Re: [LAU] About Algorithms

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 10:54 PM, Paul Davis <paul@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 6:03 PM, Folderol <folderol@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
>
>>> Isn't all this "A+B=C" stuff (or A*x+B*y=C as one person stated)
>>> actually begging the question a bit?  Are we certain that every DAW
>>> implements their mixer that way?  Isn't it possible that some might
>>> try to model analog mixers to some degree?
>>>
>>> I'm not arguing either way; I have no clue.
>>
>> I think you'll find that fundamentally an analogue mixer *is* A+B=C
>
> precisely.
>
> the "magic" in analog circuits does not come from the way it adds two
> in-range voltages, which is precisely as stated above. take 0.1V, add
> 0.18V, get 0.28V. it really is that simple (we're ignoring temporal
> effects that are similar for actual air pressure waves and thus not
> relevant to a discussion of artifacts caused by recording and
> playback).
>
> the magic comes, to the extent that its actually magic (let alone
> actually desirable) from the way it does more complex processing, such
> as compression, limiting and EQ, and also the way that some media will
> store the result when C is "out of range". even these can be
> replicated to any arbitrary accuracy if you're willing to spend the
> CPU cycles on it.

I agree with all this; my point is that it would possible, since a DAW
is a software version of a mixer AND tape deck, to model some of that
"magic" in the mixer.

When you connect a multi-track tape deck's outputs to the track inputs
of a mixing desk, don't the signals pass through all that complex
processing? Therefore, a plausible DAW implementation could attempt
to do something more than A+B=C.

Again, I don't claim that any DAW does this. I'm just surprised at
how adamantly people sound like they're saying it's not even possible.
 It would be interesting to test it (though, as previsouly stated, the
people who make these claims never seem too interesting in attempting
to verify them).

Just playing devil's advocate I guess...
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Received on Wed Jul 20 04:15:01 2011