Mixing records

I dunno about "most". It seems to be quite split to me. And there are plenty of big names on the other side of the line. Spike Stent has talked a lot about doing more and more in the box, to give one example. My own view is that it's an increasingly irrelevant distinction. I believe in such a thing as good gear, but I don't for one second believe in magic gear, and there's nothing inherent in outboard vs in the box that makes one intrinsically and inviolably superior to the other.

Engineers fool w/ protools because DAWs are easier to edit with and the integration w/ midi.  Some places still use tape, but that is mostly for capture and then the audio is transfered to ProTools.  besides, you can get a lot of the analog farie dust farts running protools back out through a big old board.

But mostly because they can.  You can get most of the benefit of analog sound by recording through a nice channel (another reason producers still go to a big studio w/  a Neve or such) and putting the mix through a nice stereo channel(s) strip.  When you split the sound through multiple analog channels you get more of a good thing, but it isn't a direct mathmatical relationship - 16 channels split out won't sound 8 (or even twice) as good as sending a stereo mix through 2 of the same channels.

Finally, part of reason was that analog was better than digital back in the day.  There is a lot less difference these days - the ProChannel EQ in SONAR for the most part doesn't sound that much different than my RND EQ.  It is certainly closer than the old Cake EQ from circa 2000.  But if I had an unlimited budget for a big pay day, I'd much rather have an RND channel strip on every output than the PC.  a little better sound but it would make me more confident knowing the sound just can't get any better - it would all be on me.

hope this helps.

@

Was just a question on my mind. I too see as a mute issue, use which ever tools you can afford to achive the sound your after. and im one for options and experimentation, so i see (if $ permitted) having the ability to mix in and out side the box. Just wanted to see what my cake brothers thought on the subject.
And i do find the more interviews i read with eng.s saying "oh i only use that like a tape recorder" and my issue would be then why is there this under lying pressure to be part of the avid family and be locked into it. Trying the make the case that if I if i havent used pro tools (which i have) i havent been in a "real" studio. Like Sonar, logic, or reason cant run a pro studio. Just my 2cents (sorry at work rant, lol)

One thing's for sure - if you can't make GREAT music with what we've got XId e PE then no amount of gear, hardware or otherwise will make a blind bit of difference.

Sell it all and go fishing