One of the most useful tools digital technology has given artists is it's ability to manipulate sound with an unparalleled ease. Effects like reverb, echo, flanging, phasing, and chorusing are easily created inside of small guitar stomp-boxes for less than $100, for example. Though most effects were 'discovered' or 'invented' in the analog domain, some would be impossible for the common musician to use - to get a reverb the size of a church, you'd have to rent out a church; to 'flange' a guitar solo, you'd need a reel-to-reel tape deck that you can manually distort the speed with; a plate reverb is encased in a hulking metal box about 4' x 6'. Digital versions of these effects are cheaper, smaller, and more reliable than their analog counterparts.

Digital technology has also allowed us to expand a bit beyond the analog-effects world; it's enabled engineers to create brand-new effects that artists have asked for for years, but would be impossible in the analog world. Effects like pitch shifting and harmonizing, digital delay, variable and unreal reverbs (reverberant spaces that wouldn't exist in the real world), time compression and expansion, are purely digital creations.

The analog world was responsible for the invention of many of the effects and sound-altering devices we use today, and in fact sometimes they're better sounding than their digital counterparts. Important devices like compressors, expanders, and equalizers, which are more commonly found in the recording studio, are essential tools that sound designers use. Though the digital versions of these tools are technically superior and more reliable, there is something to be said for the unexpected 'warmth' or 'punch' from an analog compressor that a digital counterpart wouldn't have. Most major recording studios still stand by their old, and sometimes clunky, unreliable, and sometimes even unrepairable analog effects equipment - studio engineers can't find anything that sound like it does. Digital engineers have taken this to heart, however; the next great challenge for manufacturers is the emulation of this old equipment...

The representation of audio and sound by digital coding has certainly changed the face of the music-making industry dramatically over the past 20 years - perhaps more so than any other single invention, save for the phonograph. Yet it's still in it's infancy - every month the announcement of a new technology fascinates us. We're to continue seeing changes in how music is produced, recorded, and played - and for the short time it's existed, digital technology has proven it's currently holding the reigns.