> a far cry when you could tell by using your
> educated ears that a record was recorded in Gold Star, Western/United, 
> Capitol, Chess
> Studio, Bradley's Barn, RCA Nashville or Abbey Road in the 60's.

This doesn't have as much to do with the advent of digital recording as 
it does the introduction of outboard effects boxes, the tendency 
towards heavy isolation between mics, and tons of overdubbing and 
re-tracking of parts brought on by 24-track tape. Back then, those 
studios' recordings could be picked out of a lineup because they all 
used custom built gear (often built in house) and were extremely 
limited in outboard effects processing. So, they would pipe thing into 
their own custom echo chambers (usually big tiled rooms under the 
studios) and use the natural ambience in their huge tracking rooms. 
Plus, usually they were limited to a handful of mic inputs and had 
limited ability to overdub. You got it right in the recording or you 
didn't get it. There was a lot of bleed in the mics, which added to the 
ambience. You also had a very strict concept of recording setup from 
studio to studio. The engineers usually had one accepted way they were 
allowed to place the musicians and mics... no experimentation allowed. 
Thanks to engineers like Geoff Emerick, who constantly pushed the 
envelop away from those white lab-coat days, recording became much more 
experimental and the continuous search for new sounds began.

Ryan