Vol. I No. 1

Talking Heads is a band whose career illustrates and reflects the significance of the transition to digital audio processing in the recording industry.

From their first album through Speaking in Tongues we hear a band with great passion, authenticity, and creative self-fulfillment. Suddenly with Little Creatures we hear a methodical quality. We hear a band that had gone from 'pushing the envelope' to a pedantic or condescending school-teacherishness. This band has gone from enthusiasm to a bored and boring pretentiousness.

I attribute this to the advent of digital audio processing in the studio. Consider how the advent of digital audio is reflected in the career of the Clash. This band's last album, Combat Rock, was made just before digital processing had overwhelmed the industry.

I loved the next thing I heard from Mick Jones, The Big Audio Dynamite LP, but to me it reflects digital processing in its lack of the passion and wildness of Combat Rock and the Clash's other, earlier records.

This may be a good time to point out that it should come as no surprise that a digitally-processed song will very frequently 'sound better' than an all-analog production due to the fact that the digitalized material is nothing more than a sketchy, non-infinite extract of the original sound and, for that reason, it is a much simpler matter to control and manage the tonal balance of the final playback output.

Remember that in the case of all-analog audio, you are dealing with an infinite non-discontinuous 'echo' of the original sound, which, because of its tonal richness, can be difficult to play back with a perfectly pleasing tonal balance. A multi-band graphic equalizer is highly recommended for those seeking to enjoy all-analog audio to the very fullest extent.