?It occurred to me the other day that there haven't been that many Pro Tools cds that have done much for me. I think it's just my age. I'm 26 now. I'm officially out of the cd buying demographic. For me, I noticed that music wasn't as effective for me in the late 90s. My top 30 records were all done on analog tape. Don't get me wrong, I love many songs that were done using a Pro Tools or some other computer recording system, but the records that really get to me were done on tape.

I got to thinking about this a little more. One of the strengths of the tape based system was it's limitations. I think limitations are a tremendous benefit to recording and I think recordings are done differently now. Musicians are focusing on different things than they used to. (Sucking the human element out of the music process is a possible result). The effect of digital recording hasn't only effected the way up and coming musicians operate, it's totally changed the way that up and coming home recording engineers are learning as well. This article will discuss why it may be best to apply analog limitations to your digital system until you are really ready to use all those plug ins and recording gadgets sitting in your plug-in folder.