ABSTRACT
In practice, many professionals make use of both analog and digital. After recording drums analog, they might “dump” individual tracks onto the computer so that each digital file carries an analog imprint. When processing a digital recording of drums with an analog device and then recording the signal back into the digital audio workstation (DAW) will result in losses due to the extra D/A and A/D steps. With modern, good-quality interfaces, the artifacts may not quickly become apparent, but it is not a good idea to do this many times. When recording a signal in the DAW, the A/D converter’s digital stream is written to disk in a so-called lossless file. This is an exact representation of the signal, and it offers the best possible sound quality. Adjusting the recording level is done with the gain knob on the audio interface. Many audio interfaces have an option for mixing the mic signal directly with the output of the DAW.
