There are certain elements I truly miss about recording to tape.
There are others I don't miss at all.
I Do miss:-
Vary speed. Many a great results were achieved using that knob.
-
Tape saturation. pushing levels to achieve a nice compressed sound. what is digital clipping ?
-
Back ups. What back up ? if your tape machine died, you still had a hard copy.
-
Use your ears. not your eyes. I catch myself too often looking vs. listening. (but this can also be a +1)
I Don't miss:-
Tempo mapping. Record click track at 90BPM to Trk 2. Now count the clicks and Rec new at 120BPM to Trk 3.
-
Editing. Do I even need to go there ? hope you have a sharp blade. (this is the +1)
-
Having to purchase tape. Not only did this get expensive, it was a creative interrupter.
-
FX. Limited number of FX was determined by what you had in the rack and amount of FX returns/Bus.