It goes without saying that the ability to record and edit audio in the digital domain brings enormous benefits, enabling us to produce punchy, cutting-edge music entirely within our computers. However, there’s still something undeniably special about audio processed in the analog domain. Wouldn’t it be great, then, if you could make your digital recordings sound more analog?
Thanks to an increasing number of extremely talented plugin developers, this has very much become a viable possibility, as they painstakingly model the gloriously chaotic analog processes behind magnetic tape, valves, transformers and more. Of course, all of these things have been around in plugin form for ages now, but the current generation focuses particularly on the subtleties and nuances, emulating the effects of tape and desk circuits used at regular operating levels.
In general terms, the analog recording chain runs from a mic or DI, via a preamp, desk channel and sometimes desk bussing, out to a tape deck.
