In the beginning, there was only live music. If you wanted to hear the latest composition; then you had to go to the live performance.
In the latter part of the 19th century, recorded music made its debut.
And like so many things, the process improved and in the 1960’s artists used four track recording machines…later more channels were added. But the whole process was done in what is called analog.
Analog recording allowed for creativity in the way artists recorded their songs. Granted the recordings sometimes had a bit of scratchiness to it, but the ability to create outweighed a bit of unwanted sound.
Then digital came along with nice clean sound but put a major crimp in the creative process.
For a while artists would take the best of both worlds by recording in analog and then washing it through the digital. The creative process was preserved and a crisp clean sound was presented.
But, unfortunately, studios have done away with their analog recording equipment for digital.
These days with all the AI tools, auto-tune, and the like the recording engineer is the hardest working person in the studio; working to do what could be done with the simple push of a button on an analog board.
As a musical acquaintance once told me, these days any chic with a guitar can make a record.
Tight music where every note is placed just so and doesn’t allow for any variation has its place; but then, artists who play for the pure joy of making music shines through…any mistakes and all…and makes you want to play it again…and again…and again.
There is a song that states “video killed the radio star”; well, digital has killed the analog creativity.