Heres a question for you: ---> Plugin Effects or Hardware effects?

anppilot

Never Act Like U Know All
What is your opinions about whether to use plugin effects or a stand alone effect unit?

My opinion is that I feel depending on the "feel" I want on a track, such as a little flange on vocals, I'd much rather use a external processor. I havent seen any really "decent" (in my opinion) plugin flanges.

I'm a Cubase VST user. I have a really decent home/project studio (as far as equipment goes), but were buying a house soon and I will design a professional looking studio at that point .... it just sux being in a apartment right now. But anyway, back to the subject at hand.

I use the Espacial (reverb) and Chorus that comes with Cubase, and there nice ... really nice. But I also use a Midiverb 4, and a Roland SRV-3030. The Roland has a really good, quality sound, and the Delays are decent on the Midiverb. But what about other plugins out there besides the highend plug-in sets such as the "Waves" plugins? I've read where alot of Protools guys use the "Waves" but they cost a good penny, not that its out of my budget. Alot of people that have a "home studio" that are making their demos arent likely to invest in higher end equipment such as myself and others that have commercial-grade "home recording" studio for hire. like the saying goes "you have to spend money to make money".

Lets face it, If my clients that came in saw a few pieces of equipment, and the place was messy, they're likely NOT to want to do busines with me. People who are out to make a "good" demo are usually serious and not playing around. They want the best quality for their: 1. Money and 2. time invested.

I have had many of my clients say to me "Wow, this is really small. Shouldn't a recording studio be bigger?" They dont realize that just because your I'm in a 2nd bedroom, and in an apartment, that they can not get great sound.

I let them hear my demos of the work that I've done, and my ability to produce and engineer. And they're shocked to hear the quality out of a "home recording studio", and in an apartment. But in this business, you really have to prove yourself. But in my opinion and several others, just a plain basic audio fact is that you can have a perfect song, but if the effects aren't there to blend into a mix well, it will sound like crap.

Sorry If I got off track for a little bit, but I was trying to make my point. The fact that effects can make or break te song or jingle, then what are your opinions of Plugins or Stand alone hardware? And If you use stand-alones, then which ones do you like. And if you use Plugins, which ones do you like?


Looking foward to your feedback.

Thanks guys.
;)
 
I like h/w... but then again I'm a dinosaur (or is that saber-toothed bear?!?!)...

For multi-effects - I mostly have Lexicon 2 MPX500s and an LXP15 - love the Lexi sound! Also a Yamaha SPX90, and a Rocktron Intellifex LTD. I have a Behringer Virtualizer I use for additional delays (the verbs aren't great on it, neither is much else, 'cept the vocoder!), and a cheapie ART (the FXR) for the grungy stuff.

No s/w for this bear! :)

Bruce
 
I don't know to much about hardware v. software, but I have heard that a digital compressor is inferior to an outboard analog compressor. As for other effects I haven't got the experience to back this up, but I will say that if I had to guess effects like delays and reverbs sound sound the same if that algorithms are good.
 
I think stand-alone hardware still has the edge at this point.Doesn't crash or give you "fatal error" messages.But it won't be long...
I mean, look at the progression of technology unfolding before us,where software applications gradually get more and more reliable (and cheaper!).I expect to see more and more folks using software vs hardware as time goes on.

Tom
 
I have both software and hardware effects. And, I find them to be about equal and compliment each other very well. For instance, the Waves stuff is hard to beat , and offers some things that hardware devices aren't really able to do...such as the L1 maximizer. As far as flangers, chorus, etc...I find that the software versions can offer up just as good a sound, but the hardware versions are much quicker to use, especially if routed as a send, etc, thru a mixer. I like to record on the computer, process the tracks with stuff like compression, and stuff like that. Then I go out thru the 10 outs of my Layla, into a mixer, and then I can experiment with reverbs on the drums, without commiting to processing a track (or doubling it), vocals, and other *main* tracks. If I need special "long reverb tails" for instance, that I KNOW I want, I'll do that on the computer (usually with an extra track portion) for the area that needs that effect. Also, for quick reverbs in the cans while overdubbing, or experimental ideas, you can't beat the speed of just turning a couple of dials.

Oh...btw, then I'll mix to the DAT, back to the computer via SPDIF, and then final editing. At this point, the stereo mixes just about always get software "nudging" rather than thru outboard devices. And...I don't care about the extra D/A conversion. That hasn't altered my sound enough to matter.
 
Waves is expensive. For me it was very worth every penny. Download the demos and listen for yourself. To my ears, this is QUALITY stuff.

Sure I would love to have the hardware equivilent of my Waves package, but I would have to sell my home.
 
I use both! There are some plug-ins that I really like, and IMHO beat similar priced hardware. On the other side of the coin, the software isn't as good as hardware in some cases. Plus using the combo cuts down on cpu and memory usage, meaning less chance of error and the likes!
 
First of all waves is numero uno. But there are close runner ups. Most of cool edits effects are also very good. Great compression. Phenominal reverb. Solid paraEQ. Good filters. Everything in cool edit is characterized by lots of parameters and control which is more than whats available with many plugins or any low-mid level hardware. If you have enough parameters to play with then youll work with it and find a sound thats happening, if there arent enough parameters then you dont have the flexibility and the sounds are limited. I dont hear too many serious engineers talking about cool edit bec everyones infatuated with waves but theres no comparison between any low level hardware and software in the same price range.
 
External Effects when used with a DAW means that the signal gets converted digital to analog going out of the DAW, and analog to digital going back. There is also a latency issue doing this. I am aware that some software will correct for latency by sending the data to the bus earlier but you still have the issue of multiple conversions in the DAW and in the effects units if they are digital effects without SPDIF jacks. I personally am not willing to live with that.

The other thing that plugin's have over external boxes is that one plugin can be used used in more than one place at the same time with or without the same parameters. Just think about how many redundent external effects units you might need to replace one plugin if you use it on multiple tracks.

There is also cost factors. While you can buy the whole Waves collection for over a grand, try spending the same money to get one tenth the quality of effects, you can't do it.

Hell, when I am running live sound I use my MOTU 2408 and N-Track in Live mode to get the the equivelent of 8 different effects units (with a tiny bit of latency :-( ).

I have been at this since 1978 and I do not miss my old effects rack at all now that I am mixing with a DAW.

Just one man's opinion.
 
jgourd...

While I agree with what you said in principle, especially with regard to running multiple instances, I wanted to mention that you don't necessarily need to the do the A/D D/A dance. What about patching in effects via SPDIF? Would that allow using outboard effects in real time?
 
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