Taketheflame
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- Joined
- Mar 14, 2020
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Hey all,
Just a curiosity of mine. It's my understanding that with any analog-to-analog transfer of media content (i.e - vinyl to cassette, cassette to cassette, VHS to VHS, etc.), there will always be some degree of generational loss (i.e - the copy will never be as good of quality as the original), but that any digital to digital transfer (i.e - copying FLAC files) results in zero losses.
My questions are where both digital and analog sources come into the equation. Admittedly, I'm a bit of a vintage analog gear enthusiast, so I have lots of vinyl, and also enjoy making cassette recordings purely for the fun of it (and often being surprised with the results). I have a good handful of things in my vinyl collection which I need to digitize, as they are somewhat rare records, and contain music which isn't available on any streaming platforms (or sometimes even on CD).
When doing an analog-to-digital conversion (in this case, vinyl to FLAC), is there truly zero generational loss, unlike that of analog-to-analog transfers? Basically, what I'm wondering is if I were to digitize the vinyl in question, but decided I wanted to record a tape from the digital copy later on, am I somehow bypassing (or at least reducing the amount of) the generational loss that would be present in going straight from vinyl to tape? I'd rather digitize first anyways, due to numerous benefits such as click and pop removal and audio normalization, but curious if reducing generational loss is another benefit of this.
FWIW, I'm using a Scarlett 2i4 for an ADC, and a Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus for a DAC. (along with various turntables and amplifiers/phono pre-amps).
Thanks
Just a curiosity of mine. It's my understanding that with any analog-to-analog transfer of media content (i.e - vinyl to cassette, cassette to cassette, VHS to VHS, etc.), there will always be some degree of generational loss (i.e - the copy will never be as good of quality as the original), but that any digital to digital transfer (i.e - copying FLAC files) results in zero losses.
My questions are where both digital and analog sources come into the equation. Admittedly, I'm a bit of a vintage analog gear enthusiast, so I have lots of vinyl, and also enjoy making cassette recordings purely for the fun of it (and often being surprised with the results). I have a good handful of things in my vinyl collection which I need to digitize, as they are somewhat rare records, and contain music which isn't available on any streaming platforms (or sometimes even on CD).
When doing an analog-to-digital conversion (in this case, vinyl to FLAC), is there truly zero generational loss, unlike that of analog-to-analog transfers? Basically, what I'm wondering is if I were to digitize the vinyl in question, but decided I wanted to record a tape from the digital copy later on, am I somehow bypassing (or at least reducing the amount of) the generational loss that would be present in going straight from vinyl to tape? I'd rather digitize first anyways, due to numerous benefits such as click and pop removal and audio normalization, but curious if reducing generational loss is another benefit of this.
FWIW, I'm using a Scarlett 2i4 for an ADC, and a Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus for a DAC. (along with various turntables and amplifiers/phono pre-amps).
Thanks