There are people who love the warm sound of analog tape and there are others who prefer the cleaner sound of modern analog to digital converters. I don’t have a strong opinion in the matter as I never got to spend much time with a high quality analog multichannel recorder and thus only have significant experience with the sound of digital recording. What I do know though, is that good multichannel analog tape machines are very expensive. Especially the ones that can handle 24 tracks or more. Additionally, the tape medium itself is getting more and more expensive, since as demand has gone down, the economy of scale no longer keeps the prices down. Many manufacturers have gone out of business and the few that remain basically serve a niche market and charge accordingly. Maintaining and keeping an analog machine alive is another serious issue.
Today, even people that totally prefer the sound of analog tape might use it only to record selected elements, such as a drum kit, and when it has been recorded, they usually transfer it straight over to digital as they listen back. Why would they do that? Well, that brings us to digital recording technology.