Outboard Gear? Is it necessary?

G

Guitar4life0000

New member
This may sound a tad stupid, but keep in mind that I'm fairly new to this.


With all the built in plug-ins in todays software including compression, EQ, reverb, tuners, etc, is it necessary to get external signal processors, or is it just a personal preference?


Thanks!

-Steve
 
personal preference and religious convictions. Also there is the bling factor if you have exceptionally stupid clients
 
I currently do not have a compressor plug-in (let alone know of one) that I can use while recording, so I use a real one. I certainly can't give a vocalist any "comfort 'verb" with a plug-in, either.
 
Yeah well, my rack gear's all cheap to mid-level and I'll never part with it. Even if I may end up not printing it, and using a plug instead, I still get inspired to play what I'm hearing in my head (and hear it while I'm playing!) better by dialing real knobs.

It may not be logical, but it fits my creative workflow. Yep, I likes me some buttons and lights...
 
If I used a computer to record I'd definitely use plug-ins, since many are free and don't take up any space. However, that's one of the reasons I don't use a computer. I prefer physical buttons, knobs, faders and meters over a computer monitor.
 
For most mixing functions, I'm pretty happy with plugs.

That said - I do tend to prefer analog processing - And pulling signals of analog repro heads - And analog summing.
 
WhiteStrat said:
It may not be logical, but it fits my creative workflow. Yep, I likes me some buttons and lights...
Click to expand...

This is written beautifully.....and I agree entirely!!...(Along with others suggesting that they want/need "real time" processing!!;)

Pluggins are great, and I use some of them (some reverbs) some of the time....but generally you can keep them and plug them up your bum...:eek:
 
I asked myself this question a year ago, and decided to focus all my outboard gear towards nice preamps.

Everything else (compressors, effects, reverb, etc.) is done with plugins at my place. (I have a UAD card)

It's kind of keep things nice and simple to know that I can save up for really high end preamps, instead of dividing my budget up into patch panels, power conditioning, outboard effects, compressors, etc. and all the other many many outboard hardware categories.

And pro's are getting great results staying and mixing entirely in the box.

(Charles Dye for example)
 
MadAudio said:
I currently do not have a compressor plug-in (let alone know of one) that I can use while recording, so I use a real one. I certainly can't give a vocalist any "comfort 'verb" with a plug-in, either.
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This ^^, I use rack gear for monitoring only, or for live shows. Let the musicians hear what they wanna hear, but record a totally dry signal. When I'm mixing I use all plugins, they do sound better than my hardware gear.
 
WhiteStrat said:
Yeah well, my rack gear's all cheap to mid-level and I'll never part with it. Even if I may end up not printing it, and using a plug instead, I still get inspired to play what I'm hearing in my head (and hear it while I'm playing!) better by dialing real knobs.

It may not be logical, but it fits my creative workflow. Yep, I likes me some buttons and lights...
Click to expand...

I'm with him. All my outboard is firmly mid-level as well, and I still use my UAD and Voxengo plugins a good bit of the time, but there's some functions that my outboard stuff fills that the plugins just don't do quite as well. I run the RNLA or my VLA Pro on the mix buss much of the time, for example. I just like the image better. Same reason why I EQ from the console...I make better decisions when I work that way.

Frank
 
Guitar4life0000 said:
Thanks everyone for your opinions! It helps me decide, I think I might save up for some external rack gear, thanks! :D
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YaaaaaaaY...He's keepin' it real!!:D

You can always download a darn plug-in too, whenever you want, and it's free......but you'll get hooked on the rackmounts!
 
seems i am in the minority. i have started buying apogee converters and tons of outboard gear. i am SICK of dealing with the flat sound of plugins. they all sound the same...
 
foreverain4 said:
seems i am in the minority. i have started buying apogee converters and tons of outboard gear. i am SICK of dealing with the flat sound of plugins. they all sound the same...
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oh FR4!!.....are you really worried about being in the so called 'minority'?? (which I simply refuse to believe that you're in one!).

I think pluggins are great, if you can't afford all of their outboard equivalents. (which many of us can't, including me!).

Some people need pluggins as they don't have the space or the interconnectivity required for hardware.
But some pluggins cost $600AU buck!!...(Geeesh!)

I love the real time 'tweakiness' of 'hardware'.
I just happen to love hardware, and that it runs it's own prox (not my pc's).
I love interconnecting and side-chaining and all the changes that can be heard and felt with that.

I just don't see the pluggin in a warm and fuzzy way.
But then, a lot of people don't either.

I believe also that many people here who haven't had the pleasure/displeasure of running one or/stack of racks!...They Only know of Plugs and ASIO......fair enough!

And I guess I'm going to be shot now, for putting forward my own personal point of view!!......fair enough too!

But you know what, lately, I couldn't give a fuck....
 
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Well, issues of attraction to lights and knobs aside, it depends what you have for outboard gear as well. Plug ins are undeniably handy and have improved significantly over the years. If your choice of comp is limited to an Alesis 3630 and a UAD plug, you may well want the plug. But if you have good rack gear, you may prefer that sound over plugs. I have, for the most part, pretty decent rack gear, and I prefer to use that when I can. YMMV.
 
foreverain4 said:
i am SICK of dealing with the flat sound of plugins. they all sound the same...
Click to expand...

Oh sure

just like sm57 and d-112 sound the same

"flat sound"? Does that mean "accurate"? If so then yeah, I hate it so bad when something does *exactly* what I tell it to. I would so much rather it does some random shit

Here is *some* of my rack gear

10862285010-comp.jpg-Windows-Picture-and-Fax-Viewer.png


10862285053-DSC00003.jpg-Windows-Picture-and-Fax-Viewer.png


1086228527-mix-small25.jpg-Windows-Picture-and-Fax-Viewer.png


If I thought for one second that there was something audibly "worse" about using plugins, I could just plug the rack gear in. For the most part, far and wide, I don't. Sometimes if I will plug in the eventide or the m5k for reverb, but when the session is over I'll take an impulse and add it to the library, so that hopefully I won't have to bother the next time.

Of course, eventide and tc electronics are "just" dsp, but I've even seen some people say "digital hardware FX can be ok, but digital software FX will never be" Huh?

Plugins are not all good at providing that feedback loop to your brain the was *some* one knob per function hardware units are. This can cause people to rightly not like them. But claims about their sound being inferior in any way are downright silly
 
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