Years ago when consumer digital tape machines first came onto the market, such as the ADAT and Tascam digital tape machines, people noticed that digital recordings sounded harsh when compared to recordings done on analog tape machines. This was due to a high degree of "jitter" in the audio signal while being converted from analog to digital during the tracking process, and then from digital to analog in order to hear the sound through audio monitors. In order to have clean and smooth sounding audio from digital sources without the harsh characteristics of sound, whether it be from digital tape or digital hard drive recording media, you have to have solid digital synchronization in order to minimize jitter in the signal during the a/d and d/a conversions. In the early days of digital recording, digital synchronization technology was in its infancy. As time went on companies who produced digital recording machines were able to implement better digital synchronization with lower jitter, though it was less than being totally sufficient.

       Aardvark was one of the first companies to come out with a quality digital synchronization device (Aardsync) that would bring digital jitter down to a low and acceptable level where you would not hear the typical digital artifacts such as the usual harshness and other negative characteristics that could be perceived as distortion on notes at certain frequencies, even though there was no distortion in the signal. Synchronization devices, such as the Aardsync, have multiple digital outs in order to connect to all digital devices that one may have in a studio, because if you are using multiple devices such as several computers, outboard digital effects processors such as reverbs, eq's, etc., and a/d and d/a converter units, it is absolutely essential that you have all of these devices synced together from the same synchronization device, or you will have all of the artifacts of digital harshness and distortion in your music audio.

       For people who don't have multiple digital devices in their studio setups, having a master synchronization device is not necessary. There are several issues relating to digital synchronization that need to be addressed in order to have the best quality in audio music. There are many people who are Syncing their studio computers to consumer grade internal PCI sound cards. Many consumer grade audio PCI cards with digital and/or analog ins and outs have poor quality digital synchronization. Consumer grade break out boxes that connect to some consumer grade PCI audio cards have better quality digital synchronization than what is available on the card, but the quality of digital synchronization from these consumer grade break out boxes in even the best scenario is very average. High quality digital synchronization is found on quality PCI audio cards and A/D and D/A converter units, such as Lynx Studio PCI audio cards, Benchmark analog to digital and digital to analog converter units, RME ADI-96 PRO, Apogee, DB, Mytek, and Prism. Benchmark digital converter units with their superior world class technology provide the very highest A/D and D/A conversions and the lowest level of jitter for digital synchronization of any A/D and D/A converter products in the world, and cost considerably less than other professional grade A/D and D/A converter units previously mentioned. Using only an internal PCI audio card for A/D and D/A conversions and digital synchronization, Lynx Studio PCI audio cards by far provide the highest quality A/D and D/A conversions and digital synchronization of any PCI audio card available without the use of an external A/D and D/A converter unit.

       When syncing audio computers to an external source and using high quality A/D and D/A converters, such as Benchmark converter units, the quality of digital audio is most significantly and dramatically improved. The difference in sound quality you hear is not at all subtle! It is a huge night and day difference that you are instantly able to hear even without close critical listening. You do get what you pay for when you purchase Benchmark converters, which are the highest quality converter units in the world. Listen to recordings with other "leading name" converter units and then record the same instruments and music with Benchmark converters, you will hear significantly more definition, clarity, and stereo and surround imaging, with no harsh sounds at all frequency levels of low, middle, and high. You will never want to go back to using other hardware converter units which will now sound harsh and lack the definition, clarity and smoothness of Benchmark.

       All music audio sounds significantly better when you have quality digital synchronization. When using sampled musical instruments as many of us do, pure and clean sounding sampled musical instruments that have not been filtered or have had some of the higher frequencies removed, really sound much better with solid digital synchronization. Some people will comment that certain sampled instruments sound smoother, while other sampled instruments sound more harsh and perceive certain frequencies as sounding distorted. Sampled instruments or any other recorded music audio that has been filtered and had certain frequencies removed with EQ do not sound nearly as bad with poor quality digital synchronization, because the frequencies that are most affected in a negative way with poor digital synchronization have been removed with filters and EQ. Applying excessive filters and EQ do remove a great deal of life and character from instruments, and will make them sound rather bland with more of the characteristics of synth instruments. Synth instruments are not affected nearly as much in a negative way with poor quality digital synchronization as live recorded instruments or sampled instruments that have NOT been processed with filters, noise reduction, and eq. All sampled instruments produced by Bardstown Audio are of the very highest quality of any sampled instruments in the world, and have not been filtered or processed with noise reduction because the highest level of professional recording and editing techniques were used in order to insure that no negative artifacts or unwanted noise would be present in the samples of Bardstown Audio sampled instruments. The only other sampled instrument library developers who produce sampled instruments of the very highest quality, other than Kip McGinnis of Bardstown Audio, are Dan Dean of Dan Dean Pro, Herb Tucmandl of VSL (Vienna Symphonic Library), Ernest Cholakis of Numerical Sound, Thomas Skarbye of Scarbee Instruments, and Donnie Christian and Sean Lane of DS Soundware.

       Further elaborating on digital synchronization for sampled musical instruments, low quality digital synchronization will definitely make various frequencies not sound very pleasing. Once people upgrade their means of digital synchronization, they immediately notice a significant improvement, and also certain frequencies on certain sampled instruments that they thought sounded questionable now sound beautiful. In many situations people are able to get better quality digital synchronization with the equipment they already own. It is a simple matter of connecting the right cables correctly and setting their synchronization on their driver window for their audio hardware correctly. If you have your internal audio PCI card set to "internal" for synchronization, your music audio will not sound very good as it will when you set your synchronization to an outside device, whether it be from a consumer breakout box or an external converter unit. If you are unsure about your computer audio hardware setup, it would be an excellent idea to call the tech support of the company that manufactured your audio hardware and have them go through your setup with your cable connections and hardware driver settings.

       If you were to look at a live audio wave form on a scope with poor quality digital synchronization, you will see very erratic and irregular movements of the wave. With quality digital synchronization this same wave form is much smoother when viewed on a scope. With a sample rate of 44100, the wave vibrates 44,100 times per second. With quality synchronization this wave vibrates at a very even and consistent rate of 44,100 times per second. With poor quality synchronization this same wave does not vibrate consistently and evenly. This is the same principle as an irregular heart beat, as opposed to a normal beating heart.

       With quality digital synchronization you will experience many significant benefits. Music audio sounds much smoother without sounding harsh and hearing perceived distortion on certain frequencies. You hear much more definition and clarity in your music audio, and you hear much better stereo imaging. Your mastered CD's will sound much better as well.

       There are two more points I would like to make. If you are recording digital audio from another digital audio source such as digital audio wave files of sampled instruments or other pre-recorded digital music audio, the actual digital data in the transfer of audio is not affected by having either good or poor quality digital synchronization because you are basically transferring ones and zeros. In this particular situation, digital synchronization is not critical, BUT when you play back and listen, mix, apply effects, and master CD's, quality digital synchronization is extremely important. When people finally do connect to a quality digital synchronization source and listen to their previously recorded sampled musical instrument tracks that were recorded while using a lower quality means of digital synchronization, they immediately notice a significant improvement in the quality of sound of these same sampled instrument audio tracks.

       One final point.. when recording live instruments it is absolutely essential to have the best quality A/D converters and digital synchronization possible because adding good quality digital synchronization at a later time to music audio that was previously recorded with poor quality A/D converters and synchronization will not provide much of a fix.