Pro Sound Web: How fast do sound signals travel through the various parts of the sound system? Do sound signals travel faster in analog snake cables or fiber optic cables? Also, what about transmission through the air with wireless mics? And where do the true and relevant sources of time lag exist in a audio system?
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This summer at Santa Fe Opera we ran into the issue of digital delay in playback systems and it became very difficult to describe the physics of where the delay was happening in the system to the Maestro. Also the amount of discrete digital technology within a system will compound this problem and as each component of a system has a digital delay we will run into major issues dealing with the system design. This summer we also really had an issue with the digital delay of video monitors. There is a barely detectible delay in LCD and LED monitors even in the most advanced ones which in opera can cause problems with Maestro cues to the performer. Plasma and CRT are the only video monitoring technology that we could find that did not have the delay.
I think that this is a very insightful and eye opening (or should I say ear opening) post. I often find my self and people who I know falling in the trap of thinking that The newest technology is the best. This post is a counter point to that way of thinking. The analog system is faster then the digital one. Of course that's not to say that analog is always better then digital. Digital sound systems have many potabilitys that analog does not. But it does demonstrate that digital has it's down sides as well and that the older tech still can hold strong in some areas.
This was really and interesting article about sound. I didn't realized analogue and digital had such a delay difference. Also if someone were to have asked me before this article how delay's worked I would have figured that digital would have less of a delay. you would think because digital is so new and popular that it would be faster but I get that since it has to change from waves to electrical current that it would have a lag.
Digital is largely though to be superior to analog technology, but this article does a good job of pointing out why this is not always the case. Delay time through a system is not something one often thinks about, but it becomes vital when you enter the realm of large audio systems. I hadn’t realized until recently the enormous difference between digital and analog sound, and what it means for those who work with it. Analog systems deal with the electronic signals that are a direct result of a sound wave. With analog, you are working with the actual sound. Digital sound is not a direct representation of sound. Without various conversion processes the ones and zeroes that make up digital sound mean nothing. Digital sound introduces lots of exciting variables, delay included, that were never a concern in an analog world.
I have to say, I always enjoy reading whatever Dave Rat has to say. He has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to live sound reinforcement, and always presents things in a really easy to follow way. When it comes to analog and digital sound technology, it seems like we are caught in the middle of the transitional period between the two. There are multitudes of benefits that the digital technology provides, yet there clearly are some drawbacks as well, as proven in this article. There are some things, such as delay times, that the technology behind digital audio components needs to be more advanced in before digital can quantitatively be better than analog in all aspects. It will be interesting to see just how far digital technology in the world of sound reinforcement will go.
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