What has happened in the recording industry is the proliferation of Pro Tools, a software program that allows engineers to record, mix, add effects, etc without touching a mixing console. The Smashing Pumpkins wanted to record an album the old fashioned way, but they had a difficult time finding an engineer that couldn’t record an album without using Pro Tools. So what all major studios are doing is purchasing analog mixing consoles, like Neves, that have motorized faders so they can use Pro Tools with a traditional console. Now are they using digital processing and effects when they record and mix down analog recordings? Well they’ve been doing that since the 70’s when a company called Lexicon built the first digital reverb. However if a band wants to issue a vinyl release, they, unless they are complete jerks, are going to do a final analog mix with that in mind and another final digital mix for the CD. So yeah it ain’t like the old days where analog was the only thing that existed and yes vinyl releases today have digital processing, but to say modern records are nothing but CD’s stamped into a record simply isn’t true.
