This is a cool comparison for Tape vs Digital

Interesting presentation. The tape definitely has more of a low end, which is pleasant to my ears. Warm. The kick has an almost unpleasant mid-range clunk when shifted to the digital side.

I use Softube "Tape" on all my busses and again on the master buss. Honestly, I'm not sure I hear a difference, certainly not in the degree you hear on this presentation.

While I cant hear half the things he is talking about, because my ears just are not that sharp,

I prefer the tape version over the digital.

It might be just the fact of growing up in the tape era, but I am sensitive to the "harshness" of digital. In many cases, like in the examples in the video,there is just a sense of it being "not quite right".

Sometimes I wonder if people who grew up since the start of the digital age prefer it over the sound of tape.

Thanks for posting the video

I can certainly hear the difference. I have listened to it in both headphones and studio monitors and can hear the difference using both. Listening through computer speakers is probably the main issue for you. Old ears contribute to it as well. The most noticeable differences are in the bottom end of the tracks and 2" computer speakers in a little tiny box are not going to reproduce that. All the different levels of data compression and digital conversion will slew the results somewhat but the differences are still there. If they weren't being played back to back then it would be harder to notice the differences. It's subtle and not a night and day difference and yes even the tape tracks were recorded to a digital medium but so were the digitally recorded ones. It's not as much about the final playback medium as it is the format of the initial recording medium.

He's kinda comparing apples to oranges here. He's recording hot to the tape to get the compression. So we're really comparing the compression vs no compression in addition to anything else.

Tape has some mojo digital doesn't but that doesn't mean digital sounds bad. Just different. With tape what's going in is not the same as what's coming out. With digital they are the same, in AND out, at least at his level. I'm sure he has the best of the best when it comes to converters and such. That, and he is an expert at what he does. That makes a big difference all by itself.

The Lynx stuff is great gear. Not inexpensive by any means. If money were no object I would definitely step up to the best converters but for me, that's not an option. The RME Fireface UC is better than the Focusrite 18i20 I had before. The next time, if there is one, I'll get just converters. I don't need built-in mic preamps. I have that covered and have digital connections to them.

I use ADAT and S-PDIF exclusively. I never record anything at a higher sample rate than 44.1kHz so ADAT offers 8 channels at that rate. I have an API A2D preamp that has S-PDIF outputs on it but I seldom use them. I have an old Focusrite ISA428 with the digital option that will accommodate 8 channels through the digital card so I run the analog outputs of the API into that and use a single Lightpipe connection for all of them into the RME. That makes for an easy setup.

I also have a UAD Satellite 2 PCIe card in my machine so I have plugins for that as well.

The ISA428 has a S-PDIF output as well and I have used it before. The ADAT connection is easier and I don't hear any difference in the sound compared to S-PDIF.

I agree about the hardware. I have a Warm Audio 1176 clone that sounds better than any 1176 plugin I have. I also have a Lexicon PCM70. The 480L plugin sounds good but the hardware PCM70 sounds incredible next to it. It's just a little noisy if I'm not careful.  The thing I like about the PCM70 is the massive host of parameters it has.  The 480L plugin is awesome though.  It's the best sounding reverb plugin I have and there are many in my plugin list.

Dangerous BAX EQ Collection
dbx 160 Compressor
Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor Compressor
MXR Flanger Doubler
SPL Transient Designer
1176 Classic Limiter Collection
La-2A collection
Fairchild 670
Pultec EQP-1
Lexicon 480L

I have a number of others but those are the ones I use the most. I really like the Fairchild 670 on steel string acoustic guitar. Just using the default settings makes an acoustic sound very good. It usually takes very little tweaking.

The Dangerous Bax mastering EQ is cool in that it is stereo and has Mid Side capability. There's some serious capability for clearing out frequencies in the center of a stereo track so others that are panned to the center stand out.

The SPL Transient designer is awesome. It's like a compressor on steroids.

The MXR Flanger Doubler is very cool too. I had one of them back in the day and it was very useful. Mostly the doubler. I think the plugin probably sounds better than the original in this case. It's certainly not as noisy.

The EL8 Distressor is a great unit. Someday I hope to get my hands on a hardware version of it. What a cool and useful piece of tech. A great design. There's not much you can't do with it compression-wise.  You know something is a great unit when there aren't many available on the used market and the ones that are cost almost as much as a new one.  That is the case with these.

I have the Fab Filter bundle and a bunch of PSP stuff as well. There's some great stuff sprinkled throughout those. There's nothing wrong with using plugins. Many of them are so close to the original hardware they emulate it takes extremely close scrutiny to tell the difference. A good plugin sounds much better than a low end hardware unit.

The PCM70 is a great sounding unit for the money. I think it has something the 224 and 480 don't. I've used all of them but always prefer the 70. It may be just because I know how to operate it better after having it for so long.

I went through a phase of too many plugins. At one point I had so many that when I would open my effects window in Pro Tools my monitor screen was too small to fit all of them on it. When I upgraded my computer a few years ago and had to update PT as well, I decided I wasn't going to do that anymore. When I had so many I never knew what to use at any particular moment and was always using something different just because I had them. I decided it was better to learn to use a few well than a lot, not very well because I was unfamiliar with them.

I only have one tape emulation plugin and the only reason I got it was because I was digitizing some old 1/2" multi-track tapes that were dbx 156 encoded. The "uhe Satin" plugin had a number of decoders in it and had the one I needed to decode the tapes. It has some tape emulations as well but I have yet to use any of them. I need to revisit that.

Never heard of Goodhertz and don't have any of the Analog Obsessions stuff. I still have more plugins than I will probably ever use. Most of the time when reaching for an EQ or delay I just use the native stuff that comes with Pro Tools. They work very well and use very little CPU power. The native compressor is also very powerful and works quite well if I just need to control something and don't want to add color to it.

I have been using the PSP stuff since my early days and always liked it. The 2445 is really good. I like using it for small spaces. I also use the Vintage Warmer often. I used a lot of their EQ's in the past but don't much anymore.

I can talk about this stuff for days.

I have gotten 2 emails in the last week from UAD for a $50 plugin coupon.  I won't use them.  I already have all of the ones I want and don't need any more.  Their plugins are already stupid-expensive and $50 hardly makes a dent in the price.  When they used to have some for less than $100 they would send out an occasional $25 coupon and I would use it.  Now most of their plugins are $200 and up.  That's ridiculous!  I hate marketing strategies.  Double the price and throw them a bone and still make more money on them than they used to.  It's not like there's a chip shortage or supply chain issue that raises the price of plugins.  They are getting greedy.  They have always been expensive but it's getting out of hand.  DSP based plugins are quickly going to be extinct due to the speed and power of newer computers.  The competition can make plugins that work just as well that don't require buying proprietary hardware to be able to use them.  UAD needs to rethink their plugin business model or their days in the market are going to be over soon.

The same goes for Avid and Pro Tools.  If I ever have to change DAW's Pro Tools will not be on my list.  I WILL NOT pay them a $700 licensing fee every year for the privilege of buying a product from them.  There are too many other options these days to put up with that.  I love Pro Tools but hate Avid.  They are now, and always have been, just about making money.  They have no convictions for customer service.  AFAIC they can burn in hell.

I'll keep running PT 10 in my Win 7 box until it croaks. I've really gotten semi functional with it after almost 10 years🙄

After that, I dunno. I hope I won't forfeit all my add ons and plugins when I migrate to another DAW. It won't be Pro Tools, that I'm certain.