In October 2013, Audio-Technica returned to the International Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention in New York City where the biggest names in audio engineering equipment come out each year to showcase their latest products. In addition to a display of our mics and headphones, we held a Livestream event called “Ask Me Anything,” where celebrated professionals from the audio engineering field responded to questions from the crowd and online via Twitter. So, who stopped by the booth? Grammy Award-winning music producer, engineer and mixer Frank Filipetti. Filipetti – one of the industry’s first sound engineers to explore digital audio – boasts an impressive resume, having worked with artists spanning many types of genres. Recently, he’s worked with everyone from Korn and Fuel to Barbra Streisand and Elton John. Some of his number one singles include Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” and “I Don’t Want to Live Without You.” He also produced KISS’s “Lick It Up” and The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame.” James Taylor’s Hourglass, which he engineered in 1997, won Grammy Awards for Best Engineered Recording and Best Pop Vocal Album. He’s also put his signature on multiple Broadway recordings. A-T: As a producer, what song do you think is your masterpiece, the best song you’ve ever created? FF: The one that I’m about to finish mixing. I mean, it’s always the latest. I have to say, if I looked back over the career, I have favorites. “I Want to Know What Love Is” is one of my favorites because it was my first number-one record. James Taylor’s Hourglass is one of my favorites because it was my first Grammy. But, I also loved working on Book of Mormon; it was one of my favorites since it was such a gas. I’d have to say that I feel especially blessed because I’ve had a lot of high points of my career and I’m thankful for. A-T: Frank, could you enlighten us on accuracy vs. inspiration? FF: That’s going to take a long time, but in a nutshell, I think when people talk about digital music, I think a part of the reason why digital gets a bad rap is because a lot of digital music gets the life sucked out of it. And the life is sucked out of it not because it’s digital. It’s sucked out of it because the people who are controlling the digital are sucking the life out of it. Back in the day when you recorded a track, you didn’t sit and move the high-hat closer to the snare drum beat to make sure it was totally lined up. You didn’t sit there and absolutely analyze every vocal note and make sure it’s absolutely accurate and on pitch. What you did do was chalk that all up to feel and feel is just as much part of the sonic signature of music as sonics are. When something feels good, it automatically sounds better. But what we’re doing in the digital world is not digital’s fault. It’s people’s fault. We suck the life out of it and we do it by making everything perfect and accurate. A great singer will take a note and play with it. A great drummer will lay back just a touch as he’s going into a fill and then speed up when he gets in there. That’s called tension. That’s what emotion is built on. Great art is filled with mistakes. The Van Gogh painting does not look anything like real life. It’s filled with mistakes, but those mistakes are emotion and it connects to us. What do you think about digital vs. analog recording? Tell us about it in the comments section below!