NO.
Before audio recording was invented, you had to have musicians come to your house and perform if you wanted to hear music in your living room. When the first record players were sold, there was a lot of resistance. And then when the 33/13 record replaced the 78, there was some resistance. And the CD replaced the record and there was resistance. And now digital files are replacing the CD, sort of, because the CD is actually digital files, so really we’ve likely arrived at the final storage media for sound – digital recording.
In the beginning, there was only direct to disk recording. Then two tracks, then three, then four, then 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, and now we have almost unlimited tracks. The world’s most expensive Mac can run 1,000 tracks in Logic Pro X with plugins on every track. But my 2016 MacBook Pro (which I bought used) can handle almost anything I throw at it. There are folks who miss the sound of analog tape, but there are digital emulations to make digital sound like analog.
There are thousand dollar mics now that use software to emulate the sound of any mic on the planet. More people are recording their music “in the box” than ever before – meaning not using any outboard gear. A physical Distressor unit will run you about $1,400, but a digital version is more like $49. That’s the case with every piece of expensive outboard gear there is.
Would you rather have one Distressor, or an entire home studio recording setup?
People are paying through the roof money for old synths. An original Prophet 5 might run you $6,000. The digital version might be $49.
The original versions of keyboards and rackmount gear likely do sound better than the plugin digital emulation. But the plugins get you 80% of the sound for 1/20th of the price in some cases. Hell, if you run Logic Pro X, you don’t even NEED to buy more plugins for keyboards and outboard gear if you don’t want to, and it’s only $199.
When the Prophet 5 came out there were people used to using the big old Moog synths with patch cables who said “Well, the Prophet 5 is a neat keyboard, but using patch cables gives you more control over every variable!”
In a recording, the Pod Go or HX Stomp will give you 85% of the sound of the real amps and pedals it’s emulating, for about 1/20th the cost. And the only people who might possibly ever notice is guitar players.
And modeling will only get better with time.
I love my HX Stomp. LOVE it. But I also love my Bassbreaker 15 tube combo amp. Nothing wrong with having both. But digital modeling is totally the future. Eventually they’ll have the sound of a Kemper on a $20 chip and they’ll put it into a $200 Line 6 amp. That said, a huge part of a guitar sound is the cab and speaker.
If you only ever want two guitar sounds, buy a great tube amp or two. But if you want a collection of tube amps and great pedals for less than the cost of a decent combo tube amp, it’s hard to beat the Pod Go. Or the HX Stomp, if you want a little more power.
