# Analog sound sources, then digital, what's next? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2007, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277 "2007-11-30T04:25:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/1 "2007-11-30T04:25:17Z")
The early develovment of the supply of sound sources (records, radio, films, TV) utilized an analog transmission of the sound source. Then, with CD’s, satellite radio, etc. the source of sound was digitally encoded and transmitted. That technology has been around awhile. Is there anything that is a technical revolution beyond that which will replace digital sound? What could it possibly be? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/2 "2007-11-30T04:27:12Z")
There isn’t anything else. You can have improved digital or improved analog; that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/3 "2007-11-30T04:30:15Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] There isn’t anything else. You can have improved digital or improved analog; that’s about it. [/QUOTE] Are you sure? At one time, after candles and light bulbs, lasers were beyond science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/4 "2007-11-30T04:41:58Z")
Yes, I’m sure. Analog and digital are broad categories, which together span the entire range of methods by which data can be stored and retrieved. Broadly, analog data is a continuously varying signal, while digital data is composed of discrete units encoded by numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/5 "2007-11-30T04:44:01Z")
[QUOTE=Spartydog] Are you sure? At one time, after candles and light bulbs, lasers were beyond science fiction. [/QUOTE] Either your signal is the actual waveform (analog) or it’s some codification of the waveform into a stream of bits (digital). You can change the medium in which the signal travels, or the manner in which it’s encoded, or any number of other things, but it will still be either analog or digital. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/6 "2007-11-30T11:16:37Z")
Then could analog processing be improved upon enough in some application that it might make a comeback. What might that be? Are there apps today that haven"t been didgetized? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/7 "2007-11-30T11:40:15Z")
It’s concievable that we might invent some kind of highly advanced analogue computers in the future - dealing natively with continuously variable (or nearly so) values, rather than ones and zeroes - I don’t know if anyone is actually trying that, or if it’s even worthwhile (maybe in the context of neural net processing or something). ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/8 "2007-11-30T11:44:48Z")
Quantum. The answer to these nearly meaningless questions is always ‘quantum’. Of course, quantum computing is still digital so it can’t come after digital. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/9 "2007-11-30T12:03:24Z")
Ethereal? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/10 "2007-11-30T12:26:33Z")
Imaginary. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/11 "2007-11-30T13:24:53Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] There isn’t anything else. You can have improved digital or improved analog; that’s about it. [/QUOTE] Fuzzy? It’s not really a one or a zero. . . ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/12 "2007-11-30T13:51:22Z")
[QUOTE=TokyoPlayer] Fuzzy? It’s not really a one or a zero. . . [/QUOTE] Or fuzzy quantum! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/13 "2007-11-30T14:14:36Z")
There are different types of digital encoding however. For example, there is [FM synthesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_modulation_synthesis) that was developed in the early days of synthesizers. It enabled synths to store sounds using very little memory. People scoffed. The usual “It’ll never work, there are too few bits.” stuff. But it sounded awfully good and it was a hit. Way too many people are brain dead from thinking the FFT is the end-all of wave analysis. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/14 "2007-11-30T14:15:03Z")
DTB (direct to brain) technology bypasses the mechanical apparatus of the ears, and fires the auditory neurons in perfect synchrony with the incoming signal. Implementation is [pretty kludgey right now](http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel5/7173/19317/00893500.pdf), but give it 50 years and we’ll all be wondering why we ever messed around with ‘amplifiers’, ‘speakers’ and ‘earphones’. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/15 "2007-11-30T14:23:26Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] DTB (direct to brain) technology bypasses the mechanical apparatus of the ears, and fires the auditory neurons in perfect synchrony with the incoming signal. [/QUOTE] But that’s analog. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/16 "2007-11-30T14:29:31Z")
[QUOTE=Derleth] But that’s analog. [/QUOTE] Depends how much of our brains are still meatware at that point. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/17 "2007-11-30T20:28:07Z")
[QUOTE=Derleth] Quantum. The answer to these nearly meaningless questions is always ‘quantum’. Of course, quantum computing is still digital so it can’t come after digital. [/QUOTE] I was going to toss this in as a quip as well, but actually seeing it makes me think, “Yeah, quantum. Or string…” Something in which the visual/audible/tactile/olfact…ible signal is produced and stored in a time space envelope, a quantum twin of which can be accessed and retreived. The original signal would not be reproduced, but actually experienced. I should get the patent paperwork going on this! ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/18 "2007-11-30T20:35:51Z")
I asked a similar question here a while ago and it got lots of outstanding replies. I think I will try to find it. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/19 "2007-11-30T20:41:16Z")
Do Compact Disks have the capability to reproduce sound perfectly? [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=277193&highlight=reproduce](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=277193&highlight=reproduce) ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277/20 "2007-11-30T20:47:19Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar] Or fuzzy quantum! [/QUOTE] What is that? Not really one or zero for very, very, very, very, very small values of not really one or zero? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/analog-sound-sources-then-digital-whats-next/428277.md?page=2)