They don't have the old stuff any more. It's like trying to land men on the Moon now: the Apollo hardware is all gone, except the stuff in a museum that doesn't work any more.
Why? (Disclaimer: I'm not a professional in that industry, so I don't really know what I'm talking about.) Just as one example, the microphones and guitars these days are all connected to the mixing board through wireless radios, which we can assume are using digital protocols (just like all other wireless comms these days). Long gone are the days of ridiculously long cords that musicians trip over on stage. So at least that portion of the audio path has to be digital. And from what little I've been able to see of a modern mixing board from the audience, they look quite modern, with computerized displays, so of course they're going to be working with the audio digitally.
Wireless transmitters don’t immediately imply digital. But I see your point. I haven’t done sound reinforcement in since the 90s. The body mics we used weren’t digital. Shit I’m old. I’ll just stop talking because my initial post was an attempt to channel Randy Marsh showing the gang how to play a real guitar instead of Guitar Hero but then I talked out of my league. lol.
I think things have just changed technologically a lot. Back in those days, the entire audience didn't all have wireless radios in their pockets, so surely the issue of EM interference is much, much worse now. Also, radio systems these days are almost all digital, probably because of interference partly, but partly also because that's just where all the tech is: we know how to make good digital radios now, they're readily available and cheap, so if you're designing a new product that needs a radio, why do it any other way? It's like programming languages: if you need to write a new program for work, you'll probably write it in something currently in-vogue that lots of other engineers are familiar with, like Python or C++ or whatever, and not something old like Lisp.
