Is Analog Gear Making a Comeback? Plugin Fatigue, Hardware Resurgence, and the Future of the Studio

Fair warning: Dee Kei opens this one by saying he doesn't know if he's going to release it. Congratulations — you found it.

This is a looser, more speculative episode than usual, and that's exactly the point. Dee brings a theory he's been sitting with: that the rise of AI tools and plugin saturation is quietly driving a resurgence in the value of analog gear — not because analog is objectively better, but because it represents something that AI fundamentally can't replicate. Humanness. Randomness. The chaos of a real circuit doing something slightly unpredictable.

Lu, who has personally moved over $157,000 in analog gear sales and spent years tracking sold listings on eBay and Reverb, brings the market perspective. They get into which pieces actually hold their value (vintage preamps and compressors from the right era), which ones don't (anything mass-produced and recently released), and the old idea that buying the right gear is just another savings account you can twist the knobs on while you wait.

From there the conversation opens up into some bigger territory. They talk about the current bubble of vintage mixer restoration and servicing companies popping up, what vibe coding is doing to the plugin marketplace, and how AI tools are being deployed very differently in live sound versus the studio — including a breakdown of the L-Acoustics source intelligence system and how it can achieve up to 40dB of feedback reduction in real time on a vocal channel. The episode wraps with Dee going full speculative: the Gartner hype cycle and where AI actually lands when the bubble pops, what nuclear fusion does to the cost of running AI at scale, and the two technology shifts he thinks will fundamentally change everything about how we make and experience music.

It's the kind of episode that happens when two engineers with too much on their mind decide to just talk. The industry context makes it more interesting than it sounds.

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The Mixing Music Podcast is sponsored by ⁠Izotope⁠, ⁠Antares (Auto Tune)⁠, Sweetwater, ⁠Plugin Boutique⁠, ⁠Lauten Audio⁠, ⁠Filepass⁠, & ⁠Canva⁠

The Mixing Music Podcast is a video and audio series on the art of music production and post-production. Dee Kei, Lu, and James are professionals in the Los Angeles music industry having worked with names like Odetari, 6arelyhuman, Trey Songz, Keyshia Cole, Benny the Butcher, carolesdaughter, Crying City, Daphne Loves Derby, Natalie Jane, charlieonnafriday, bludnymph, Lay Bankz, Rico Nasty, Ayesha Erotica, ATEEZ, Dizzy Wright, Kanye West, Blackway, The Game, Dylan Espeseth, Tara Yummy, Asteria, Kets4eki, Shaquille O'Neal, Republic Records, Interscope Records, Arista Records, Position Music, Capital Records, Mercury Records, Universal Music Group, apg, Hive Music, Sony Music, and many others.

This podcast is meant to be used for educational purposes only. This show is filmed and recorded at Dee Kei's private studio in North Hollywood, California. If you would like to sponsor the show, please email us at ⁠deekeimixes@gmail.com⁠.

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