What are the differences between analog and digital mixing? Which one is right for my project?
First let me clarify that, at Denial Labs, all recording is digital. What I’m discussing here is the difference between mixing on an analog console and mixing digitally in ProTools. I used to think that analog summing sounded better, hands down, and my early experiments supported this conclusion. Lately, I’ve come to the conclusion that analog mixing sounds better quicker but, in the end, they sound comparable. Aside from what I believe is a comparable level of sound quality, each method has advantages and disadvantages. Beginning with the advantages: Analog – With analog mixing, the ProTools rig is used pretty much like an analog 2″ tape machine: as a playback device only. Each output channel is then routed to the analog mixing console, where all of the mixing and summing takes place. The primary advantage of mixing analog is that, on a very tight time schedule, it’s pretty easy to get a decent sound and good balance of levels very quickly. Some people believe that analog summing simp
