John Porter

I was using the first Yamaha CX5 computer with MIDI ports when it came out. I was very into the old Atari computers running Cubase and samplers like the Synclavier and the Fairlight, and then the AMS and the Publison, and all those other subsequent digital recorders. So when Pro Tools [Sound Tools] came out, I got into it. It was still primitive but it was still fascinating. I was recording to tape all the time, but if I needed to, I would edit in Pro Tools. Sometimes, if we didn't have long to make a record, using Pro Tools enabled me to have much more control after the fact. It was much easier than editing on tape. I would dump everything into Pro Tools, edit, and then dump the edited parts back to tape. I think there's an awful lot of hot air about digital versus analogue, given that the really important thing is a really good performance. How the music's captured is always going to be less important than a bad performance or a bad song. The medium is not the most important thing. The song and the performance are the most important things. I think tape is great but I've also found the quality of new tape, the last two times I've used it, to be very inconsistent… and, of course, using Pro Tools means you don't have all the problems we used to have in the old days with additional tape hiss during the mixing process.”