You always hear, "Oh yuck. Mixing in the box."
I used to have a problem with that, especially the old versions of Pro Tools where their internal mixer and summing was much less advanced. Ever since the HD system I have done the due diligence on the "do it both ways" thing. I actually have a bunch of friends who do it — I won't name them in case they don't want to be called out on it, but certainly more famous engineers than me. Some songs I hear a little difference. But at this point, I am comfortable with, "If this song sucks, that's not why." I've used some of the summing things — some of them are really nice. Using the [Digidesign] 192 I/O and the internal mixer I have been completely satisfied, especially with then adding into it the things I can do with the internal summing and some of the really well-made plug-ins on the stereo bus. I use the [PSP] Vintage Warmer. There's a bunch of things that have really taken into account how it works — not just, "Crush, fill, destroy." Maybe it's even making up for some of the things that would otherwise bother me about the summing. I am not here to say that summing versus putting it out of summing boxes is something that is iron clad one way or the other, but I am saying that I am comfortable that the difference is not something that I can't overcome with my mixing. I am not going to launch into a rap about the whole analog/digital thing, because I know that has been well worn through your magazine's history.
