What was the last big selling album recorded fully analogue?

Great post, but digital has come a real long way since the early ‘90’s.

 

But it's still behind analogue in so many ways.

 

Now that the question posed by the thread has been pretty convincingly answered (Elephant), the topic has inevitably jumped the tracks and now the Analog vs. Digital Casey Jones is driving that train, high on cocaine, trouble ahead, trouble behind.

I love many beautiful all-analog recordings but the magical thinking that digital audio is a dead-hearted killer cyborg abomination while analog is a gentle quivering flower of natural pulchritude is well into flat-earth territory. Even early digital recordings can sound fantastic, and most of the bad stuff people slam in digital audio is not inherent to digital, but artifacts of bad execution.

 

But that's not really "fully analogue", though, per the thread title, is it? A lot of those analog multitracks were probably mixed down in Pro Tools, too, I'd guess.

Does Jack White really do all his stuff 100% analog, i.e. analog multitrack, mixed using an analog mixing board (maybe digitally-controlled) from the analog multitrack tape onto an analog stereo master?

If not, what would be the last big-selling album that did?

 

I wouldn't go that far, I don't hate digital but I don't love it either. I liked the 80's and first half of the 90's when one could choose between CD and an LP record, beware, LP records had a slightly longer life in Europe.
If I can choose between digital and analogue I choose analogue 99% of the time. I've only bought 2 CD's (actually four as they are 2-CD sets) in 2019, two releases by La La Land Records, the soundtracks for Superman The Movie and Stargate. The Stargate 2 CD set sounds awful while the previous two CD releases sounded great despite being a full digital recording. Reading the linear notes on the booklet I get that they used the actual movie stereo mixes and they don't sound right to me, they have an agressive, harsh and bright sound that I dislike.

 

According to the liner notes of Elephant, "No computers were used during the writing, recording, mixing, or mastering of this record.”

Good additional reading here: Engineering the Sound: The White Stripes' 'Elephant'

 

Interesting article, thanks. It certainly sounds like the recording was only done using vintage analog equipment.

Ironically, though, the use of the Whammy pedal disproves the absolute statement that "no computers" were used whatsoever (it's a digital pedal).

 

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (analog recording, digital mixing)

 

I love analogue but how do people mix via analog these days? Without any digital.

 

Same way they did it before? Is this a trick question?

 

Probably not a big seller, but John Mellencamp's No Better Than This was done on vintage all-analog gear, to tape, mono, by T-bone Burnett.

 

Wasting Light is AAA...and at 45 to boot!

 

There aren’t improved techniques and analog mixing equipment upgrades since the Sixties and Seventies? Although it would be very difficult to improve on George Martin’s work with The Beatles.

 

There have been improvements, but the basic idea is the same. Boards got bigger, had more processing power built in, had automation added. That kinda thing.

 

I think most of the analogue recordings done in the 1990's sound outstanding,on different genres, from the Jurassic Park soundtrack (tha I remember reading somewhere it used Dolby Spectral 'though there are tape hiss on this recording) to albums by Nirvana and the first albums by Rage Against The Machine.
Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was tracked to analogue tape but mixed down to digital (ADD SPARS code on rear cover) and it's an amazing sounding album.

 

That's a good one!

 

I love your enthusiasm. And I sincerely hope that you are right about this. But...I'm sorry to say that I just don't buy it.

I doubt very much that we are going to see a full-fledged analog revival in an age where probably 98% of millenials and younger listeners simply listen through $15 earbuds. The majority of these kids have never even purchased a recording of any kind, preferring "free" streaming or simply pirated mp3 downloads. You simply can't build a new capital intensive music industry around consumers who don't care about sound quality and who refuse to buy new music.

Face it, most of us guys who are into this hobby are either getting older, or are already quite old. And we are markets/generations which are beginning to die off... You need young blood to fuel such a market. And while some hipsters are indeed getting into vinyl, I doubt that very many of these new listeners care whether their "vinyls" <cringe> are sourced from analog or digital masters.

 

I'm sure that last Clapton 'I Still Do' was a big enough seller to count (maybe not on vinyl sales). It's certainly AAA, but that doesn't mean it sounds better. Some tracks are OK while much is pretty muddy. After playing this I played the original vinyl of Pilgrim last night and prefered the later's sound even if it's obviously rather digital. I can't believe any Jack White or White Stripes is all analogue. Must be some pro tools in there?

 

Why?

 

Yeah I'm not sure why that's unbelievable. Jack White has been pretty pro-analog for a long time.

 

Blue and Lonesome sounds absolutely horrible even if recorded on tape. Also the mentioned Dave Grohl and consorts record they did with that Sound City console sounded horrible. That was probably the most ridiculous documentary ever about Sound City where Grohl gushes about the console and then releases the album that sounds horrible just like any other modern recording.
On the other side thinking about digital recordings there are some like Fleetwood Mac's Tusk that sound wonderful.
I think taste matters more than equipment.

 

SILENCE HERETIC!

 

It was interesting that Dave Grohl's Sound City documentary revealed that Nirvana's Something In the Way was recorded/mixed in early ProTools. I don't think anyone listening to the album was taken aback at how the last song suddenly lost all its magic.

 

Budget, recording on tape is now astronomically expensive.

 

I think Jack White can afford it. Tape is more expensive than hard drive, but I don't think studio rates would be dramatically different. And Jack White has his own studio.

Also, Steve Albini's studio in Chicago is all analog and they record independent bands all day, so I don't think tape cost is the primary deterrent.