Dear for the love of God why would you start this debate

 

Unfair Question! Because high quality mixing and mastering can be achieved using no outboard hardware or emulations.

Software wins especially when you consider artificial intelligence and new tools with innovative design. Not to mention total recall, presets and unlimited plugin instances.

I began engineering when analogue was the only way, and you don't know how many times I needed just 1 more comp or worried about the noise floor.

 

rrrriiight...because we all have the budget for something like that in our home studio. That just reinforces my point. Something like would cost a ton of money, and it's not a must for making music sound good.

But if you have the money go for it. Whatever makes you happy.

 

All major grammy winning engineers (Andrew Scheps, Mick Guzauski to name a few) are going totally ITB for a very good reason: total recall. The hardware emulation got close enough to make ITB a viable option.

Total recall is no joke.