| Yeah, and who wants that? I know I don't. We're not talking about 5% distortion on everything with a -50dBV noise floor. A little harmonic and intermodulation distortion is a good thing (and even a tiny bit of noise!), but most of that is going to come from the outboard and especially tape. Nothing beats the sound of a console and tape, and I used to record only digitally so that's not where I came from....it's where I went TO.
I happen to agree. I believe the mojo of mixing OTB is noise, distortion and phase shift. And I don't believe some immaculate summing contraption is required to produce this.
My current thinking on the whole ITB vs OTB is this:
24 bits has a theoretical dynamic range of 144dB. Our best converters have a dynamic range of 114dB. That's a big 30dB difference.
Most DAW users mix using the full 144dB range. In other words, they mix right up to 0dBFS. If they are smarter, they mix up to -6dBFS. Even then they are still using 24dB greater range than the best converters in the world can reproduce.
So - if you run your audio through your converters and back again, you are squeezing 144dB through a 114dB hole. The corners are going to get knocked off. You Will get extra noise, distortion and phase shift. This Will be noticable.
And very probably, you Will like what you hear.
A sine wave at 40 Hz is a boring thing. If you rough it up and add some noise and some harmonics, it becomes more pleasant to listen to. That, I believe, is the mojo of OTB processing. |