And that pretty much tells the story; all classical and many jazz recordings need to be very accurate, honest reproductions of acoustic instruments. We know what a violin, cello, grand piano, flute, trumpet, upright bass etc. is supposed to sound like because we have a real-world reference for those acoustic instruments. Digital can yield a much more accurate recording, and if top quality A-to-D converters are used to make a 24 bit recording at 88.2k or 96kHz sampling rate, then the sound quality is arguably as good or better than analog. Classical and jazz purists also demand a wide dynamic range - the difference between loud and soft - in the reproduction of the music. The difference in volume between a single triangle being lightly struck and the complete orchestra with percussion hitting a mezzo forte is staggering, and this requires your recording medium to have a very wide signal-to-noise ratio. Digital, especially 24 bit digital, is the hands down winner over analog in this respect. It is practically impossible to faithfully reproduce the dynamics of classical or small-group jazz via analog without having to resort to noise reduction, which presents its own set of problems.
Another advantage that digital has in the recording of acoustic instruments is its absolute speed accuracy. The slight, rapid speed variations in even the best analog recorders - called 'wow & flutter' - can severely alter the very high harmonics in the sound of an acoustic instrument, and this can ruin the naturalness, and therefore the believability if you will, of the reproduction.
The other end of the musical spectrum - electronic music - also most often prefers digital. Music that is based on electronic or sampled sounds with very sharp, fast attacks is sometimes softened up too much by analog tape, especially if recorded at too hot of a level. Producers of this music genre will most often prefer to cut on 24 bit digital, mix to 24 bit digital, and then have the option of laying-back to analog 2-track or using analog processing during mastering, or staying digital all the way.
Conversely, rock, pop, rap, r&b & country are the genres that are gravitating to analog. These musical styles are based on electric instruments often with effects and distortion that have no real-world acoustic reference for their sound. The idea in production is to make the music sound larger than life, and to somewhat (or completely) restrict the dynamic range of the music. The coloration that analog tape adds helps greatly in this regard, plus it alters the signal in a way that is very familiar to our ears since all music up to the late seventies/early eighties was recorded, mixed and reproduced via analog media, and even throughout the age of the Compact Disc many producers have stayed with analog multitracking and mixing as they have realized all along that it is the superior sound. And as previously stated, not only is the pop music industry going back to analog in droves, they are going all the way back, with tube preamps, mics, compressors, eq's and now complete tube consoles being all the rage.
You might be surprised how affordable it is to rent an analog 2-track machine for mixdown. The machine preferred by most producers is the Ampex ATR-102 1/2", as featured at Digital Editing Services, and these machines normally rent for around $150.00 per day, with most rental places offering 7 days for 4, which means it's around $600.00 for a week. Not bad for the sonic difference that mixing to and mastering from analog can make.
But all is not lost if you track and mix in the digital domain. "Layback" mastering has been a preferred mastering technique of the industry's top mastering engineers and producers for several years, and Digital Editing Services now has this capability.
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