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Digital summing saturation = myth?

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Hanjong Ko:
I know that this issue has been discussed to death all over many forums, and always thought that it was a myth.  That digital summing is just summing of numbers.  However, there are also many people who believe in this theory of lots of tracks will saturate digital bus and cause degradation of audio quality), even many professionals.  Could someone PLEASE explain why this is a myth or not?

Thanks and please no bullshit.

compasspnt:
I can't "do the match," but I personally think there *might* be a little something to it.

I do believe that any "digital problems" can be mitigated, and to a large extent, by keeping levels reasonably lower.

If you haven't yet, do read the "DAW...Desks" Sticky thread here above, and the "Digital tracking...low levels" Sticky at the top of Whatever Works.

This all leads me to believe, again not from mathematical expertise, but rather from empirical observation, that numbers are intrinsically involved.

I would venture to *guess* therefore that, the more tracks you have, the lower the levels should actually be...?

Hanjong Ko:
Hmm I wonder if anyone actually knows.  I had an ironic experience when testing power cables.  I thought they weren't supposed to make much difference in sound theoretically(not sure if this is valid tho), my experience differed.  I found them not to be transparent so I came back to cheap power cables, but I am really curious.

Andy Peters:
Hanjong Ko wrote on Fri, 27 February 2009 06:24
I know that this issue has been discussed to death all over many forums, and always thought that it was a myth.  That digital summing is just summing of numbers.  However, there are also many people who believe in this theory of lots of tracks will saturate digital bus and cause degradation of audio quality), even many professionals.  Could someone PLEASE explain why this is a myth or not?


Of course digital summing can overload, in the same way an analog mix bus overloads -- too much signal.

You can overload an analog summing bus by mixing lots of tracks too.

Now the smart DSP engineer can ensure that a digital mix bus does not overload for a reasonable number of tracks by appropriate scaling and such. But the smart analog circuit engineer can ensure that an analog mix bus does not overload for a reasonable number of tracks by appropriate scaling and such.

If the person mixing insists on running a hundred tracks, each at Full Tilt Boogie, the mix bus will overload. Regardless of whether the mix is digital or analog. And both will sound like ass.

-a

Hanjong Ko:
So regardless of how many tracks are used on a digital bus, as long as not clipping, there isn't quality loss?  Because there are people who says "When you mix digitally in your PC, you can lose information and sound quality."  I am actually quoting that from Dangerous 2-BUS product overview on their website.

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