What are you talking about? If I made this recording directly into Reaper it would have sounded way different. Analog has a totally different sound. And digital is clean enough to capture that. That's why when you put the CD of Dark Side of the Moon on you don't say to yourself "wow it sounds totally modern and hi-def!!". No, it still pretty much sounds like the record, just a little cleaner.
So with that it mind, I'll pass on the advice. My recording here sounds extremely analog, I just re-listened to it. Yeah, it's a shitty performance and mix, but the sound is definitely analog. Just because something gets mixed down to digital doesn't entirely take awa from the sound. I put a CD on of the Everly Brothers the other day. Dude, sorry, it sounded totally like 1963.
And yes, I could mix the 1/2" tape straight to 1/4" 15 ips and have that mastered straight to vinyl which naturally would sound very unique. But why would I do that for a piece of shit test demo like this? Straight from the tape into reaper like this is second best and I swear I can't get this tone in Reaper. And this isn't even a careful analog effort on my part! Analog rules, you can put dog shit in and it comes out sounding nice. It's such a shame everyone's going straight into digital. it has no tone