I frequently read that in the early days of digital recording, nobody knew what they were doing and it was only later when oversampling ADCs, dither and so on came along that digital became half-acceptable. So aside from poorly-mastered CDs, are there any examples of early digital recordings where we can definitely point to problems in the process, rather than just poor production? (A recording of 80s pop based on the bafflingly-popular Yamaha DX7 synthesiser and using early digital reverb effects is always going to have dubious sound quality whatever the recording medium!)
It's fascinating that Decca Classical were pioneering digital recording in the 1970s using virtually prototype equipment sometimes built on Veroboard so, according to received wisdom, their recordings must have been truly terrible. Can anyone point to any examples I could listen to where the defects in the digital process reveal themselves noticeably?
There's a fascinating piece about Decca digital here http://www.mancini99.freeserve.co.uk/Decca_1.html
It's fascinating that Decca Classical were pioneering digital recording in the 1970s using virtually prototype equipment sometimes built on Veroboard so, according to received wisdom, their recordings must have been truly terrible. Can anyone point to any examples I could listen to where the defects in the digital process reveal themselves noticeably?
There's a fascinating piece about Decca digital here http://www.mancini99.freeserve.co.uk/Decca_1.html
My still operational system (fingers crossed) is I believe one of only three Decca digital tape recorders now left in the UK, and is probably the only one in private hands. It consists of a 20 bit analogue to digital converter, a signal processing unit (codec) with timecode facilities, a modified IVC 800 series helical video tape transport, and an 18 bit digital to analogue converter.
This was all done before PCs were fast enough and therefore Decca built their own editing computers and memory systems. Semiconductor memory was also used to store a limited amount of the actual digitized audio itself. This was to speed up the editing process while the mechanical tape machines 'caught up'.
Almost all of the Decca system was of their own design and manufacture, at first with their own soldering irons and 'Veroboard', though later subcontractors were used. But most final assembly and programming remained 'in house'.