help, outboard gear questions, suggestions, etc

[PlnsMstkn4Jacob]

I have a Presonus Firepod, with Cubase LE. I've been recording for about a year, and I think I've come a long way as far as mixing and that kind of stuff goes, but lately I haven't been 100% satisfied with my mixes. For some reason when I listen to them, I sense a cheap and washed out sound to them. It's mostly with guitars and drums it seems. I've started thinking that maybe all the cheap/free plugins, whether it's reverb, compressors, etc. "cheapen" the sound of my mixes, and possibly spending some decent money on some real outboard gear would really help my sound. Would anyone agree with this?

I need some suggestions on some gear. I want a really good reverb unit that I can use for drums, vocals, etc. Something that sounds like real natural reverb and not fake digital crap. I also want like 2 really good preamps to use when tracking vocals because I really want a warmer vocal sound then what I'm getting. I'd also like to use the preamps when tracking guitar, and maybe on overheads or kick and snare. Lastly I would need a good compressor/limiter. I use compression and limiting frequently on vocals, bass, drums, and overall mix. Sorry for the long post, but hopefull I will get some good suggestions out of this. Consider that I don't have a ton of money, so I am looking for the best units without causing me to go broke.

 

[Warhead]

Do you have a large, fairly live room near your gear? You could always put a speaker in the room with a mic to record the ambience. Bob Clearmountain uses 2 rooms in his cellar on just about every mix he does.

You can't beat real when it comes to...real.

War

 

[Elmo89m]

I wouldn't invest in outboard. Just because crappy plug-ins suck doesn't mean the goods ones (waves or UAD) plug-ins do. Sending your mix through crappy conversion into so-so outboard gear IMO won't sound as good as some good plug-ins. DMP3 would be good on a fairly limited budget, but i wouldn't imaginge that would be a huge imporivement over the firepod(I could be wrong).Im not bringing anything new to this forum when i mention the RNC for a comp.