Tubes?
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Posted on Feb 08, 2003 08:45 am
crux
Typo Szar
Member Since: Jul 04, 2002
What is it that makes tubes sound so good, that no matter how hi tech digital equipment gets, tubes just sound sooooo beautiful?
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Feb 08, 2003 09:06 am Technically, tubes get their warm, full sound from...brace yourself...noise and distortion. Yup, that is right, it is from the noise and distortion of heated elements in the tube itself. It's the nature of the tube environment.
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Feb 08, 2003 12:39 pm Oh so very true! General Motors once came out with a car radio that did not distort at full volume. Sounds great right? People hated it. They did not get the "feeling" of volume because they where accustomed to the distortion being the "signature" of high volume. GM discontinued the model. Tubes also distort when driven hard. We are accustomed to that sound. There is also debate about analog being continious and digital being assembled samples. Some say they can hear the difference. Case in point. I was part of a team developing a cytopathology (pap smear) device that sampled slides for medical testing and human review. According to all scientific data the sample rate we where using was so fast that the eye could not detect that it was viewing samples. WRONG! The trained Cytopathologists saw "jitter" or jaged movement. So....Who knows!
Feb 08, 2003 01:28 pm Wow, Walt, you have been some unusual places and done some unusual things haven't you...made a pap smear device..whoa...were you involved in conducting any beta testing? :-)
WaltChief Cook and Bottle WasherMember
Since: May 10, 2002
Feb 08, 2003 01:57 pm That's discusting! (I don't know why I don't just love it?) I know this is not what you are fishing for but, yes it was all actually beta testing and pre 5/10 K submission testing for FDA, and every other EIEIO on the planet. Truth of the matter is that the more inticing subjects do not have problems statistically. The subjects that are in question are usualy not estitically pleasing, if you get my drift.
Feb 08, 2003 02:20 pm Ya, I here ya...Oooo, the mental pictures...ARGH!
Feb 08, 2003 10:22 pm speaking of tubes...
jeez, y'all should have put up some kinda warning..
i *didn't* want to read that! :)
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Feb 10, 2003 09:27 pm Anyway, about the digital world not being able to reproduce that analog feel. Since turning away from analog all those year's ago, I have dippied back and forth a couple of time's. But I never gave up trying to get that warmth with digital only, and I for one will say that it can be done. You just have to apply the DSP effect's properly, and spend many a sleepless night nudging this and that, with every pluggin you have. And eventually you can duplicate that sound. I have some early recording's I will put up at NWR in a few day's that you can check out, and decide for yourself. But I for one will probablly never return to the analog world unless forced to. Call me pigheaded, but once turning to the digital realm, I decided I would find a way to make the warm fuzzy's be there with digital mean's alone. Ok and maybe some decent mic's and stuff, but it is still all done without ever leaving the PC.
Peace
