there's a whole lot of folks talking about "all wave" recording. http://www.wired.com/listening_post/2008/04/steve-albini-st/ at first glance, it seems totally neat and grand and warm and fuzzy and nostalgic. i will be the first to tell you that tape does indeed sound very different than 101001010110010, however tape is also INCREDIBLY more $$$$ than 01010100101, so it puts it out of the reach of most folks. the computer recording revolution has put high-quality sound into the hands of artist who could never have afforded it before. because of this revolution, you have people churning out all kinds of things, whether it be complete noise or your favorite song on the radio. so as a tape devotee (first started using a tascam 424 when i was 11) i naturally turned up my lil indie nose at all this digital mess, and continued trying to build an amazing studio with all analog gear. i can tell you the money needed for such a venture is a staggering amount. so, enter a second-hand pc that an old friend gave to me. i got me a pirate version of acid 1.0 and started sampling myself (and records i liked) thru the mickey mouse soundcard it came with, and went to town.
nowadays i do all my recording using 10010101, and i usually mix within 1010110001 as well, however, when i want that hands on mixing experience, i run the outs into an old mixing board and get into it. not really for the sound, cuz i have learned how to get a lush warm, fresh tape-like sound from my 1010010110 anyway, but more for the feel of mixing with real faders and such. especially when it comes to DUB. as a rule, i always mix analog when dubbing. a few years ago, my special friend, a fender ma-6 PA board, and i were in the middle of a heavy mix, when she started smoking. and then caught fire. a few weeks later, a rack full of gear aquired over the years was stolen from my warehouse. so my rule of mixing all analog had to take a backseat to paying rent and staying afloat. i hated 010010101 but had to make do, so i learned to make it sing.
today i am putting up the only dub i've ever mixed completely 10010101.
PROS: stable sound quality (what goes in is what comes out), endless plug-ins, samples, instruments, more RAM means a bigger studio, very small size, mp3 portability, instant sharing with the entire world.
CONS: it takes way longer to mix with 101001011. on an analog board, you can make adjustments with both hands, and execute manuevers very quickly that would take much more time to program or automate; and of course the digital latency (although, to be fair, you would only notice this latency when you combine 101011001 with the real world, ie singing/playing into it and listening back at the same time) caused by the computer, bless its lil heart, crunching numbers as fast as the lil mice can muster.

so anyway,
was it a rat i saw?
recorded and mixed using ableton live 7.01, toshiba laptop, edirol ua-101
drums: programmed in impulse
bass: the only "real" instrument, a fender p-bass
keys: i made some synths specifically for this piece, a crappy organ sound, a choppy guitar approximation, and something that sounds kinda like a piano. i tend to take the "talking book" approach to creating sounds, meaning i know its not a piano, it will never sound exactly like a piano, but if i use a similar waveform (sawtooth) in conjunction with a pleasing ADSR (attck, sustain, decay, release) envelope and filtering, it will sound pleasing like your favorite old casio mt-36.
reverb: i programmed that one with a predelay on a frequency specific auto-wah
delay: making a convincing tape-delay with only digital components can be very disapointing, but in this case i think its the shining point of the track. [three-band eq, simple delay, saturator, aux into itself)

and thats it.
more to come

happy dubbin
VUELO