD channels. (We used over-the-air reception for years following the introduction of digital.) Taking anything away from HD seems like technological sacrilege. We wait for years to get the highest quality signal and then the cable company has the nerve to take away some of that quality by re-encoding the signal at a lower data rate? What seems to be missing the most is the brightness, referred to as luminance by television engineers.
The only reason I can imagine that cable companies would strip away some of the quality is to cram more channels into their systems. The more channels they offer, the more money they make because every channel, no matter how obscure, appeals to some. Lower quality could be encouraging some to switch away to free service through antennas.
1
When I decided to cut the cable and buy one of those square paper-thin antennas, I was in for a shock. The picture was perfect, much sharper and with deeper color than anything Comcast sent me over cable. I almost can't believe it's free. I had forgotten over the years what a gift to our nation is the public airwaves. There's nothing like it in most of the world.
There's a lot of pressure from profit seeking groups to take control of the public airwaves for cellular and other more profitable uses. We need to be vigilant.
There's a lot of pressure from profit seeking groups to take control of the public airwaves for cellular and other more profitable uses. We need to be vigilant.
23
Eheheh. My "other brain" is a Samsung tablet (for appointments, etc); my music collection is iPod-ed. And I have been a desktop computer user for years. But my hobby is collecting vintage typewriters, which boast a fascinating array of designs and technological history. They were the tech wonders/Apple products of their day, and I love rediscovering their innovations and cool looks. You couldn't pay me to go back to the joys of white-out and retyping on paper, but I really love fixing them up and using them as decor. And kids are absolutely fascinated by them--just as I was, even though I was a TV baby. :)
1
Listening to an entire album on a turntable or reading a physical book is more enjoyable to me, after having tried digital for years. It's a relationship with the music or text that isn't as present digitally.
But interesting to know it isn't just because I'm old.
But interesting to know it isn't just because I'm old.
4
"What has really changed is not the intrinsic nature of analog objects or processes, but rather our attitude toward them." "Our?" Cheeesh! Bob Walker can never speak for me. I have always had over-the-air TV (my only adjustment was to buy a converter). Never had cable: why pay money for programs that damage the mind? Had FREE dial-up internet in NYC until 4 years ago - it was good enough for the basics (e-mail and news reading) - and I got DSL only because I moved and Verizon made it cheaper than the basic phone service I had in NYC. Still have my LP collection and two stereos. I use paper maps that I've had for decades and for newer information, download maps from various internet sources. I don't have GPS and never will. No smart phone - just a pay-as-you-go T-Mobil cell that I use as I would a pay phone, i.e., as a utility for emergencies, not as a companion to avoid being alone with myself. And I DO appreciated the useful information that the internet provides. In other words, Walker finds it impossible to recognize that not all people have been suckered into the infancy that certain modern technologies foster. And there are actually some people who have long known that the more intricate the device, the more than can go wrong. Mr. Walker seems to believe that some people are reinventing the wheel. Which is fine. As long as they don't claim that they are invenitng it.
7
There is another reason. Digital has lost functionality. An obvious example is paper, you can always write on it, but one can seldom write on a computer document without allot of hassles. You can exchange information with a business card in seconds or less, but sending it out electronically takes time and effort. You can miss a human connection while doing that. Analog devices have real on/ off switches; you can turn them off and preserve a battery, it can be impossible to turn of a digital device. Analog devices can be much quicker to use because they are not littered with bloat. They can show there status at a glance. With a digitally controlled oven, one must push buttons to check temperature , which cant be done when you have stuff in both hands. Bluetooth headphones? You have to deal with pairing and charge a battery because it cant be really turned off; its easier to deal with cords on conventional headphones. With digital, one is constantly basked to "learn" about it, uselessly spent time when the device go obsolete.
12
When I was 14 years old and depressed because my first girlfriend had just dumped me, my father gave me $2 to buy an album. I bought the Beach Boys Surfing USA.
Even now, when I hold that physical album and listen to it complete with the few clicks of its 51 year old vinyl, I am returned to that moment of his kindness.
No mp3 file will ever do that.
Even now, when I hold that physical album and listen to it complete with the few clicks of its 51 year old vinyl, I am returned to that moment of his kindness.
No mp3 file will ever do that.
23
We exist in an analog world. Abstracting , digitizing, is a a useful part of being in that world, but only a part.
My imagination soars , but is much more fleeting than the tactile physical world where I spend most of my time.
So far.
My imagination soars , but is much more fleeting than the tactile physical world where I spend most of my time.
So far.
2
One aspect not mentioned here is physical space, a luxurious expensive commodity in New York and other metropolitan areas outside of Detroit. Books, records and stereo systems took up a lot of space in a typical size apartment--in the case of biblio or audiophiles, entire walls and more. CD's were more tolerable space savers. Also and again, in cities where dust and grime find their indoors through shut storm windows cleaning and maintenance of these objects
was a lot time consuming labor. Just saying.
was a lot time consuming labor. Just saying.
6
I have recently been jettisoning my CD collection and bulking up on vinyl. While a particular vinyl LP may sound worse than a particular CD and vice-versa I find there is an undefinable pleasure I get from vinyl that playing CDs lacks. I have not dived into streaming digital which can offer better resolution than CDs so my vinyl fetish may not be so pure but time will tell. Vinyl today, as noted in the article, is created with more care than the old mass-market days while CDs are produced more like the old vinyl, quickly and cheaply. If you haven't tried vinyl and you care about the sound of music you might be surprised but as a recent New Yorker cartoon noted, "I got into vinyl for the inconvenience and cost."
11
Part of the answer to the refusal of analog culture to wither away and die is old people and Luddites. Many of the people in my Eastern-oriented religious group still have not mastered email, or the etiquette that goes with it. I have received several fund raiser emails I did not solicit, or give permission to receive, and neither one had any way to unsubscribe to the email without personally replying to the person who sent it to me. They still use the CC method of multiple email addresses, too, so it is easy to harvest your own mailing lists, and see who else has been sent these money solicitations. In this same group of people, smart phone use is mostly absent. Nearly all of them are over 50, and just don't keep up with tech stuff very much. It isn't that they lack intelligence, or money, either. They just don't care because many in their social group are the same way.
Another avenue for the continuation of analog culture is young hipsters who find it chic and cool to invoke the past, in a very selective manner, and usually, for profit, too. Vinyl record production has increased in the past decade and many of the buyers for these records are young and affluent. Older music lovers still buy CDs. The digital music phenomenon is based on a permission-to-listen business philosophy, or on outright piracy of music. You don't really own anything unless you buy the CD or the record. This has pluses and minuses in each instance.
2
I have never had an "either or" attitude toward digital and analog. They exist side by side in my life and my home.
I listen to vinyl on a turntable broadcast through a vintage Western Electric speaker from 1928.
I have a projector in my home wired for digital while my television (not even a flat screen but an old tube job) is analog.
I still write in notebooks as well as on my laptop and even have telephone numbers memorized in my analog brain!
It doesn't necessarily feel counter revolutionary it just feels "modern" to be able to take from technology the things that please me whether they be digital or analog.
I listen to vinyl on a turntable broadcast through a vintage Western Electric speaker from 1928.
I have a projector in my home wired for digital while my television (not even a flat screen but an old tube job) is analog.
I still write in notebooks as well as on my laptop and even have telephone numbers memorized in my analog brain!
It doesn't necessarily feel counter revolutionary it just feels "modern" to be able to take from technology the things that please me whether they be digital or analog.
6
Retired now, I worked for 35 years in the audio repair business. Mostly for Boston-area manufacturers. HH Scott, Acoustic Research. Advent, Apt, NAD. What a great time I had, mostly self-taught. Real analog models, with real knobs and switches. How many smartphone users does it take to change a light bulb? They can't; there's no app.
I grew up in the analog world and exist somewhat comfortably and competently in the digital world. I love that I can carry thousands of pages of case research in a thin tablet, but I also enjoy writing on thick paper with a decent fountain pen. (No, I don't carry an expensive fountain pen--my current favorite is a $35 Pelikan model with a plastic body and perfect nib.)
I won't jump into the debate about whether digital music sounds better or worse than good old vinyl, although I own lots of both formats, along with an eccentric collection of reel-to-reel tapes (Google for more info if the term is unfamiliar). I do find it interesting that you can now buy a guitar amplifier that can digitally emulate the sonic characteristics of several different tube models, including all of their legendary warmth and distortion.
My point, maybe, is that we don't face an "either-or" choice. Multiple modes and generations can co-exist and even complement each other. We humans would do well to emulate and accommodate as well as our gadgets do.
I won't jump into the debate about whether digital music sounds better or worse than good old vinyl, although I own lots of both formats, along with an eccentric collection of reel-to-reel tapes (Google for more info if the term is unfamiliar). I do find it interesting that you can now buy a guitar amplifier that can digitally emulate the sonic characteristics of several different tube models, including all of their legendary warmth and distortion.
My point, maybe, is that we don't face an "either-or" choice. Multiple modes and generations can co-exist and even complement each other. We humans would do well to emulate and accommodate as well as our gadgets do.
4
Having used record players running at 78 rpm, I can well attest to how "bad" the quality of music was growing-up. I am not a great aficionado of vinyl records and their sound quality and frankly I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a very good vinyl and a good quality MP3/4 playback especially when used in the rock music that I love. The convenience however is miles apart and for that itself I am grateful for the great advances made in modern technology. Does anyone remember listening to vinyl being played in cars? What a disaster that was!
The main reason I can't enjoy music or literature on any digital device is that the devices themselves are too multipurpose.
It's incredibly difficult to actually focus on a single thing, like reading or listening to music without getting distracted by emails, notifications, or Facebook. Listening to a Bob Dylan LP on a standalone receiver with headphones is wonderfully peaceful.
It's incredibly difficult to actually focus on a single thing, like reading or listening to music without getting distracted by emails, notifications, or Facebook. Listening to a Bob Dylan LP on a standalone receiver with headphones is wonderfully peaceful.
2
The "democratization" that Mr. Walker writes about is very real, but only tangentially related to analog vs. digital. Most people in the digital sphere seem quite content with their lossy MP3 files played into earbuds. In another era, they would indeed not care about the physical attributes of their vinyl purchases.
But just as people with high quality audio systems today care about the quality of their digital audio sources, original purchasers of vinyl cared about their records too. Physical specs did matter then.
Playing a one disk recording of Beethoven's Ninth (running close to an hour) meant putting up with sometimes excruciating compression. Ultra thin records had their own well known problems - there's a reason that RCA's Dynaflex(R) records were nicknamed Dynawarp.
Yes, it is fair to say that there is an analog fetish today. But that doesn't diminish the fact that in any medium there is a range of quality. If one is going to pay up for analog, doesn't it make sense to seek out higher quality, especially in a medium where the differences can be so pronounced? This, regardless of whether one is going analog for cachet or because one is truly interested in analog's attributes.
But just as people with high quality audio systems today care about the quality of their digital audio sources, original purchasers of vinyl cared about their records too. Physical specs did matter then.
Playing a one disk recording of Beethoven's Ninth (running close to an hour) meant putting up with sometimes excruciating compression. Ultra thin records had their own well known problems - there's a reason that RCA's Dynaflex(R) records were nicknamed Dynawarp.
Yes, it is fair to say that there is an analog fetish today. But that doesn't diminish the fact that in any medium there is a range of quality. If one is going to pay up for analog, doesn't it make sense to seek out higher quality, especially in a medium where the differences can be so pronounced? This, regardless of whether one is going analog for cachet or because one is truly interested in analog's attributes.
How about one of the oldest technologies around - film photography and hand-developed prints on fine papers? Tactile, permanent, and transferable to family and friends without thinking about digital rights management. Who wants to look at someone's hard drive of 10,000 photos rather than one memorable one with a direct emotional tie? I'm a digital native, but I love analog artifacts. I suspect they'll be around for a long time.
9
Analog photography is alive and well. There is nothing as magical as seeing an image appear as you agitate a print in the developer. Those who dismiss older technologies need to get out more.
1
As as species, we've spent millennia in an analog world; it's not surprising that it retains a hold on us. The digital world is rooted in numbers, and has an inherently abstract aspect that does not connect to us in the same way.
Consider music. I have a huge collection of music in digital form - but still have a large collection of LPs with their cover art and liner notes. I can take them out and study them while listening to the music on a record player. How do you pick up an mp3 file to take a closer look?
I have a really good camera in my phone that takes pictures and video, and allows for editing on the phone. I can send them via email, post them on Facebook.
Still, a few days ago I got out one of my 35mm SLRs to do some film photography and it was a different experience entirely. No autofocus, no immediate gratification of seeing an image on a screen. Instead, hands on zooming in and out, pushing a button, hearing a real click from mechanical parts instead of a digital sound, feeling the film wind through the camera, waiting for days to see the prints. But no negatives - just prints on paper and digital scans on a photo CD.
Assuming we get a handle on climate change and a few other matters, my kids kids will have no clue about any of this - and who knows what they'll be using? I have become a repository for my family's old photo albums and movies. If I don't put a good chunk of my time into digitizing it, what will they make of it?
Consider music. I have a huge collection of music in digital form - but still have a large collection of LPs with their cover art and liner notes. I can take them out and study them while listening to the music on a record player. How do you pick up an mp3 file to take a closer look?
I have a really good camera in my phone that takes pictures and video, and allows for editing on the phone. I can send them via email, post them on Facebook.
Still, a few days ago I got out one of my 35mm SLRs to do some film photography and it was a different experience entirely. No autofocus, no immediate gratification of seeing an image on a screen. Instead, hands on zooming in and out, pushing a button, hearing a real click from mechanical parts instead of a digital sound, feeling the film wind through the camera, waiting for days to see the prints. But no negatives - just prints on paper and digital scans on a photo CD.
Assuming we get a handle on climate change and a few other matters, my kids kids will have no clue about any of this - and who knows what they'll be using? I have become a repository for my family's old photo albums and movies. If I don't put a good chunk of my time into digitizing it, what will they make of it?
1
I miss TV antennas and the snow of analog television. (Digital TV breaks up in pixels -- and surprisingly often.) Growing up, I liked going over to our TV and turning the dial. As a kid, I can recall the thrill of finding Philadelphia stations coming into my Brooklyn home early in the morning on channel numbers that were not used here, like 3 and 10. As a young adult living in an apartment overlooking the beach in Rockaway, late nights I could go through the dial and at 11 pm get the local news, The Delmarva Report, coming from channel 20 in Salisbury on Maryland's Eastern Shore. One late night, I recall, I got not only that station but also stations all along the Eastern seaboard: Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Washington, and as far away as Richmond, Virginia. (Most were playing network shows, but it was fun to see the local ads.) What made it special was the randomness.
As a college teacher, I used to show scenes from VHS tape videos to classes. I'd pop them into our classroom's VCR at exactly the place I wanted to begin. With DVDs, I've found this exactness harder.
For me, The Sunday New York Times has been delivering a virtual reality device every weekend for decades, not just the Google Cardboard I got a couple of weeks ago -- useless to me because no one in my house has a smartphone. No, the printed articles on paper were virtual reality enough for me.
I also miss typing up and mailing in letters to the editor of The Times instead of writing comments like this one.
As a college teacher, I used to show scenes from VHS tape videos to classes. I'd pop them into our classroom's VCR at exactly the place I wanted to begin. With DVDs, I've found this exactness harder.
For me, The Sunday New York Times has been delivering a virtual reality device every weekend for decades, not just the Google Cardboard I got a couple of weeks ago -- useless to me because no one in my house has a smartphone. No, the printed articles on paper were virtual reality enough for me.
I also miss typing up and mailing in letters to the editor of The Times instead of writing comments like this one.
2
I'm an older guy. I still love my vinyl records - I don't have as many as I used to, but the ones we have are in pretty good condition and our old (and occasionally repaired) Dual turntable works as well as it did when new. Occasionally we buy used records.
I sense that the analog records have a better quality than mp3 or cds, but the used ones I have purchased lately also come with significant noise. My son-in-law tells me that audio DVDs and Blu-ray have good or better quality compared to vinyl without the noise. I believe him, but I'm not ready to devote the space or the money into this newest medium.
I sense that the analog records have a better quality than mp3 or cds, but the used ones I have purchased lately also come with significant noise. My son-in-law tells me that audio DVDs and Blu-ray have good or better quality compared to vinyl without the noise. I believe him, but I'm not ready to devote the space or the money into this newest medium.
1
During the early days of National Public Radio, people went around in the hallways saying that as soon as something is declared obsolete, it is ready to be made into an art form. So, those of us who worked there believed that radio was ready, too, since its time had been declared past with the rise of television and the mega size audiences it was attracting. (By the way, the saying about something being obsolete and ready to be turned into an art form might have come from Bill Siemering, one of the first executives at NPR and a person given credit for helping to get it started.)
I am a part time technologist both in practical work (occasional consulting on communications systems) and in theoretical speculations about the future. It seems to me that many new applications of technology don't actually do things better, they more often just do things differently. This morning, I read the Times in my hotel room in Jersey City on my smart phone. A few years ago, I would either have needed a computer in the room or taken the elevator downstairs to buy a printed copy. Was reading on the phone better? It was a bit easier, more convenient, but I also was missing a huge number of stories that I would have seen in the paper.
It turns out that digital music is not better than analog, except that it allows self selective access in many more ways in many more places. We are in a period where the romance of the new is taking over our lives while actual quality and some utility go down.
I am a part time technologist both in practical work (occasional consulting on communications systems) and in theoretical speculations about the future. It seems to me that many new applications of technology don't actually do things better, they more often just do things differently. This morning, I read the Times in my hotel room in Jersey City on my smart phone. A few years ago, I would either have needed a computer in the room or taken the elevator downstairs to buy a printed copy. Was reading on the phone better? It was a bit easier, more convenient, but I also was missing a huge number of stories that I would have seen in the paper.
It turns out that digital music is not better than analog, except that it allows self selective access in many more ways in many more places. We are in a period where the romance of the new is taking over our lives while actual quality and some utility go down.
7
Music is a physical experience as well as an emotional experience. The vibrations of a piano, a singer, an ensemble directly before us will vibrate through your body entirely and not only our ear drums. It is an anatomical fact that bone conduction is essential for listening. We also experience the vitality and adventurism of the performer before us who risks all to put their soul into their art and share it with us - right now.
No LP, or CD, or streaming media will replicate this - they can only be ghosts of an actual event.
For this same reason we will never witness the death of live theater, because we crave the courage of the performer before us, and the possibility of revelation in the living moment.
Art is what we make it. But art is not made by corporate moguls maximizing profits by creating addictions to clever electronic gizmos, for ""this too shall pass." Art is more than a transference of dollars, it is a transference of consciousness, a way of hearing and seeing life itself, and their is no more potent way of conveying this, as with love itself, than in person.
No LP, or CD, or streaming media will replicate this - they can only be ghosts of an actual event.
For this same reason we will never witness the death of live theater, because we crave the courage of the performer before us, and the possibility of revelation in the living moment.
Art is what we make it. But art is not made by corporate moguls maximizing profits by creating addictions to clever electronic gizmos, for ""this too shall pass." Art is more than a transference of dollars, it is a transference of consciousness, a way of hearing and seeing life itself, and their is no more potent way of conveying this, as with love itself, than in person.
15
We live in an beautifully rich analog world where sounds and images are experienced in an almost endless range of frequencies, magnitudes and colors and hues The digital versions of these analog phenomenon are just an approximation of the original masterpiece. When music is digitized, it is sampled and then compressed to allow for efficient transport across long distances or so it can be stored on media so it can be played back (reconstructed) easily with inexpensive devices by the masses. Digital still cameras and digital video cameras and smart phones capture images by digitizing the image into digital data that is an approximation of the original. The benefits of digitizing sound and images makes things like Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, and YouTube possible. But something is always lost in this process depending on how high the sample rate is and how many bits are used to represent the original. That is why there will always be a market or demand for analog devices and media by those who want the purest form of the original sound or image that inspired us in the first place.
2
Though some people tend to dismiss the wave of vintage, analog, and just plain old stuff as a fad, some of the older stuff really is just plain better than modern stuff. I prefer my Toscanini recordings over more modern renditions, despite the background crackly-ness of the recordings, or perhaps because of it.
My personal theory is that as time goes by, the lower quality stuff of the past tends to be forgotten, and only the higher quality stuff remains to be remembered and found. We remember Mozart, but not Salieri, likewise we will remember the truly inventive artists, musicians and other creators of this age, and forget the others.
My personal theory is that as time goes by, the lower quality stuff of the past tends to be forgotten, and only the higher quality stuff remains to be remembered and found. We remember Mozart, but not Salieri, likewise we will remember the truly inventive artists, musicians and other creators of this age, and forget the others.
6
As a professional photographer, I keep meeting younger colleagues who sigh with envy when I speak about former assignments executed on argentic films, with big size negatives and heavy cameras. All flash on the actual sense of matter they see in my previous work, what in French we call the grain. Technical perfection kills the imagination and seems to forbid viewer's entrance in the poetics of image.
Then there is the definitive feeling that a print coming from physical negative is more real than a bunch of datas stored on hard drives
Then there is the definitive feeling that a print coming from physical negative is more real than a bunch of datas stored on hard drives
9
I have several older cameras including my dad's Yashica 3 1/4 -- can't beat those big square negatives.
As much as technology, science, education and common lore have us 'living in a digital age,' we are in fact living in a physical universe most all the time. We have bodies with great senses, and we are comfortable and familiar with the physical world.
A 'romance' of the physical, the analog, seems so much more understandable to me. I personally feel like I understand the stone age, the iron and bronze ages far better than I understand the digital universe. I am a tool maker in the woodworking world, and tho' I depend on extremely accurate, reliable and repeatable digital programming and quality control in manufacturing (and am reading the column and submitting comments online), I am nevertheless in the end, making a physical object.
These tools require a physical interaction with the tool's users, in this case to create strong joinery in wood. Understanding wood and the processes of designing, shaping and assembling wood is critical to learning the craft, and critical to developing the skills necessary to do it well, whether it's the professional or the hobbyist. It takes time, making errors, persistence and the desire to learn.
Wood isn't digital.
Perhaps if the writer allowed himself to engage more with his hands, mind, senses and creativity, he wouldn't be worrying so much about what place the digital universe has in his life, or whether the analog world is merely some fad.
A 'romance' of the physical, the analog, seems so much more understandable to me. I personally feel like I understand the stone age, the iron and bronze ages far better than I understand the digital universe. I am a tool maker in the woodworking world, and tho' I depend on extremely accurate, reliable and repeatable digital programming and quality control in manufacturing (and am reading the column and submitting comments online), I am nevertheless in the end, making a physical object.
These tools require a physical interaction with the tool's users, in this case to create strong joinery in wood. Understanding wood and the processes of designing, shaping and assembling wood is critical to learning the craft, and critical to developing the skills necessary to do it well, whether it's the professional or the hobbyist. It takes time, making errors, persistence and the desire to learn.
Wood isn't digital.
Perhaps if the writer allowed himself to engage more with his hands, mind, senses and creativity, he wouldn't be worrying so much about what place the digital universe has in his life, or whether the analog world is merely some fad.
2
This article suffers from misunderstandings about the digital/analog and physical/disembodied distinctions, even if there is a valid point waiting to be made.
1. His new antenna reception is digital, not analog, as he only admits at the end of the article. And getting a signal from the air rather from a coaxial cable strikes me as much more disembodied than physical, even if radio wave transmission is the older technology.
2. The diffusion statistics clearly show that digital is rapidly replacing analog in major markets: ebooks, email, enewspapers and magazines, computers and communications in general.
The valid point that the author could have made has long been known to anthropologists and historians: old technologies often indeed do not fade away completely, but instead become the exclusive hobbies of the rich and aficionados.
Thus hunting and horseback riding became the preserves of the rich, as are expensive mechanical watches and other curiosities.
Nevertheless, the horse population of the US has declined radically from some 20 million at its highpoint around 1920, to how many today? A few thousands? And the same can be said of LPs and other analog niche products.
1. His new antenna reception is digital, not analog, as he only admits at the end of the article. And getting a signal from the air rather from a coaxial cable strikes me as much more disembodied than physical, even if radio wave transmission is the older technology.
2. The diffusion statistics clearly show that digital is rapidly replacing analog in major markets: ebooks, email, enewspapers and magazines, computers and communications in general.
The valid point that the author could have made has long been known to anthropologists and historians: old technologies often indeed do not fade away completely, but instead become the exclusive hobbies of the rich and aficionados.
Thus hunting and horseback riding became the preserves of the rich, as are expensive mechanical watches and other curiosities.
Nevertheless, the horse population of the US has declined radically from some 20 million at its highpoint around 1920, to how many today? A few thousands? And the same can be said of LPs and other analog niche products.
2
Another reason for those re-embracing past technology: emotional associations. (Or, old fogies like me might call those "memories.") The physical formats of words, music, art, etc. seem to make those connections more powerful than their digital relatives.
But hey, years from now, today's youth will come upon their 20-year-old smartphone in the back of the desk drawer and smile with fondness.
But hey, years from now, today's youth will come upon their 20-year-old smartphone in the back of the desk drawer and smile with fondness.
The danger of digital is that it does not last. We have invested in and transferred and digitized much of the analog gems of the past, which might be lost because analog originals are being discarded and the digital will almost certainly disappear. The photographic negatives of the 1930s through 1990s are more apt to stand the test of time than any iPhone snaps.
Many of the Edison cylinders and Victor 78rpm records I own are between 100 and 120 years old as are the machines that play them. Even after all of the passing decades, they play as well as they did when they were made and it is all done without electricity or wires or updates or downloads. I wonder how many of the digital wonders of today will be around in fifteen years let alone 120!
Many of the Edison cylinders and Victor 78rpm records I own are between 100 and 120 years old as are the machines that play them. Even after all of the passing decades, they play as well as they did when they were made and it is all done without electricity or wires or updates or downloads. I wonder how many of the digital wonders of today will be around in fifteen years let alone 120!
13
The entire known universe is analog. Digital technologies are being used to represent slices of it, thus enabling those portions to be stored, transmitted or analyzed. Our ability to increase the density and speed of these digital representations of the analog world is continually improving. It is becoming increasingly difficult to discern them from their analog originals. You may think a vinyl record played on your tube based amp has a certain nostalgic "feel" that digital simply can't match. Rest assured, that analog sound can likely be simulated to a degree beyond detection by the finest human ear. Someone only needs to put in the extra effort to duplicate it precisely enough in digital form, analog flaws and all. The human race simetimes seems to be building out its own version of The Matrix, as it creates ever more precise digital copies of everything in sight. Don't worry, the digital representations of people living in our virtual future will probably be able to do a great job simulating the enjoyment of those vinyl records!
10
At least some of this is more than mere luxury.
Some things are lost with the new technology.
Browsing is qualitatively different in a bookstore. It is a way to find books you did not know you would want.
Research is qualitatively different with books. I can get any statute on line. Flipping back and forth looking at how they link, looking for possibilities and connections, that just isn't the same on line.
Reading a book for me often involves flipping back to look at something. That is hard to do on line, where you are stuck on just that page, or part of a page. You can't easily just glance back at that picture, or check back for a second look at a character or dialog.
My brother has a far better ear than I do. He can hear the difference in analog and digital tones. He can enjoy them, something real lost.
Of course, it can be luxury or oddity too. But there is something more here, something real that was lost when digital gains were made.
Some things are lost with the new technology.
Browsing is qualitatively different in a bookstore. It is a way to find books you did not know you would want.
Research is qualitatively different with books. I can get any statute on line. Flipping back and forth looking at how they link, looking for possibilities and connections, that just isn't the same on line.
Reading a book for me often involves flipping back to look at something. That is hard to do on line, where you are stuck on just that page, or part of a page. You can't easily just glance back at that picture, or check back for a second look at a character or dialog.
My brother has a far better ear than I do. He can hear the difference in analog and digital tones. He can enjoy them, something real lost.
Of course, it can be luxury or oddity too. But there is something more here, something real that was lost when digital gains were made.
38
I recall the first Victrola phonograph I ever encountered as a child... its rich wooden cabinet, elaborately inlaid metal sound trumpet... and that wind-up crank! It had presence; it had craftsmanship.
11
My first VCR came with a walnut surround. How much more attractive than the ugly silver or black stuff nowadays.
There is something rather sad in seeing my Crown and Revox 10.5 inch reel recorders just sitting there, unused, down in the basement.
I don't buy new cars that often. I was shocked to discover that my 2015 car can't play a CD. These days, things just go onto SD cards, and my smallish storage console holds more music than my bookshelves of LPs and CDs. And the ability to locate any selection quickly is unmatched. But because they are easy to locate, I find I don't look for them.
Now and then, I show friends, and their grandchildren, the first London LP sold in this country by the Rolling Stones, and we even play it now and then. The look on their faces is similar to my reaction to an Edison cylinder when I was in grade school.
I don't buy new cars that often. I was shocked to discover that my 2015 car can't play a CD. These days, things just go onto SD cards, and my smallish storage console holds more music than my bookshelves of LPs and CDs. And the ability to locate any selection quickly is unmatched. But because they are easy to locate, I find I don't look for them.
Now and then, I show friends, and their grandchildren, the first London LP sold in this country by the Rolling Stones, and we even play it now and then. The look on their faces is similar to my reaction to an Edison cylinder when I was in grade school.
22
When I am ready to buy a new car, it will come with CD player and a high end audio system if they want me to buy it.
I have a Marntz audio system in the house with excellent sound.
There are people who repair and restore turntables.
It is simply that the public has been willing to accept the poor quality of today's recordings because it is cheap.
I have a Marntz audio system in the house with excellent sound.
There are people who repair and restore turntables.
It is simply that the public has been willing to accept the poor quality of today's recordings because it is cheap.
13
People are prepared to accept low quality EVERYTHING because it's cheap. Given job uncertainty & stagnant wages, this is understandable: a race to the bottom.
2
That over the air TV is digital, it is better because the signal is not compressed to save bandwidth.
It comes through clearer than the older analogue FM TV broadcast, as digital is not as subject to distortions in the radio wave. The receiver can recognize the 1s, and 0s even when the signal is weak. On cable the signal is compressed to allow more channels on the same cable, which can only carry a limited number of channels.
So my antenna with a small amplifier gets me all the major channels, and several others that I don't watch anyway. I do not get the big sports playoffs, but have not really missed them, and the advertisers miss me, so should I care?
I love my CDs as I play them while traveling in the car. As I am an opera fan, I can listen to my favorites and not have to listen to those awful pop singers, and rap crap of today. There is NPR, but it is not always available in places like Utah, or even Bakersfield.
I also have a good collection of 50s and 60s jazz recordings on LP, along with Beethoven. Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and other classical recordings.
The CDs have allowed me to listen to Verdi, Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini, Wagner, and others. it is hard to tell the difference between them, and the analogue recordings, you have to be an expert audiophile to hear it. But downloaded streaming music is terrible, as is cable TV.
It comes through clearer than the older analogue FM TV broadcast, as digital is not as subject to distortions in the radio wave. The receiver can recognize the 1s, and 0s even when the signal is weak. On cable the signal is compressed to allow more channels on the same cable, which can only carry a limited number of channels.
So my antenna with a small amplifier gets me all the major channels, and several others that I don't watch anyway. I do not get the big sports playoffs, but have not really missed them, and the advertisers miss me, so should I care?
I love my CDs as I play them while traveling in the car. As I am an opera fan, I can listen to my favorites and not have to listen to those awful pop singers, and rap crap of today. There is NPR, but it is not always available in places like Utah, or even Bakersfield.
I also have a good collection of 50s and 60s jazz recordings on LP, along with Beethoven. Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and other classical recordings.
The CDs have allowed me to listen to Verdi, Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini, Wagner, and others. it is hard to tell the difference between them, and the analogue recordings, you have to be an expert audiophile to hear it. But downloaded streaming music is terrible, as is cable TV.
20
I believe your post is not quite accurate. As I have posted elsewhere here, I believe the cable companies are intentionally downgrading the signal from over the air stations, even though they have the capacity to carry the signal in full. The digital signal directly from a television station is itself compressed video, compressed to a data rate just above 19 megabits per second. The cable retransmission, however, looks to me to be at a lower data rate so they can, as you indicate, cram more channels onto their wires. This is a business decision, not a technical one. It is promoted, in part, I think by the fact that cable has to continue sending out SD versions of channels (duplicating HD) because a lot of people still don't have HD sets.
1
That over the air digital has huge problems with pixilation in many large cities and mountainous areas. "We' are being nickeled and dimed to death to buy cable, Netflix, Sires and the list goes on...It's all about making corporation more lucrative and the consumers poorer for what-entertainment?
I have season tickets to the opera, symphony and theater for plays. I'd rather spend my money on reality.
I have season tickets to the opera, symphony and theater for plays. I'd rather spend my money on reality.
1
I thought I was unable to embrace every new technology because I'm in my sixties, and I just didn't get it. Maybe my love of audio equipment, Magneplanar speakers, LPs and turntables three decades ago was self-delusion, and today's compressed music streamed through cheap earbuds is really where it's at.
But I don't think it's me. I think this retro revival shows that the tactile experience of playing a record or holding a book gives texture to life that just running another stinking app does not provide. People are discovering that learning the lore and the feel of old technologies is fun, and there is a sense of accomplishment and mastery that is wrapped up in the gears and cogs of mechanical things that an app can never provide. I admit that there are some things I wouldn't want to part with, like YouTube and Amazon and commenting electronically in The Times and my big digital TV, but most of it leaves me cold.
Whole industries that once employed thousands of people have been reduced to a single platform from which we send mail, do our banking, listen to music, read books, watch movies and so much more. But there are dangers to depending on monocultures, both in agriculture and in technology. In both, one new and potent virus can wipe out the entire crop.
When that happens, look me up. I have lots of books and CDs and DVDs. At least we won't be up the digital stream without a paddle.
But I don't think it's me. I think this retro revival shows that the tactile experience of playing a record or holding a book gives texture to life that just running another stinking app does not provide. People are discovering that learning the lore and the feel of old technologies is fun, and there is a sense of accomplishment and mastery that is wrapped up in the gears and cogs of mechanical things that an app can never provide. I admit that there are some things I wouldn't want to part with, like YouTube and Amazon and commenting electronically in The Times and my big digital TV, but most of it leaves me cold.
Whole industries that once employed thousands of people have been reduced to a single platform from which we send mail, do our banking, listen to music, read books, watch movies and so much more. But there are dangers to depending on monocultures, both in agriculture and in technology. In both, one new and potent virus can wipe out the entire crop.
When that happens, look me up. I have lots of books and CDs and DVDs. At least we won't be up the digital stream without a paddle.
78
Thanks! You wrote the magic word, "tactile". We must remember that our fingers, or digits, are not only for counting with integers, but also for touching. Today's humans have neglected the capacity to feel reality better through touching, and we need to notice that restricting the use of the word "digital" to stuff with bits and bytes has begun to reduce our sense of "contact" (also touching) with our world. Playing an acoustic instrument yourself is the most tactile musical experience, in my opinion.
2
BRAVO!
1
Yes, the LP is a luxury good. There would really be no point in making mass-market, shoddy LPs in the present market. They use better tapes, cut the lacquer more carefully on all-analogue lathes, pay closer attention to the quality of the plating, and use better vinyl. The refurbished record presses use computerized controls to get more consistent quality than was possible in the old days. Inspection is taken more seriously, and the packaging is better.
Here is the Acoustic Sounds pressing plant video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRBEgCf5h44
Here is the Acoustic Sounds pressing plant video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRBEgCf5h44
17
Well all this sounds good in theory, but in actual fact the "shoddy" records of yesteryear were in my experience head-and-shoulder above today's "180 gram vinyl" garbage regrind pressing disasters. The fact is, no new record pressing machine has been manufactured since 1985 or so, and the old machines are fading fast. It shows in the resulting presses, which provide an overabundance of surface noise, off-center holes, and every possible pressing flaw.
This changed decades ago when, in “…1977 Mobile Fidelity began offering a line of Original Master Recording LPs…cut at 1/2 speed from original tapes, using no compression or velocity limiting [see wikipedia.org].”
This move to higher quality vinyl recordings was also pioneered by “…Patti Laursen (1927–2013)…an internationally renowned classical music recording producer…” who “…devised a concept to improve the sound quality of long playing records by producing albums recorded at 45 RPM [introducing the] Angel 45 Sonic Series…LPs with sound recorded at cleaner, higher frequencies.”
Mobile Fidelity now issues many 45 rpm vinyl remasters along with their SACD editions. I can attest to the high quality of their early high speed masters and current SACDs along with several of the Angel 45 Sonic Series vinyl albums.
This evidences an appreciation that the “…intrinsic nature of analog objects or processes…” when created with the highest standards available is a matter of quality enhancing the value of life.
This move to higher quality vinyl recordings was also pioneered by “…Patti Laursen (1927–2013)…an internationally renowned classical music recording producer…” who “…devised a concept to improve the sound quality of long playing records by producing albums recorded at 45 RPM [introducing the] Angel 45 Sonic Series…LPs with sound recorded at cleaner, higher frequencies.”
Mobile Fidelity now issues many 45 rpm vinyl remasters along with their SACD editions. I can attest to the high quality of their early high speed masters and current SACDs along with several of the Angel 45 Sonic Series vinyl albums.
This evidences an appreciation that the “…intrinsic nature of analog objects or processes…” when created with the highest standards available is a matter of quality enhancing the value of life.
Or look at how many people (mostly women, but some men too) are embracing sewing and sewing machines. Certain vintage sewing machines -- all metal, pre-circuit board -- engender fevered and irrational bidding on eBay.
21
I have a 1950 Singer Featherweight I inherited from my great grandmother. It is a work horse, never having the issues I have with my modern machine. They may not do the fancy stitches but if you need a machine that is reliable or is your ticket.
1
There is something similar about people, mostly women, that are into adult coloring books. The tactile sense of pen on paper and mental creative focus of building complex, colorful patterns.
2
That's partly because mass market clothes are trash - seams that come apart, shoddy fabric. It's even hard to buy good fabric nowadays to sew with.
For me there's an obstacle to maintaining some of the older media -- our old tape deck and turntables need repairs, for example. And while I replaced our CD player when it stopped working in the not so distant past, I find myself doing a kind of triage, because there's a limit to how much time, money, and attention am I going to pay to audio equipment. So I have consolidated my off-line music listening around CDs, even if I miss some aspects (including content I haven't been able to find in the newer formats) of other, older media. So I agree that indulging in accessing my music from vinyl LPs would be something of a luxury for me, although perhaps not exactly for the reason the column envisions.
4
You make the author's point, kid -- CDs are passé, except perhaps as backups. The truly digital listen to MPs (no, NOT "Member of Parliament").