You’re right that digital is awesome, but it’s a little different, too. Some of the nonlinearities are missing; even in an amp, these nonlinearities vary a little over even a short period of time, a few millieconds; whereas with a digital emulation, it’s very consistent over the course of that same few milliseconds.
For me, how audio responds to those nonlinearities is one of the things that makes analog interesting. I think our ears pick up on this somehow. Then again, there are things I can do easily in the digital domain that can’t happen without a crap-ton of work in analog-land.
There’s a certain “weight” to the sound of analog gear that I like. Again, I think that’s the tiny amount of distortion and nonlinearity.
However, I’ll agree that digital doesn’t sound bad, just different. On my old console, if ad clients wanted a recall to accomodate changes to picture, it took me a half hour just to set things up in exactly the same way. With digital, I can recall settings instantly. That’s why I made the switch.
Now that I’m concentrating more on my own projects than client projects, though, I wish I could reverse time and keep my analog gear. But who knew? One always has to do the best one can under the circumstances, right?
One of the things in my track that gives the drums away as digittal samples is their very consistency. Real drums sound a little different each time you strike them, and they do it far more than the 127 velocity switches possible with MIDI. Also, the rooms don’t quite match between drums and guitars.
It’s impossible for me to know whether this matters; I’m used to what I created. But I can hear it.