i've had this discussion a million of times, like lots of people,
and i am still convinced that Hardware is better,
for me that is,
why better?
most of my hardware does sound BETTER than the plugins i got,
u can sell hardware when u get fed up, try to sell software,,,,héhé, aint easy,
u get knobs and buttons, which is awesome, and u'll use your ears more instead of your eyes and your index finger...click...click...
now, what exactly do you want to record?
this year i bought
a Lexicon Alex reverb for about $90,
it sounds much better than all software i got,
you can't tweak it much, not as much fun as software,
but god the sound is OK !
compressors? i love to use software limiters,
and i always got hardware compressors on my mixer when i record (drums and stuff)
i got a DBX 166a (dual channel comp + gate) + limiter
and two 166XL's (sound a bit nicer)
these units are "cheap" and work well, they don't sound disgusting,
even nice to me, allthough i know some people that say DBX can be noizy and stuff....its OK for me !
much much much much better than behringer i think
dbx 166XL - new $190
and u get two channels of comp...and u can link them so u got a stereo comp. nice no?
and ehm, i'd stay away from Multi fx machines,
i had a few of them, yeah yeah, fun fun, for a while,
but when u start to get serious u find out that ALL the sounds suck,
u get lots of sounds, but where's the quality?
for me hardware is ONE box that does ONE thing
-verb
-compressing (+gate here...hehe)
-eq
for me software is more like for fun,
i try to get a real decent mix with hardware, once its on the computer its ready to get mixed down again and to get pre mastered...
plugins are helpful to beefen up and clean up the sound...
but remember,
how many times do you think "i'll fix it in the mix",
and u can't get rid of the rotten dirty sound u recorded?
happened to me all the time...now i fix things before the mix
