| This is a profound misunderstanding. Euphony and accuracy are quite different. Euphony derives from nonlinearity. These are not cherished for their accuracy. They're built to sound good, For this reason most of the best sounding records still make very heavy use of analog signal path. I've been recording since the earliest days of DAWs. Yes you can do amazingly good things with a computer, but it is still not possible to build digital devices that "sound as good" IMO. After 15 years of living "in the box" as a mix engineer, waiting for modeling to catch up to hardware, I finally broke down when I realized that the best mix engines still don't compete with the best analog devices. Since that time I've become a convert. For editing, accuracy, durability, price/performance, and maximum dynamic range through the mix bus, digital is king. If I were recording a symphonic orchestra I would absolutely use an all-digital signal path. But if I want to make an expressive album like Dark Side of the Moon, I want to stick as much analog in the path as I can fit. Why try to model chaos, when there's an old box stuffed with tubes and a zillion other nonlinear components? Nobody - almost - builds devices like these anymore. It comes from the Golden Age, when engineers had different priorities, and the difference is palpable. |
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