3)then end they wanted simplicity back right? Ken Scott-E, Whitest Album, Let It Rot- raw no production stuff, and then Abbey Road Walk across the street album-GMArtin and GeoffEmerick? or Alan Parsons? and simple, straight recording, mics , more of a "the clean sound returns" vibe.(although the Moog was present and overdubs galore)
I think the "clean" sound of Abbey Road had a lot to do with using a new solid state mixing board. Just read that they were a bit upset at the change in their sound and it took a few weeks for them to all get used to it. But to your point, pretty much ALL recording done during their period was "simple" compared to choices today, so even on out-there songs like Tomorrow Never Knows, Walrus, etc that had more to do with arrangement of the song and bringing in new "instruments" (ie tape loops, backwards loops, radio) than the recording techniques, which Geoff revolutionized (although I dig Norman Smith's work very much)
As to the point of this thread, I recently went back from plugins to hardware for a tracking vocal chain.
I started with TLM103->LA610->Presonus FP10 to..
Apollo Twin using Plugins (Neve 1073, LA2A)
Then a hybrid: Slate VMS to Line IN on Apollo to Neve 1073 etc.
Now back to hardware:
U87ai->BAE 1073 DMP->Neve 551->BAE 500C->DBX 520->WA2A->split to M3000 for Reverb going S/PDIF to Interface & LINE IN to Interface from WA2A. The interface now is Apollo 8
(which I needed to switch the M3000 to ADAT since the Apollo 8 can't do S/PDIF over the Optical port.)
I must say, over any mic I've used, the U87ai is fantastic, working on vocals & acoustic. The BAE 1073 is fantastic for those and Bass DI. I'm very happy with the results. It's a clear UP from the VMS system, too, which was a step up from the TLM103->LA610 believe it or not. Well, in some ways it was. Otherways, the plugins can't do what the hardware preamps & compressors can do as authentically. And the Neumann is way better than the Slate microphone on any setting IMO. It was a good system (VMS) but there clearly is an UP to your game when you go to better studio-time-honored gear. (This is the ai, haven't toyed with a straight up U87)
But I can now get anything from Broadcast sounds to easily mix-ready tracks that sound fantastic and professional and sit there just right (just add a touch of plugin reverb. I use the M3000 for some special uses or just monitoring, which I CAN do in the Apollo as well with no noticeable latency)
It was a lot of money, like $5k vs $1k for the VMS and some change for the plugins of course, plus the original TLM103-LA610 was about $2.5k
I like plugins for Mixing, hardware for Tracking now.