MuZo2... Where did you get that picture of me? (This Modern Life)

We're twins?

Dave, is it the tool that sucks, or is it that it brings recording within the reach of those who don't know what they are doing?

I don't think you can just say that "digital = bad" but I think you can say that things like Pro Tools and EZdrummer have allowed people to get lazy, and music to get demonstrably worse. It's also lowered the minimum skill level to use the tools considerably. Now any jackass with a copy of Wavelab can be a "mastering engineer." That's not to say that the pros are necessarily any better these days.

Terrible sounding records are the new normal, and so somebody can record using a few hundred bucks worth of USB mics at home and get something basically the same as the latest Imagine Dragons or Arcade Fire piece of trash done by "the experts." These guys don't even bother using their brickwall limiters anymore. 0dBFS on every track? Audible hard clipping? Who gives a fuck, they won't hear it on their laptop speakers or Apple earbuds anyway, ship it!

Oh, and don't forget to whine and moan about how MP3s make things sound bad, and people should be using Tidal or listening to High-Rez. Give me a fucking break.

Actually i'll go ahead and say some lower bit rate mp3's with the right algorithm make modern digitally hashed masters sound better by filtering out that fatiguing crap off the top-end.

Digital audio is a complete mess and people think it's simple because they visualize '1's and '0's in their head so it must be easy and they take it for granted.