The point is that some things have to evolve to be more practical, and to be much less complicated i.e. size, maneuverability, and cost. Digital platforms are meant to allow musicians and studios, amateur and pro, to accomplish many different tasks in one place, but most of all I believe that the main stream of the industry is to do more in less time with things that don’t weight tons, or require so much space and maintenance.

I didn’t read anything on the article about the good old vintage developments from last century, Most of the examples given are the impractical and outdated things that didn’t even last long during their time.

Why not visit the most excellent developments in the history of audio recording like the Neumann U-47, a microphone developed in 1928 and ever since to remain top choice for vocal and instrument recording, Neumann evolved from their vintage tube series and made the TLM series which don’t make use of tube technology, and anyone with some studio experience will say that nothing will ever compare to a U-47, or else look at the price tag; we can see that evolution never outdated analogue electrical tube excellence in Neumann microphones and of course there are lots of people who will think that the warm harmonic sound isn’t really for mp3’s but truth of the matter is it sounds great no matter what. I can at least mention 50 different pieces of gear that aren’t as modern that studios all over the world will still use over plug-ins.

I believe that Digital still has a permanent symbiosis with analogue, doesn’t matter if you are using top of the line HD systems an DSP, the source and the output is analogue, until the day we have 100% completely digital speakers and digital microphones it can be said that analogue is out.

Until we can change the physic laws of audio, analogue and digital will always rely on each other, don’t be fooled by marketing, just take a look at your old 1980’s Mix magazine editions and look at the advertisement, specially the digital products of that time, you will get some good insights about how gear manufacturers are always promising “best” “perfect” “top of the line” Sure some things got better, because they are faster, more affordable, and smaller, think about this fact: now you can carry in your pocket what used to take a whole 1,000 SQF facility to store, but no matter what the principles remains the same.

I believe your question is meant to discuss something like trying to find out what comes first: the chicken or the egg; but in this case I believe that history couldn’t have been otherwise.