How Recordings Are Made II: Digital Hard-Disk-Based Recording
Jay Kadis, Daniel J. Levitin · 2007
Recording engineers and composers have long eyed the computer’s potential for making and manipulating sound recordings, but early computers were too slow and expensive to be practical. The democratization of the recording process also brings the predictable result whenever powerful tools are placed in the hands of less-skilled operators: overuse of gimmicky production tricks and poorly composed and performed music in abundance. The fundamental difference between the older and newer systems for recording and manipulating sound is the manner in which the signals are encoded and stored. The very high speed of modern computers allows the digital samples representing the recording to undergo significant signal processing in the short time between when new samples are acquired or played. The loss of high-frequency information or occasional drop-outs is often the first clue that a tape is deteriorating. But, with digital recording as found on digital tape, hard-disk recording, or even CDs and DVDs, the deterioration is masked by error-correction schemes.