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I did mention mastering- the quote is unsurprising- for instance, ALL mastering grade dither and SRC is in software. You CAN go out to analog and resample- but by now you really don't have to. I mentioned Weiss. The 'plugins' (and dedicated box software) are out there.
You've got to start by drawing the distinction between the Behringers and the Neves of the software world. Anybody who's going to continue by saying that a Behringer hardware box will beat Weiss software sonically doesn't deserve to be listened to... maybe people are calling out specific plugin manufacturers, such as Waves or UAD, and assuming that all plugins are always like that?
Just because Waves L2 has been a huge fad for years doesn't mean it's state-of-the-plugin, and I'm not aware of any other Waves or UAD stuff with substantial buzz in mastering. It's going to be more Weiss, you'll see Sony Oxford, you'll see a lot of stuff that makes no attempt whatsoever to emulate analog boxes. There's amazing analog boxes out there in mastering like the grand old Manley Massive Passive, but bear in mind that you'd be crazy to use that on everything, it's just too colored.
Digital can be very, very good at being uncolored. If you're mastering the last thing you want to do is run through effectively another mix buss. If you're MIXING, maybe the last thing you want to do is run through a mastering-style buss...
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