Did I make some stupid decisions with buying gear!?!

S

Sound & Vision

New member
So, over a period of a few years I have invested in some outboard EQ and compressor units. Some of them are duplicate units so I have more than one channel of them. That is my situation, and now I am beginning to seriously doubt that I ever needed to have more than one channel of any gear. This really comes down to your philosophy on how to use them, so I am looking for your opinions. I will state my current thought process and then hopefully others can chime in:

There seems to be a consensus on the boards to record all signals clean if possible (bypassing EQ and compressors) into your DAW (or analog equivalent) and process later. I definitely agree with this opinion from the standpoint that you don't want to screw up your signal and not be able to undo it later. (I do EQ and compress the signal a little sometimes though;))

So, does everyone record their raw track and then make a 2nd track with the original take sent through their outboard gear? This would always leave you the original take to go back to, but the number of physical tracks in DAW projects would significantly increase. Also, If you are doing this process one mono track at a time, you never need 2 channels of any gear. This process would seem much more cumbersome than using non-destructive software plugins though (although I enjoy outboard gear).

SO...should I be using the aforementioned process, selling off my duplicate gear, and investing somewhere else? OR Should I be happy with the FLEXIBILITY that multiple channels of EQ/Compression gives me?

Thanks for any opinions.
 
I like playing the whole processed mix together before recording and finalizing the compressed/EQ tracks. Then once its done and I'm happy with the way it sounds I'll either delete the original or more likely just make it inactive in Pro Tools. I think you can delete the track and just keep the original audio file in your audio bin. I think most DAW's have this kind of option. IMO there is nothing better than a rack full of blinking LED's.
 
Well, that was quick and succinct. Thanks moresound and zeppe. You both answered different aspects of my question(s). I will quit worrying about it and make some music.
 
Sound & Vision said:
So, over a period of a few years I have invested in some outboard EQ and compressor units. Some of them are duplicate units so I have more than one channel of them. That is my situation, and now I am beginning to seriously doubt that I ever needed to have more than one channel of any gear. This really comes down to your philosophy on how to use them, so I am looking for your opinions. I will state my current thought process and then hopefully others can chime in:

There seems to be a consensus on the boards to record all signals clean if possible (bypassing EQ and compressors) into your DAW (or analog equivalent) and process later. I definitely agree with this opinion from the standpoint that you don't want to screw up your signal and not be able to undo it later. (I do EQ and compress the signal a little sometimes though;))

So, does everyone record their raw track and then make a 2nd track with the original take sent through their outboard gear? This would always leave you the original take to go back to, but the number of physical tracks in DAW projects would significantly increase. Also, If you are doing this process one mono track at a time, you never need 2 channels of any gear. This process would seem much more cumbersome than using non-destructive software plugins though (although I enjoy outboard gear).

SO...should I be using the aforementioned process, selling off my duplicate gear, and investing somewhere else? OR Should I be happy with the FLEXIBILITY that multiple channels of EQ/Compression gives me?

Thanks for any opinions.
Click to expand...

This is supposed to be Home Recording, isn't it? If you only have one channel of anything and want to use it on many tracks, then record the thing on the track. You can always re-track what you don't like. It ain't like any track is gonna go down in history right beside The Beatles stuff. You should have a rough idea as to what you want and plenty of practice by the time it hits the recorder. By all means, record the EQ, effects etc. if you know you want them on the recording. Most of the best experimental stuff I ever recorded was done like this. Don't feel guilty just record and have fun.
 
Sound & Vision said:
... does everyone record their raw track and then make a 2nd track with the original take sent through their outboard gear?
Click to expand...

I record a track through my John Hardy pre, that always goes through a Summit tube compressor. The compressor always sounds better so I always use it.

All my DAW tracks go out the separate channels, into my homemade 8 channel passive summing mixer where I add an outboard reverb if I want and pan. The lead vocal and bass drum also go through a Summit tube eq and then through a pair of cheap compressors (Boss RCL-10's) before going into the passive mixer.

I can't get around that 100% ITB (in the box) sounds, to me, dead and flat.

The passive summing mixer puts out a stereo mix that goes through a mic pre for makeup gain (John Hardy during mixdown, Presonus BlueTube during tracking) and then into my T.C. Finalizer that outputs S/PDIF back into the DAW, and that's my final master.

You just have to figure out some routine that works for your songs, nobody's will be the same.
 
In response to the subject heading... yes I made a lot of stupid decisions with buying gear... but a lot of brilliant ones too... and the stupid lended towards the brilliant... (I learned from my mistakes)
 
dintymoore said:
I record a track through my John Hardy pre, that always goes through a Summit tube compressor. The compressor always sounds better so I always use it.

All my DAW tracks go out the separate channels, into my homemade 8 channel passive summing mixer where I add an outboard reverb if I want and pan. The lead vocal and bass drum also go through a Summit tube eq and then through a pair of cheap compressors (Boss RCL-10's) before going into the passive mixer.

I can't get around that 100% ITB (in the box) sounds, to me, dead and flat.

The passive summing mixer puts out a stereo mix that goes through a mic pre for makeup gain (John Hardy during mixdown, Presonus BlueTube during tracking) and then into my T.C. Finalizer that outputs S/PDIF back into the DAW, and that's my final master.

You just have to figure out some routine that works for your songs, nobody's will be the same.
Click to expand...

Point taken. It should be more about what works for you than general rules. That is the beauty of the creative process. I guess I was just having a "oh crap" moment where I thought I may have overdone it.
 
I made a few stupid mistakes...wanna buy some?

You will need to use compression in order to not overdrive those digital inputs on your DAW when you record your drums...you will pretty much have alot more control over everything else...so 4 channels of compression right on those inputs are a good idea...the more transparent the better...I use dbx160s
 
darrin_h2000 said:
You will need to use compression in order to not overdrive those digital inputs on your DAW when you record your drums...
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You will not NEED to use compression, but some will PREFER to use it... any performance dynamics lost through compression on the way in are gone for good... Hardware compression (for me) has evolved into an effect, dynamics are quite aptly handled with plugins (or automation) during mix-down...
 
darrin_h2000 said:
I made a few stupid mistakes...wanna buy some?

You will need to use compression in order to not overdrive those digital inputs on your DAW when you record your drums...you will pretty much have alot more control over everything else...so 4 channels of compression right on those inputs are a good idea...the more transparent the better...I use dbx160s
Click to expand...

And plus what could be better than solid physical outboard gear:)
Although I dont think you will necessarily need for the above purpose, I never had such a problem. But having outboard gear is such a convenience for when you actually do need it. It will come up and you will be happy you have it.
I love gear:)
 
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