Problems with early digital recording technology
Many of the criticisms levied against digital sound reproduction stem from the early days of the technology, where limitations in real-world implementations meant actual digital recording and playback sometimes fell short of the theoretical performance possible, but the situation has improved since. Analog sound reproduction was already a mature technology when digital recording and compact discs first appeared. First-generation digital recording and reproduction equipment suffered from the inevitable teething troubles of a relatively immature technology. Audio professionals also needed some time to build a body of knowledge, as analog techniques could not always be directly transposed to the new digital medium.
Much progress has been made since. Progress in electronics and economies of scale from mass production of CD platers led to improvements in
Digital to analog converter technology. Professional digital recording equipment correspondingly improved.
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Was it ever entirely analog or digital?
Complicating the discussion is that recording professionals often mix and match analog and digital techniques in the process of producing a recording. Analog signals can be subjected to digital signal processing or effects, and inversely digital signals are converted back to analog in equipment that can include analog steps such as vacuum tube amplification.
For modern recordings, the controversy between analog recording and digital recording is becoming moot. No matter what format the user uses, the recording probably was digital at several stages in its life. In case of
video recordings it is moot for one other reason; whether the format is analog or digital, digital signal processing is likely to have been used in some stages of its life, such as digital
timebase correction on playback.
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See also