Quick question about mixing in analog with current technology

If someone wanted to record and mix purely on analog tape today but use modern tools, would they be able to save all of their mixing moves and replicate the exact same mix at a later date? Obviously this is done in the digital realm if you save the work files, but would new equipment capable of mixing in analog be able to record everything done, from the levels to the compression, echo and EQ used?

 

Bump!

 

An audio engineer could answer this question better. However, back in the early 90's, before the shift to digital mixing, I worked on an analog project with automated fading (and probably panning) on the mixing board, so that those fades and pans could be recalled later - it saved having four sets of hands on the board during the final mix. But that was limited to the board, and didn't affect any compression, EQ and other outboard effects (these would have been set and not changed during the mix). Some of those automated boards are probably still around, but I don't know if they ever got more sophisticated than that.

 

You want all the settings of an analog machine exported to a digital file?

 

You could sort of do that in the 1970s with Compumix, as used by Neil Young on "Time Fades Away". Its inventor described it in a quote repeated on this thread

 

This isn't for any real life application - I'm not an audio engineer. I'm just curious because I was thinking about the debate over remixing and how a multitrack is useless if you aren't allowed to remix. Then I thought "well, what if you were able to save all your moves somehow - then if the final mixdown/master was lost or damaged, you can just re-create it from the saved multitrack, and everyone's happy."

 

Not in the analog world.
You would never be able to find the exact same compressor settings, delay or reverb unit settings, etc... let alone the original units themselves.
To obtain the absolute exact same mix, you would have to do the new mix in the same room in the same studio with the same console and the same set of equipements around the console (the same stereo recording machine with the same tape heads with the azimuth set exactly as it was that 50 years ago.... ....up to the cable themselves), with the same variations in current, humidity in the air in the room, etc... The analog world is a complex world where EVERYTHING can have an influence.