The level of quality that may be obtained is much higher and, with the ability to record at home, many of the old constraints have been lifted. Of course, these advances haven't come without a cost, leading some professionals in the industry to consider aspects of this new world to be more akin to a 'brave new world' where tracks are churned out with little or no attention to detail. Going digital often leads to signals which many complain are thin, too bright and cold. Anyone in his or her right mind can't deny the power of the digital recording world. But the old school people have a point too.
All good things come at a price.
Here at 15Pearl , part of our philosophy has been to mix analog and digital in an effort to blend the best of both. At first, this was more of a necessity than an option, as our old Mac Quadra simply didn't have the juice to do major levels of digital audio recording. As well, unlike most of my fellow collaborators, my background is analog. So we have tried to mix the two, and it has been an interesting road, at times hard and at other times easy. But some of the lessons learned have been priceless and the results awesome in terms of sound quality.