[imp]

Well, we go out DA through Crane Song and RME converters, and mix all in analog land down to an analog reel to reel deck.... thus no AD. Or, sometimes we might mix back into Pro Tools through the Crane Song converter again (one stereo AD, but a fairly painless one).

So far the results of doing this far surpass that of staying inside the computer and using only plug-ins. However I will agree that in general audio will be more "altered" by passing through two analog/digital conversion stages than by merely passing through one good digital plug-in all inside the digital domain.

Our goal is to rid the dreaded "DAW sound" from our recordings.... you know, that really thin one-dimensional "cheap" sound. Our first few 001 recordings (done all inside the DAW) came out that way. Very unsatisfying results, even using good mics, pres, etc.

After that we switched back to our old analog set-up, using the 001 merely as a recorder / playback "deck"... and we then got thicker more dimensional richer results once again. So, this just proved that something was going on inside the DAW, the digital processing and digital bussing whatever, that really did some very bad things to the overall audio quality. So to this day, I am still a bit fearful of even using plug-ins... I am afraid to do any type of digital alterations at all.

(Though, on a side note, I have heard guys obtain amazing results on other DAW systems with Waves plug-ins.... so it might just be the specific tools, and not necessarily "digital" in general.)

Our goal here is to keep things as analog as possible, based on our experiences with the DAW. The thing that is always so tempting about the DAW is its incredible convenience and ease of use. So... it's a love/hate releationship... but we have finally mated the two together by using the DAW as the recorder / playback machine, and using all the analog outboard and analog console to actually MIX everything together. It's working well.

Anyway, I guess I will conduct some tests at some point when I get a chance. Maybe duplicate a track 10 or 20 times and play all tracks back at once, clean... then put a digi plug on each and every track, and play `em all back again the same way, and listen for any differences. If none can be heard in a test like this, then I can only assume that the plugs are completely transparent. This is actually not the "best" way to test... but it an easy quick way to just get a quick result.

We still have yet to take one given song, and first mix it entirely in the analog domain, and then mix it entirely in the digital domain. We do hope to do this for fun at some point when time is available.

We have done quick tests comparing 1176 plug ins verses REAL 1176s... and while the plug in performance is very impressive, the real analog unit wins every time, hands down. This is just a brief example of why we choose to go analog whenever possible, and avoid the digital stuff in general.

But, for those who do not have the room or patience to deal with a stack of analog stuff (which can indeed be a pain in the neck for many reasons), by all means the DAW by itself is an incredibly powerful tool that can yield excellent results on its own... provided good recording and production techniques are applied.

imp