Yes, latency is really important, though it is important to note that digital signal processing doesn't need that huge stack. In fact, audio DSP chips have at least 25 years of history and the result is that today you can get things like the Vox AC30 which is a digital headphone amp--all digital--that has no perceptible latency. That one in particular, sounds pretty darn good, for just being a single battery-powered chip!
> In order to be competitive with a 1980s guitar pedal, you have to do all of that in under ~10ms latency, and that's just really hard still.
Well, don't use a whole PC with software stack. A custom embedded solution with DSP can easily manage.
> Even though we carry around these super computers in our pockets these days, there are still some things left where analog still beats the pants.
Again, it's not digital vs analog, it's massive software stack versus embedded hardware/software solution.
> In order to be competitive with a 1980s guitar pedal, you have to do all of that in under ~10ms latency, and that's just really hard still.
Well, don't use a whole PC with software stack. A custom embedded solution with DSP can easily manage.
> Even though we carry around these super computers in our pockets these days, there are still some things left where analog still beats the pants.
Again, it's not digital vs analog, it's massive software stack versus embedded hardware/software solution.