Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/08/06

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Is It "analog" or Is It Digital? Drifting OT a LOT
From: "Randy Jensen" <randy@jamzcheer.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 08:19:59 -0700

There are definitely digital instruments - and some that claim to generate
the waveform not from sampling a real instrument but recreating each part of
it and even allowing you to create virtual instruments that are impossible
in reality.

HOWEVER, someone mentioned on here that they're a drummer.  So am I.

Go down to your local music store (or go into your home studio) and play a
properly tuned Drum Workshop (or other high end kit) set, with K.Zildjian or
HH Sabian (or whatever high end cymbal you prefer).  Do things that are
unique (rolls, etc).  Then play on the BEST, MOST EXPENSIVE Roland digital
drum set you can find.  It will leave you very flat.

Yes, you can play a virtual snare that's 500 feet deep by 8 inches wide
(sorry, don't have my metric calculator on me).  But you can't do a proper
roll.  It doesn't feel right and it doesn't sound right.  It's much better
than if you tried this experiment 5 years ago, but it still isn't good
enough for certain things.

My DW kit can't sound like a piano.  It can't make farting noises or TR808
bass drum sounds, but it kicks ass at "drum" sounds.

But all this wouldn't stop me from adding a couple digital drums to my
acoustic kit for certain kinds of music - the same way I would add a digital
camera to my arsenal for certain photographic jobs.  They can coexist very
nicely.

My $0.02, and my strange analogies, which only drummers might understand....
:)

Randy
www.randyjensenphoto.com

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Eric Welch
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 10:46 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Is It "analog" or Is It Digital? Drifting OT at tad



Jean-Michel,

You are quite right. Beethoven had in mind the musicians taking the
discreet notes and making them anything but. Having played the violin
for 19 years, I think I can answer that one pretty accurately. The
notes on paper are not digital any more than cursive writing is. My
violin teacher used to criticize Jascha Heifitz, the famous violinist,
because his technique was so perfect, so accurate a representation of
the musical notes on the paper, that he felt he wasn't much of a real
musician because he never put into the music who he was. Whether that
was in fact the case or not, the point is well taken for me. Music is
more than discreet notes at a mathematically perfect pace. It's taking
that as the starting point, and then the musician making the piece
theirs.

Photography is the same. We take an "accurate" two-dimensional
description of the world that the lens projects onto the
light-sensitive surface and we "make it our own." Even journalists.
Because we pick the angle, the crop and the timing (not to mention
exposure) and create a "slide of life" that we perceive to be
significant.

On Tuesday, August 5, 2003, at 05:39  PM, Jean-Michel Tomaschett wrote:

> "analog recorded audio" has nothing to do with what Beethoven had in
> mind
>

Eric Welch
Carlsbad, CA
http://www.jphotog.com

Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco. - Will Rogers.

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