Using analog mixing toys while working in the digital domain...
Lets face it, we engineers and producers all love analog mixing toys! We want those big chunky knobs that offer resistance when you try to turn them. We also lust after the unique, rich, warm characteristics good analog equipment can give. How much does our music benefit when we pass our various tracks through analog circuitry while mixing in digital?
The question should be more like this...
How much do we lose when we send digital signals through analog circuits?
We already know by now what we gain with analog: warmth and character. That’s absolutely fine. Our source signals are digital however. So, in order to to feed a signal through anything analog from our DAW, we need A/D and D/A converters. Here's where it gets a little more complicated.
Digital signals are flawed to begin with, especially at lower resolutions. The way the information gets encoded means the final waveform is an approximation of the original analog sound. In addition to that, any A/D D/A converter needs a clock to accurately record the value of thousands of samples every second. If this clock is of poor quality and less accurate, the end result is a signal that’s even less like the original sound.
But what about my amazing toys? Surely all their wonder can only improve my production? It depends on the quality of your converters. With a cheaper firewire type audio interface with multiple analog inputs and outputs,the A/D and D/A converters are most likely not very good. The same would probably go for the clock.
In the above scenario, you do so much damage to your signal going out and back in to your DAW that the negative effects would most often outweigh the benefits. It's bit like taking a picture of a printed image just so that you could benefit from the grain of an old fashioned photo camera. The end result wouldn't benefit from the camera’s grain, and would also be less pleasing on the eye than the original image.
That said, achieving the right sound for a song is paramount, and if that means running a track through cheap converters into a cheap piece of gear to get it to sound just right for that particular song, then I say do it. After all, there are some number one singles that were recorded on cassette tape four track machines. So, of course anything goes, but in most cases quality is king.
In conclusion I would say that using analog mixing toys whilst working in the digital domain is a grey area. You want to ask yourself...
... how much does the song benefit from the use of analog circuits? and...
... how much quality do you compromise in order to add character?
Ask yourself these two questions and you're well on your way to getting the best out of your analog mixing gear!
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