I used to say a 4-track was cheating, then my buddy's $60 cassette demo from Tulsa changed my mind
For two years I swore you had to track live to tape on a reel machine or it wasn't a real basement demo, and I turned my nose up at every Tascam 424 kid in town. Then my buddy Dave handed me his cassette from a converted laundry room in Tulsa, all four tracks bounced down with the hiss still in it, and the songs hit harder than anything my old band got on a reel. So what is it about the rough stuff that makes you keep a copy?
Tape hiss is basically part of the song at that point. It fills in the gaps between the notes and makes the quiet parts feel alive instead of dead. Clean digital stuff can sound empty by comparison, like something's missing even when nothing is.