question: Once we are able to 3d print records (vinyl) will it be digital or analog?
comment: Analog. There's nothing digital about the records themselves beyond the fact that a digital file was used to print the record. Which is a pretty inefficient and expensive way to make a record. It's no more digital than vinyl records produced today being initially made from audio tracks recorded digitally.
passages: Early digital audio machines had disappointing results, with digital converters introducing errors that the ear could detect. Record companies released their first LPs based on digital audio masters in the late 1970s. CDs became available in the early 1980s. At this time analog sound reproduction was a mature technology.
   BULLET::::- 2010: The Lost Atlanta Tapes – Piano Red, Landslide Records
  
  BULLET::::- 2011: Ain't No Grave: The Life and Legacy of Brother Claude Ely, Various, Dust-to-Digital
  
  BULLET::::- 2011: Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure 78s from the Thai Countryside - Various, Parlortone/Dust-to-Digital
  
  BULLET::::- 2011: Never a Pal Like Mother: Vintage Songs & Photographs of the One Who's Always True - Various, Dust-to-Digital
  
  BULLET::::- 2011: Funky Rob Way - Rob, Analog Africa
  
  BULLET::::- 2011: ...i listen to the wind that obliterates my traces: music in vernacular photographs 1880-1955 – Various, Dust-to-Digital
   BULLET::::- October 12, 1979: Fleetwood Mac's Tusk (album) is released. It, and Live (Fleetwood Mac album), December 8, 1980, were mastered on the Soundstream PCM from analog multi-tracks.
  
  BULLET::::- 1980: The Red Book standard (44.1kHz, 16-bit) is established for Compact Disc Digital Audio.
  
  BULLET::::- 1980: Mitsubishi Electric introduces the X-80 ProDigi open reel 1/4" tape 15 ips 50.4kHz 16-bit digital recorder ($5000). Only 200 are sold worldwide.
   Section::::Sound quality.:Analog warmth.
  
  Some audio enthusiasts prefer the sound of vinyl records over that of a CD. Founder and editor Harry Pearson of "The Absolute Sound" journal says that "LPs are decisively more musical. CDs drain the soul from music. The emotional involvement disappears". Dub producer Adrian Sherwood has similar feelings about the analog cassette tape, which he prefers because of its warm sound.
   While vinyl records and common compact cassettes are analog media and use quasi-linear physical encoding methods (e.g. spiral groove depth, tape magnetic field strength) without noticeable quantization or aliasing, there are "analog" non-linear systems that exhibit effects similar to those encountered on digital ones, such as aliasing and "hard" dynamic floors (e.g. frequency modulated hi-fi audio on videotapes, PWM encoded signals).
   There was a mixed critical response to early digital recordings released on CD. Compared to vinyl record, it was noticed that CD was far more revealing of the acoustics and ambient background noise of the recording environment. For this reason, recording techniques developed for analog disc, e.g., microphone placement, needed to be adapted to suit the new digital format.
   In May of 2019, at the Making Vinyl conference in Berlin, Günter unveiled the Perfect Groove software for creating 3D topographic audio data files. This is a critical step in the production of HD Vinyl stampers, as they provide the map for subsequent laser-engraving. The audio engineering software was created with mastering engineers Scott Hull and Darcy Proper, a four-time Grammy winner. The demonstration offered the first simulations of what HD Vinyl records are likely to sound like, ahead of actual HD vinyl physical record production. Günter discussed the Perfect Groove software at a presentation titled “Vinyl 4.0 The next generation of making records” before offering demonstrations to attendees.
   Section::::History.
  
  An audio engineer, Tom Jung co-founded the recording studio Sound 80 in Minneapolis in 1969. By 1977, the studio was making digital recordings with a prototype of a recorder from 3M. Jung was attracted to digital recording in part by the desire to reduce the noise created by recording in analog. Digital could eliminate wow and flutter. In 1979, he got a job offer and moved with his family to New York City. He worked as a freelance engineer, recording albums, commercials, and soundtracks. Some of the musicians he encountered wound up on the roster of DMP.
   Vinyl records, or long playing (LP) records, have become popular again as a way to consume music despite the rise of digital media. Over 15 thousand units were sold between 2008 and 2012, their sales reaching the highest level in 2012 since 1993. Popular artists have begun releasing their albums on vinyl, and stores such as Urban Outfitters and Whole Foods have started selling them. Popular music corporations, such as Sony, have started manufacturing LP for the first time since 1989 as this medium becomes more popular. However, some companies are facing production problems as there are only 16 record plants currently functioning in the United States. 
   Audio media offers a rich source of historic ethnographic information, with the earliest forms of recorded sound dating back to 1890. According to the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), these sources of audio data, as well as the aging technologies used to play them back, are in imminent danger of permanent loss due to degradation and obsolescence. These primary sources are called “carriers” and exist in a variety of formats, including wax cylinders, magnetic tape, and flat discs of grooved media, among others. Some formats are susceptible to more severe, or quicker, degradation than others. For instance, lacquer discs suffer from delamination. Analog tape may deteriorate due to sticky shed syndrome. 
   BULLET::::- More advanced stylus tip shapes (Shibata, Van den Hul, MicroLine, etc.)
  
  BULLET::::- Direct Metal Mastering
  
  BULLET::::- Noise-reduction (CX encoding, dbx encoding), starting from 1973
   On 8 November 2018, Rough Trade announced the availability of vinyl LP and CD versions of "I Trawl the Megahertz", including a white vinyl special edition of 1000 copies. On the same day, Sony Music announced the release under their "Legacy" brand. 
   BULLET::::- 1976: the prototype Soundstream 37.5kHz, 16-bit, 2-channel recorder is used to record the Santa Fe Opera performing Virgil Thomson's opera "The Mother of Us All" for New World Records, making it the first US digital recording. However, the digital recorder is just a backup to the main analog multi-track recorder, and the analog recording is deemed superior and thus used for the LP release. The backup digital tape was presented at the October 1976 AES Convention in New York, but never commercially released.
   BULLET::::- September 5, 1982: Peter Gabriel releases his fourth studio album (titled "Security" in North America and "Peter Gabriel IV" elsewhere). When released on CD in October 1984 it becomes the first full-digital DDD release. It was recorded on Sony's Mobile One digital studio and mixed with a Sony PCM-1610.
  
  BULLET::::- October 1, 1982: "The Nightfly" by Donald Fagen is released, recorded and mixed on 3M's 32-track recorder. When the CD is issued in 1984 it becomes another early DDD release.
   In June 2017, Sony Music announced that by March 2018 it would be producing vinyl records in-house for the first time since ceasing its production in 1989. Reporting the decision, the BBC noted that, "Sony's move comes a few months after it equipped its Tokyo studio with a cutting lathe, used to produce the master discs needed for manufacturing vinyl records" but added that "Sony is even struggling to find older engineers who know how to make records".
  
  Section::::History.
  
  Section::::History.:In Canada and the United States.
   Section::::Analog recordings.
   As a special release for Record Store Day 2011, Capitol re-released The Beach Boys single "Good Vibrations" in the form of a 10-inch 78 rpm record (b/w "Heroes and Villains"). More recently, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band has released their tribute to blues guitarist Charley Patton "Peyton on Patton" on both 12-inch LP and 10-inch 78 rpm. Both are accompanied with a link to a digital download of the music, acknowledging the probability that purchasers might be unable to play the vinyl recording.
  
  Section::::New sizes and materials.
   BULLET::::- The company RCA Victor presents to the public the first real LP record, the 35 cm diameter and 33.33 RPM give sufficient playing time for an entire orchestral work. But the new turntables are initially so expensive that they are only gain broad acceptance after the Second World War - then as vinyl record.
  
  BULLET::::- The French physicist René Barthélemy leads in Paris the first public television with clay before. The BBC launches first Tonversuche in the UK.
   Section::::Dynamic range.
  
  The dynamic range of an audio system is a measure of the difference between the smallest and largest amplitude values that can be represented in a medium. Digital and analog differ in both the methods of transfer and storage, as well as the behavior exhibited by the systems due to these methods.
   Section::::Noise.:Wow and flutter.
   BULLET::::- 2012 - Digital Sound Factory releases Native Instruments Kontakt Sound Expansions. Featured products are the E-MU Systems Proteus Pack, Ensoniq ASR, Performance Synthesizers, Yamaha Concert Grand Pianos, and Steinway Grand Piano.
  
  BULLET::::- 2013 - Digital Sound Factory endorsed by Mason & Hamlin Piano company to sample and reproduce the CC 9'2" Concert Grand Piano in digital format.
   Although those "hybrid" techniques are usually more common in telecommunications systems than in consumer audio, their existence alone blurs the distinctive line between certain digital and analog systems, at least for what regards some of their alleged advantages or disadvantages.
  
  There are many benefits to using digital recording over analog recording because “numbers are more easily manipulated than are grooves on a record or magnetized particles on a tape”. Because numerical coding represents the sound waves perfectly, the sound can be played back without background noise.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Audiophile
  
  BULLET::::- Audio quality measurement
  
  BULLET::::- Audio system measurements
   Analog systems are not subject to a Nyquist limit or aliasing and thus do not require anti-aliasing filters or any of the design considerations associated with them.
  
  Section::::Sampling rates.
   As of 2017, 48 vinyl record pressing facilities remain worldwide, 18 in the United States and 30 in other countries. The increased popularity of vinyl has led to the investment in new and modern record-pressing machines. Only two producers of lacquers (acetate discs) remain: Apollo Masters in California, and MDC in Japan.
   With digital systems, the quality of reproduction depends on the analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion steps, and does not depend on the quality of the recording medium, provided it is adequate to retain the digital values without error. Digital mediums capable of bit-perfect storage and retrieval have been commonplace for some time, since they were generally developed for software storage which has no tolerance for error.
  
presuppositions: 3D prints have a fairly equal probability of being digital or analog.
corrections: Digital records are very inefficient and expensive, therefore they are not being produced anymore as they've been in the past.
raw_presuppositions: 3D prints have a fairly equal probability of being digital or analog. 3D printing a record changes it from analog to digital.
raw_corrections: Digital records are very inefficient and expensive, therefore they are not being produced anymore as they've been in the past. A record will always be analog regardless of how it is created.