Can You Tell The Difference Between Analog And Digital Synths? (Study)

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Do analog synths really sound better than digital synths? Frankly there is definitely a difference between a perfectly clean digital signal and an analog signal that might have random deviations or more harmonics. The question is how much those differences matter and how well they can be replicated digitally.

So I prepared a small blind test with samples from regular digital synths, digital synths that where designed to sound like analog synths and actual analog synths to test how big the difference between analog and digital synths really is.

For everybody who isnt familliar with the difference between analog and digital, it is often claimed that digital synths sound more thin, too precise, cold and too perfect (sterile) with steppy modulation while analog sounds are imperfect, have rich overtones, almost turbulence like, feel alive, have warmth and analog artifacts, have more character and colour and are just better compared to software. (links to sources are in the google forms page)

Thanks a lot for participating! I hope I can get like 500 submitions maybe, so I can draw an actual result from the data I collected with a low standard deviation. If I do, I'll do a follow up covering the results, I think that would be genuinly interesting!

Consider that the amount of points you get on average when you blindly guess all the questions is 8.333 ± 1.625, meaning if you get between 6 and 11 points, you probably aren't able to tell the difference between sounds from analog synthesizers vs sounds from digital synthesizers.



Some more things I want to answer before someone asks them:

1. To create the Analog Sine waves, I used Filter Self Oscillation.

2. The 2 Analog Synths I used in the first part where the Behringer Deepmind 12 and the Arturia Minibrute 2s. I may or may not have used other synths in the second part. (If you noticed somthing "interesting" in this part you are very smart. Pls dont tell the others yet, its part of the study and I'll reveal it in the next video)

3. All sounds, both the analog and the digital ones are completely dry, with no effects like reverb or delay on them.

4. My Biases: I personally believe that its rarely a good investment to buy a hardware synth because of the sound. Although I do believe that there is a difference between real analog synths and digital synths that emulate analog synths, I dont think its noticable enough that humans can hear it without refernce (see point 5). I do believe that there is a very noticable difference between analog synths and digital synths that dont mimic analog synths. I tried my best to not let my biases influence the design of this study.

5. A lot of analog vs digital blind tests I've seen worked like this: Hear analog synth - hear digital synth - close eyes - hear both synths in random order - guess which is which - see if you were right. Imo this version doesnt make a lot of sense, because the only thing it proves is, that there is a difference between the sounds. However this doesnt have anything to do with whether there is anything that differentiates analog synths from digital ones, because you heard beforehand which is which. If there truly is anything that is different in analog and digital synths (that is noticable), people should be able to tell which one is the analog synth without having a reference before.

6. I used a Behringer UB2222FX-Pro, Arturia Minifuse 2 and Image Lines Edison (32bit, 44.1kHz) to record the audio.

7. If you have any critisism or question, leave them in the comment section below. I read EVERY comment.