Sir George Martin, Motown engineers, Phil Spector etc had the simplest and possibly best signal paths ever on the planet.
The Neumann U47 microphone has just one electron tube amplifier from diaphragm to mic output and minimal number of components.
The Telefunken, Ampex, EMI BTR recorders had just a few electron tube amplifying stages from input to recording head. The brilliant engineers for example could bounce so many times and the sound is still alive today.
The EQ were state of the art, still today. Minimum number of passive components, inductors, capacitors, resistors. Elements of nature.
Everything operating in class A, ie electrons flowing all the time.
No A to Ds, D to As, op amp circuits with hundreds of transistors, simulation of inductance with capacitive feedback for "economy".
Thousands if not millions of transistors in the signal path for the beginner recording engineer of today. How could it sound natural and alive?
Fortunately some producers get wise enough to use a Laptop in an efficient, ingenious way and songs like Stepping Stone - Duffy are made. Then they are talked into making the signal path complex. The same old story.
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