I seriously appreciate creators who just get to the point and don't make people sit through annoying intros. I've gotten so used to having to fast forward through the early part of a video that it feels weird not having to do that.

There's just nobody out there consistantly producing easily understandable yet concise videos like this channel. So good.

This is great, but I wish you played the audio for all of the distortion examples. It would have helped strengthen the argument and would have taught us more if we could actually hear what you were talking about.

This actually explains a complex topic VERY clearly, plainly, and utilized excellent examples… thank you! 👍🏻👍🏻

I just had to pause your discourse to say that, I have never heard a better discussion of "analog-versus-digital" sound recording and production. Ever. Thank you !!

2:31 This reminds me of the case of making Swiss cheese with modern technology and sealed sterile environment, only to find out that because of the lack of environmental imperfections, the cheese won't form its characteristic holes that were caused by dust. So they started introducing hay powder into the process to get them back.

Audio gear designer here. Great presentation, could not find any conceptual errors, which is incredible when dealing with a quite complicated subject!

If you plan on doing a follow up video, I recommend you dig more on the time-domain aspect. In good analog design’s we achieve limiting by using a diode at the output of a high impedance stage. This produces that harmonic content that you describe as ‘starting way before the clipping level’. Looking at it on an oscilloscope you see that the since wave starts flattening gradually. You do this on a ADC and you will see a squearish wave as soon as you get to the clipping threshold.

Another intuitive thing to look on a scope (aka time-domain) is how analog circuits generate even order distortion. In general class A amplifiers have even order distortion, that’s why tube amps have a very warm sound. Even order distortion is produced when the upper and lower halves of a sine wave are asymmetrical.

Digital processing is of correction symmetrical in nature, so it has odd order distortion (aka when the upper and lower sides of the sine wave are clipped exactly equally.

A nice trick to generate even order harmonics with transformers is to inject a DC bias into them. This has been the Nieve secret for decades!

Finally analyzing phase is a topic that deserves its episode.

Looking forward to more content like this. Don’t hesitate to contact if you want to discuss any of these topics further.

as someone with an electrical engineering background, this is the only video that accurately discusses the actual differences in analog vs digital. Bravo!

I have been having troubles getting my own computer built, but the main reason i have it is so that i can make muisc. The back to basics video was extremely helpful. Thank you guys in advance for the excellent lessons!

Eagerly expecting 😁 🙏

8:02 That's actually a helpful explanation of FM synthesis.

Level matching is a must...
It's so hard to not be fooled by level increasing...

MAN that was cool! when those harmonics showed up on the screen from the recorded audio being pushed past the limit of the equipment i screamed lmao. MAN that is so cool! harmonics are everywhere!!!

Great video! Being a professional audio engineer hailing from the days of analog tape, I can tell you that sometimes we didn't always like "the non-linearness" that came with it. The first time that I ever used a Alesis ADAT, I was very impressed with the fact that the output sounded identical to the input. But, there was a time when just the thought of having to use a plug-in just made me wince. Since then, digital recording has made exponential strides. Nowadays I don't think twice about using plug-ins. And you're dead on about distortion; I  have more saturation, distortion and transformer emulations than I  can count! Thank you.

Always a great day when audio University and Kyle post a video 🔥 such a great idea to go into depth about this topic I feel like most people just tell you the difference but never actually explain why they distort differently

*this is going to be a genuine comment*

Brother.. I seriously doubt there is another video out there that explains this this perfectly.. Yours is the 2nd video in my search, but sometimes you just know that you hit the jackpot.

And I dont really need another video. You perfectly laid it out, and showed us whats actually going on with the sound.

Now I (really-really) understand what's happening whenever I'm applying some "glow/saturation" to my mixing and mastering.

Awesome video! People should also understand that louder doesn’t mean better. It’s like people try and make a mix as loud as possible which isn’t always a good thing

Nice explanation

Thank you for this absolute masterclass of an explaner vid on this topic. Truly worthy of the university brand, Well made! 🔊😃

This is THE MOST VALUABLE advice I've ever heard in my life..

Thanks so much Brother 😎💪👌