Digital and analog formats both have advantages and disadvantages. You need to select the format that will be best for your project. If you are going to work on your project in more than one studio the same tape or file format is required. A studio that offers a wide selection of formats is more flexible than one that does not. 4-track on quarter inch and so on.
Smaller formats have lower signal to noise ratios and sound quality.
Noise reduction greatly improves sound quality of analog recordings. These formats are not cross compatible. Dolby SR is the choice of top producers and artists. Noise reduction formats are for use with analog tape only. Digital tape does not use noise reduction.