Analog vs. digital segment on PBS

I have been a recording engineer for 24yrs. and use digital recording/Pro tools every day. So you might ask which I prefer, the answer good old 2" Analogue Tape. I have CD's, still listen to vinyl often and have never downloaded any music. If you could download full bandwidth files I might stop and think about it. I do prefer Analogue but these days it's usually more a matter of cost for most people. One reel of 2" tape $200-$250 and you get 15 minutes of record time and only 24 tracks of information. One album for a moderatly budgeted project 8 to 10 reels of tape. One 1 terabyte hard drive $400-$600 and depending on the system almost unlimited tracks. You could probably do at least 10 albums on the drive of that size. As for working in the digital domain it does not necessarily equate to being quicker or saving time. Also in my recent questioning, I find that alot of people just don't care, this is very unfortunate. The bottom line is I always try to record things to the highest possible level at my dispossal and within the clients budget. Just my thoughts on the matter. Just watched the PBS segment online, and it probably would have been better to have a nice sit down in a decent room, with some nice moderatly priced speakers to hear the differences.

Albertporter, first let me say to your friend that is working with the JVC XRCD
project, that those CD's too me are some of the finest CD's made that will play in a standard CD player. I've said before that if all CD's were produced with such care the format would not get bashed so much. The list is long of things that can happen while recording and or mixing to affect the sound of the recording. I don't remember if they touched on the fact in the PBS segment that analog is very forgiving as far as the recorded level is concerned and that some of the warmth that is achieved from analog recording can be caused by the natural compression of the signal as it gets recorded. This happens when the level of the recorded material gets to hot for the tape to handle, but in digital when levels get to hot it is all or nothing. Digital is not a forgiving medium when mistakes are made. If you make it out of the studio with a good mix there are other things that can go wrong between finishing the mix and the actual release of a CD. One of the main things is the mastering of a project where for the last 10 yrs. or so the loudness wars have pretty much ruined the sound of many recordings, in every type of music. This is the phenomenon of everybody wanting their recording to be as loud or louder than the next persons. Loudness = compression = loss of dynamic range (no real difference between the loud and soft passages in the music), which could all lead to possible distortion on the CD itself, or even the distortion of the electronics being used in the playback of the CD.
These are just a few of the the things that must be taken into account to produce a great sounding recording, regardless of it being put on CD or vinyl. There is very long list of things that can go wrong, but I'd need to write a book to explain them.