Digital Dilemmas?

[matta]

Hi Tchad,

I'm not really sure how to say/share this without sounding like a gushing fool but need to share that your mixes have always been something/somewhat of a marvel/mystery to me.

I love your work with Joseph Arthur, The Finn's, Crowed House and the new Paul Simon record sounds great, least we forget Mr. Gabriel...

I know that principally that you are credited as an engineer but I can't help get the feeling that in that you are directing the musical project as much as any producer might do with your creative use of distortion, compression and what I deem 'random weirdness' (believe me that is a compliment!), without your input who knows what the project may have ended up... and for this, muchos kudos.

I often return to these discs when I'm just wanting to take a break from the 'samey' sound of many records that loiter the charts today and it restores my faith in 'art'.

Gushing over...

I've been reading a lot over the various threads about your embrace of the digital medium in the way of pro tools and learning 'HOW' to use it to work for you. Was it a decision you made over time or was there a particular moment you said 'Ok, time to move on'?

Besides the obvious benefits of things like 'recallability' (not quite sure that is word), the fact you can run multiple instances of plugs and work flow do you find any advantages/disadvantages in working digitally over mixing through an analog console?

Thanks again for agreeing to moderate this thread, you are truly an inspiration (actually listening to 'UP' while typing).

Cheers

Matt

[tchadb]

Originally Posted by matta

Hi Tchad,

I'm not really sure how to say/share this without sounding like a gushing fool but need to share that your mixes have always been something/somewhat of a marvel/mystery to me.

I love your work with Joseph Arthur, The Finn's, Crowed House and the new Paul Simon record sounds great, least we forget Mr. Gabriel...

I know that principally that you are credited as an engineer but I can't help get the feeling that in that you are directing the musical project as much as any producer might do with your creative use of distortion, compression and what I deem 'random weirdness' (believe me that is a compliment!), without your input who knows what the project may have ended up... and for this, muchos kudos.

I often return to these discs when I'm just wanting to take a break from the 'samey' sound of many records that loiter the charts today and it restores my faith in 'art'.

Gushing over...

I've been reading a lot over the various threads about your embrace of the digital medium in the way of pro tools and learning 'HOW' to use it to work for you. Was it a decision you made over time or was there a particular moment you said 'Ok, time to move on'?

Besides the obvious benefits of things like 'recallability' (not quite sure that is word), the fact you can run multiple instances of plugs and work flow do you find any advantages/disadvantages in working digitally over mixing through an analog console?

Thanks again for agreeing to moderate this thread, you are truly an inspiration (actually listening to 'UP' while typing).

Cheers

Matt

Thanks for all that Matt.
In the last couple of years plug ins seemed to really come on along with the HD rig + delay comp. That and tape getting unreliable and most stuff coming to me on PT's anyway was a signal that I had some catching up to do. I figured analog was not going to be here forever and I needed to start learning how to make this new box sound good to me.
I waited a long time then jumped into the fire. No looking back. I've had a good run with analog but this is new and fresh for me. Forces me to do things different.
For all the good/bad things with either medium, I like it because it's new.