Old vs. new

Cooder heard about the new recording format, digital, and, being a fanatic about the recorded sound of his incredible guitar tone (he's a master), gave it a try on his Bop Til You Drop album. He hated digital! Back to analog he ran, and eventually heard a Water Lily LP, which prompted him to ask "Why don't my records sound this good?" He ended up making an album on the label (A Meeting By The River), and was very happy with the sound. Water Lily's Kav Alexander is one of the absolute best contemporary recording engineers in the world, and of all time, another master!

That's interesting about Bop till you Drop in '79. But very few rock bands were recording to digital tape until the mid to late 80's. Studios were slow to transition to digital (very expensive) and most bands didn't have the budgets to use the new technology. Some music was being mastered to digital tape, but recording was analogue. The proof is in all the CD's marked ADD.

Classical music producers went all-in with digital recording about 1979 or 80. And artists like Michael Jackson were early adopters of digital.

Cooder heard about the new recording format, digital, and, being a fanatic about the recorded sound of his incredible guitar tone (he's a master), gave it a try on his Bop Til You Drop album. He hated digital! Back to analog he ran

That's too funny. There were many stories like that in the early days.

Only listening to un amplified life music is the real analogue Master but this is a one time event because of location / room characteristics. 

When a sound engineer or recording engineer lays his hands on music to put in on tape or store in a digital format it is already a representation of “real” .  

The vintage ears from then are not the ears from now. I like vintage sound but do not relate to it as beter but different.  

Bad engineering wil kill good sound. Maybe that’s the case? 

@richier31 

The vintage ears from then are not the ears from now. I like vintage sound but do not relate to it as beter but different.  

Really? Simply compare original pressing of some properly recorded LPs from the 70s to modern reissues of the same albums made today from the digital copy. Sometimes even if the master tape was the OG they can't compete to the good old pressing. Cutting engineer is very important person in the process of vinyl pressing. BTW all the pressing machines, cutting lathes... are all vintage, they can modify it with new parts, but these equipment is no longer made. So you can imagine how good it was back then, when all these machines were brand new, when the vinyl was main media format in the world.