Of course, neither analog nor digital technology is perfect. When it's suggested that cutting analog tape requires time and a certain precision, he counters with the reality that digital technology is "just ones and zeros and doesn't really exist."He adds his own digital-disaster horror story: Several songs from the Foos' 2005 In Your Honor were accidentally zapped from the studio computer's hard drive during recording.
According to Grohl, "The greatest advantage of recording to 2-inch tape is once you've recorded something, if you have to record it again, you hit rewind and it takes about 30 seconds to wind back. Those 30 seconds of peace and fucking quiet are priceless" because they "give you time to think and relax and focus."
As far as the Sound City documentary is concerned -- which, for the record, was not shot on film but digitally -- Grohl says, "The last thing I want to do is have the message of this film be misunderstood or misconstrued to say we have to do things as they were done in the past. Because I don't believe that. I only believe mostly that people connect with the sound of people, and that should be respected."
Using authentic voices and playing, he adds, is "like writing a love letter."
"If you were to write a love letter, would you do it in a text, would you do it in an email or would you write it out on a piece of paper, wrap a ribbon around it, fucking take a rose, stick it down the middle of it and hand it to the chick?" he asks. "That's going to be a lot more effective."
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