I’ve been thinking about this ongoing, ad nauseum. debate over Analog mixes vrs. ITB mixes. This generally breaks down among two camps Music v Post. Clearly all Post is ITB. With the turn around times on 99% of those projects being what they are, you’d be insane for wanting an analog workflow. But when you look at Music Production, now we’re getting in Mic Pres, Tube Compressors, Esoteric EQs, etc. and the proponents of this method swear there’s a sonic difference worth the effort/aggravation.
But the reality is that it’s analog for a second! You’ve got your mic going to your input chain which converts to digital to print into the DAW. NOW it’s ITB. You rinse and repeat until you’re ready to mix. Now you choose between plug-in emulations or outboard gear. “The Purist” will pick outboard. Now we’re up to the second time it goes to analog for an instant. BWF out to Rack Gear and right back into the DAW as the print. The deliverables are digital and the consumption is digital and by the time it get’s to consumers the quality is down to 128kb mp3! The ONLY way for the process not to be ITB is if your entire production is on analog tape 24/48 tracks to stereo 2 track, which is, AGAIN, digitized for consumption (see mp3 streaming. ).
So WHY is this such a hot debate? It seems to me that it’s ALL ITB. Am I missing something here?
My masters always ends up on an Edison Cylinder. The wax glues the mix together like nothing else
@Keyplayer Even if the final master is digitalized - you will still have al lot of analog signal flow being imprinted in that final mix. However, analog vs digital - dangerous terrain…
I only know of one studio using an SSL Oracle with 24 channels of outboard comps and EQs that are 100% recallable. Everybody else only has MAYBE 8 channels of each (NOT recallable). So, how are you using your outboard? Are you printing all of your tracks with your outboard gear?
No, not necessarily. That depends on the project. I am always keen to have a good signal chain in the first place, like decent preamps, mics, cables, etc.
I don’t have an analog agenda: For example, there are projects or situations when I prefer to run a guitar through an amp emulation (after a preamp, though). Other times, I prefer to properly mic an analog amp.
I don’t like to limit myself to one way of doing things.
Nonetheless, I am always thrilled to see studios that are still running on massive consoles, tape machines and analog outboard gear. If there was a room spray that’s called “Analog Studio XY” I might even consider buying a flacon
And the sound of my imaginary air guitar Les Paul sounds best of all.
(and with that he veers off topic)
In the late 60’ & 70’s we lived in Kalamazoo back when the Gibson factory was still there. And my brother’s godmother worked at the factory. So I asked her if she’d use her employee discount to get me a guitar. She asked what I was looking for and I said a black Les Paul Custom (cause Keith). She told me - we’ll get you a good guitar, it might take a few weeks, but we’ll get you a really good one. She emphasized the word ‘good’ in a way that suggested something more elevated than merely good (and also it seemed to have become a team effort).
A couple of weeks pass & I go to pickup the guitar which indeed was gorgeous. But the price was amazing at $205 (about $1670 today) because this was marked by a B (for bargain) at the end of the serial number. Gibson marked guitars with small cosmetic issues as 2nds, and those did get sold at retail. Bargains were for more structurally compromised instruments that weren’t sold at retail.
A Les Paul body is made out of 3 slabs of wood glued together in the long direction of the guitar. On this particular guitar 2 of the boards had a small gap about a half inch long and under a 1/16th inch at its widest. There wasn’t any kind of hole because glue filled the entire space. And the black glossy finish covered that so you couldn’t even see it. Except if you looked down the length of the neck, knew where on the body to watch and then shifted it around under the light you could just barely see it. And that got me about a 40% discount.
Unfortunately it got stolen in a burglary a decade or so later.
Mine was bought in 1980 and cost £480 (£2,127.99 today, courtesy of the Bank of England inflation calculator). Cherry red, cream binding, gold plated bridge and machine heads, giant, transparent, ahem, knobs. Real ebony fret board, frets so low you could hardly feel them.
For me it was sell it or become homeless.
I was being facetious.
Unless you poll every single POST studio/engineer/producer/&tc, your query may never be answered.
I think most evidence, either way, is just empirical.
That’s fundamentally impossible until someone develops a system where digital audio is converted into signals that get wired straight into the brain. You do have at least one DAC operation happening, because you wouldn’t be able to listen to the sound otherwise.
The ONLY way for the process not to be ITB is if your entire production is on analog tape 24/48 tracks to stereo 2 track, which is, AGAIN, digitized for consumption (see mp3 streaming.
).
