Rack Mounted Gear

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phlopip

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Can someone explain what rack mounted gear is, how it's used for recording and how it is connected to your overall setup?
 
Rack gear is just like any other gear, it's just mounted in a rack for convenience. It's a form factor spec agreed upon by gear Manufacturers.
One rack space is 1.75" high and 19" wide.
 
It's physical, touchy-feely gear as opposed to software in a computer (most of which is trying to model the physical gear it was based on).

Racks are where you install the rack gear...it's all standard size so it sits in racks rather than just on top of each other all over the place.

You hook it up with cables...like all audio gear...usually via patchbays, to make interconnectivity easier.
Using outboard rack gear with DAWs requires a lot of A/D/A conversions if said rack gear is analog (most cases)...but in studios that use real mixing consoles and/or record to tape decks...rack gear is how you add processing to your tracks (again like the DA plug-ins that try to emulate real gear).

Look at pictures of most studios and you will see racked gear.
 
Rack mounted gear is just anything that mounts into a standard 19" wide equipment rack. Rather than piling up a bunch of boxes it keeps it organized in the rack. Racks can be nice looking studio racks with angled fronts or portable racks with covers and sometimes casters that can be moved by truck or plane for live events. Most rack equipment is some multiple of 1 7/8" tall, which is 1 "rack unit". Two rack units, or RU, would be 3 3/4" tall and so on. There are also "scientific" racks which use the exact same width, height and screw hole spacing, but are usually a little more utilitarian than studio racks. Finally, there is a narrower rack standard of 10" often used for D.J. mixers etc.

[Edit] There is also a high end home audio standard rack height that is slightly taller than 1 7/8". I think it's 2", which is very irritating if you have to rack something up with the more standard sized as it eats up an extra space.
 
phlopip said:
Can someone explain what rack mounted gear is?
Click to expand...

Stuff that's in Iraq?


Sorry, couldn't resist :(

See this box:

InsideTrackEndert_12.jpg


Each one of the "things" mounted in that is a "19" rack mounted device". The different things could be amps, mixers, effects units, or even stuff like shelves. They are good because they let you assemble different manufacturer's gear in a box.

At Pearl Harbor there's a museum with some WWll rack mount stuff. They have one unit that has these tubes, and if you look in the tubes there's small wires inside like neon signs have, and each tube has all the integers 0 thru 9 stacked so that you can turn on different ones and get any number to read out. There's a bunch of those tubes in a row so that they could get a long number to read out.
 
so is rack mounted gear more versatile than software effects?
 
phlopip said:
so is rack mounted gear more versatile than software effects?
Click to expand...

It's the hardware that software emulates plus a bunch of stuff you simply can't do in software, like microphone preamplification, analog to digital and digital to analog conversion, power amplification etc.
 
You can use rack mount gear without a computer, and sometimes that's convenient, like at gigs.

There's a lot of "classic" rack mount gear... stuff that they've made the same one for a long, long time. They've come out with software versions but some people still say that the rack mount versions sound better, that they are the real deal.

Some people would rather turn a knob on a real device than use a mouse on a computer.

Plus, there's gear, like power amps, that is not available in software versions.
 
Not to mention....just about every piece of rack hardware that a software plug was modeled after, probably costs at least 3-5 times (maybe even WAY more) than the software plug version.

Personally...I wish they would stop all that bullshit and just make "original" software plugs. I don't give a shit how realistic the GUI looks in your DAW...there is not a single software plug that is exactly the same as the real thing it's modeling.
Yeah...some "sound" similar...but then, there's a LOT of shit that sounds "similar" to a lot of other shit. That's all just subjective marketing crap selling you the software version of the "Pultec XYZ" box...etc.

I'm not knocking plugs...there are some very well written software "devices" that stand on their own...they don't need to marketed as "just like the real thing".
I hate that crap...and IMO, when they market stuff in that manner...they basically admit that their shit AIN'T "the real thing". :D

OK...that was nice little rant...I feel better no...BUUUURRRP…AHHHHHH....'scuse me....I guess it musta' been the chili I had for lunch. ;)
 
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