MOTM

Certainly, some instruments are hybrids, and it's not always easy to say
that it's one or the other.

Basically, analog circuitry works in real time on a signal/voltage level.
Digital converts a signal to numbers, does "math" on it, and then converts
it back to a voltage. 

An LP is analog, because the grooves on the vinyl actually shake the stylus
around in a specific way, the stylus creates voltages in the same shape as
the groove, and the speaker cones shake in the same pattern as the stylus
(in fact, in a very quiet room you can often hear the sound of the record
coming right off of the stylus in a recognizable form). So the grooves on
the record are a mirror, an "analog," of the vibrations that will eventually
come out of the speakers.

CDs are digital. Light and dark pits on the surface are read by a laser as
binary information, converted to numbers, and the numbers are converted
(using what's called a DAC - Digital-to-Analog Converter) into voltages...
that eventually go to the speakers. There is no 'analog' between what you
hear and what is physically on the disk, there are only 'digits' encoded on
the CD that a specifically-programmed microprocessor knows how to turn into
sound.

Just because a synth has a digital scanning keyboard (I think all do at this
point), I wouldn't consider it analog. My Korg Poly-800 was my first hybrid
instrument with digital oscillators that created crude stair-step
simulations of waveforms, feeding into analog filters (actually that
shouldn't be plural).

Does this help at all, or make any sense?

Digital has the advantage that it is cheap and accurate. Analog is
instantaneous, and while in general not as 'accurate,' it degrades
gracefully. We live in a time of cheap computers and compact discs & DVDs,
so we get to thinking that digital is always better. But just remember that
the human brain is an analog computer, that your ears are analog receptors
as the wise man says, "Digital is a *subset* of analog." Digital is great
for what it's good for, and analog likewise.

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Nathan Hunsicker [mailto:nate@...] 
Sent:	Friday, 19 May, 2000 10:13 AM
To:	motm@egroups.com
Subject:	[motm] Silly question since the list is slow

In the world of synthesizers, what makes a synth or module "analog"? I used
to think it was how the signal was generated, ie: discrete circuits vs IC's
but I've never known where to draw the line. Obviously my Multimoog is
analog and My Roland D-50 is digital, but what about my juno-106 (with
"digitally controlled oscilators") or my Moog Source with it's Z-80
processor to control program changes? Is it the method of control (CV vs.
data)? The presence of memory? Not that this is very important (somewhat
like the argument of what is and isn't jazz) but since the list is slow, I
figured I'd ask. -Nate