yeah,but can i get an anolog sound from a 'puter?is it possible to make it sound like tape?
It's possible to simulate analog-like characteristics, but digital recording is a different animal.
Digital clipping sounds really bad, so you probably won't be pushing tracks into the red as much as you might when recording to analog. Also, the frequency response curve and signal-to-noise ratio in the analog gear influences the sound of the recording. I think its these type of things that contribute to that sterile "digital" sound.
As was mentioned, using outboard analog gear seems to help warm things up (tube pre's, etc...). There are also software tools that attempt to simulate some of these characteristics of analog tape recording - like this one:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AnalogChHD/One nice thing about digital is the virtually unlimited tracks. You could record your two cabinet mics, and simultaneously run DI thru a tube preamp (taking up as many tracks as you like), and have a lot more flexibility in tweaking the sound during mixdown. Then again, for capturing the raw emotion of punk, this might be over-engineering.
It's all a big trade-off - cost, quality, speed/flexibility (pick any two - isn't that how it works?). I'm also a proponent of using the right tools for the job. Digital works great for me, because of the style of music, and the fact that I'm multi-tracking everything by myself. I wonder what Bad Brains' Attitude/ROIR Sessions would have sounded like in ProTools!
I'm guessing not as good...