Glad to hear your perspective. I was wondering if a group were to record using nothing but digital models, would anyone know?
That's a super-good question. And here's some interesting background...
Since the late 80s, when Roger Nichols used real drum tracks only to trigger sampled drum sounds he'd recorded with his home-made "Wendell" sampler on the groundbreaking (in terms of engineering) Steely Dan albums, a very significant percentage of the drums you hear on major label records have actually been triggered samples. The big-time mixers like Chris Lord-Alge pretty much exclusively use triggered samples. Few people can tell the difference, however I'd maintain that it's one reason that records are starting to sound kind of homogenized and alike.
You hear this taken to extremes on mixes he has done for bands like Nickleback, or some of the stuff Jack Joseph Puig does, big bands like Green Day etc., to huge commercial success. Triggered samples make the process of mixing easier, since pedal squeaks, ambient room noise, mis-hits, etc., don't have to be taken into account. These mixers can simply trigger tracks using their favorite custom drum samples, run the samples through their pre-set hardware and software, and quickly put together a stereo drum stem that has a lot of credibility. Moreover, errors can easily be repaired.
Can you hear a difference? Sure. It's there. But it's certainly not obvious. You really have to listen for it. Frankly, the samples can sound bigger, tighter, and more impressive than real drums in a mix. And sometimes there are live and sampled drum blends.
A lot will depend on artist's intent, so there's that. And not all mixers do this.
When it comes to guitars, most of the big time records are still made with real amps, because when making a record, an inspired performance is the most important thing. However, there are SIGNIFICANT exceptions to this, and many artists are either using software to embellish, or to replace, their amps.
One thing I have done is to DI my guitar into the recording system, and run a parallel output from the DI into my amp. That way, I can record a real amp with a mic, and at the same time record a dry guitar signal that I can either re-amp, or use software to process. Sometimes I blend the signals. It's a nice way to work, but it's another step when I'm under crushing deadlines, so I don't do it unless I have lots of time to complete a project.
In a similar way, software synthesizers can sound amazing in a track, but put an analog synth up against it, and the software still sounds a little less 3D and lifeless. Digital synths? Fine either hardware or software. But then there are hybrids like the Waldorf Wave, a digital synth with analog filters. The analog filters do sound better to my ear.
Ultimately, I honestly believe that it's hard to tell the difference between an amp and a model -- in a finished mix, that has been EQ'd, put into a room effect, compressed, etc. So for me the most important question is how a player wants to work to get a stellar performance. That's far more important than some of these other questions. And it's why even when drum tracks are replaced by triggered samples, the original recording is using real drums so that the player can get a great vibe going and an inspired performance.
Given time and budget, I prefer NOT to use sampled drums. I'd rather work in a tight sounding room, and add ambience as needed when I mix. But that's not always possible, and most of my work doesn't have enough budget to justify the additional expense of booking a world-class room; after all, you're going to hear our tracks for 30 seconds at low volume behind an advertising voiceover. But given the budget, I will choose real drums every single time.
Same with a real guitar amp, and a real bass (though I actually prefer to record bass with a high quality DI box.).
All that aside, unless I'm in a wonderful sounding room with a fantastic piano that has been newly-tuned and well maintained, I prefer to use my 40 gig Steinway samples when I need a piano track. I have much more control over the resulting sound that way. So in a way, my principal instrument being piano, I'm sort of a counterintuitive mishmash of recording ideas! Organ, however? I gotta have a real Leslie or it sounds like crap.
The conclusion I draw from all this is that we're at a point where certain digital stuff sounds great (percussion, piano hammers on strings, standup basses etc.), certain stuff sounds acceptable and you can tweak it to sound pretty good (guitar amp models and soft synths), and certain digital stuff sounds relatively awful to me (long legato and vibrato strings, string quartets, french horns, trumpets, organs, and other sustaining sounds).
