Today digitally sampled music is seen as the normal modern standard for sound recording.
Analog tape recorders and the more common cassette recorders are seen as inferior, outdated choices for quality sound recordings. With sampling technology advancing as fast as computer development, this controversy may soon be settled. Sampling has introduced the new way of storing sound in a computerized format. RA files are similar, it is a proprietary format for Real Audio, which also uses all digital sound sampling. Long sidelined as a secondary tool only , MIDI recording has developed over the past decade to an art form by itself.