will plug-in's make rack gear obsolete?

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maskedman72

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i am curious as to what people think about the future of rack gear.
will plug-ins eventually take over???
 
will they take over.. they can. but evryone is different i may perfer the plug while you perfer the hardware.. but with uad-1's, and powercores.. and systems like Nuendo 2.1 out.. hardware isn't a need. nuendo 2 lets you track while using plugins..
so if you don't have an outboard compressor you can track using a waves, uad or what ever compressor you feel like. samne goes reverb, delays what ever.. i track vox with a little compression and a magneto with N2 and its the best sound i've ever had

so FOR ME, plugins are making rack gear obsolete
 
Most outboard reverbs are digital already anyway so porting that to a plug-in is relatively easy. But something like a top-level mic preamp will never be replaced by a plugin.
 
Rack gear as it is used for recording, or for live performance?
I guess (only guessing though) it could ,to some extent, cut into the sales of rack gear.
 
i would love to go out and buy an la-2a,but if i can get the plug in version for much less why bother with the real thing? do plug ins sound as good as the real thing??
i do agree though that plug ins of high end mic pres will never duplicate them.
 
In fifty years though, I don't think anyone will be making records with hardware reverbs, hardware multieffects, or hardware EQs. Processing power, modeling technology, and just all-around plug-in smarts will progress to the point where it will be absolutely pointless to spend a couple grand on a high end EQ or reverb.

That said, I don't think they'll ever stop making outboard analog preamps or compressors.
 
I don't know.......there are advantages to having processing gear that does not use up any computing power........no latency problems and so forth.

Plus......not everybody uses a 'puter to record. I made a deliberate decision to use a stand-alone hard drive recorder and an analog board. I did so for reasons that would not have been changed regardless of how much computing power might advance.

Now in 50 years.....well maybe. 'puters will be many orders of magnitude better than now so that may be but I suspect there will always be analog guys and for the forseeable future at least, I think rack gear is in no danger of fading out.
 
I don't think that will happen for a very long time. Contrary to popular belief not everbody is using computers to record and especialy not for mixing. Alot of the bigger studio that may have jumped on the pro tools bandwagon still mix in analog and there for still need outboard gear to get the job done. Not to mention they probaly like working that way.
 
for me, by the time the uad-3 comes out, i won't need hardware.. the only hardware i'll really use is a sebatron preamp. computers are getting so powerful that 64 tracks with a bunch of plugins running 24/96 isn't taking up a bunch of power... just think about a dual 5gig xeon... a 10gig computer:eek: you can have so many plugs its stupid.
my main daw since my delta doesn't work with my server is a athlon 2500barton core. i just did my last session 24/48 in nuendo 2.. a total of 68 tracks, well over 50 eq's,compressors, 6 reverbs(waves) delays, etc.. my cpu power only went to 70%...
 
what are electronics really? pc or hardware...

one has knobs and button's, one uses a mouse or keyboard...

ok, let it fly ;)
 
50 years ago, people said the same things about "tubes" that we are now saying about "hardware," when the solid state revolution happened. I think hardware is here to stay.
 
charger said:
50 years ago, people said the same things about "tubes" that we are now saying about "hardware," when the solid state revolution happened. I think hardware is here to stay.
Click to expand...
And analog too........but the tubes and vinyl and analog boards keep on chooglin'
 
thats 100% true charger, and ppl still crave for that tube sound.. even me.. i'm about to order a sebatron vmp2000E tube pre.
hardware IS here to stay.. but for some ppl.. hardware isn't needed and thats cool..
 
Some people just ignore computer technology. For instance, I have no idea what a plug in is. I dont know what a sound card is or a daw or a cakewalk or a sonar is! I literally have no idea.
 
just used the new HD3 with the 192interface and the new accel dsp card.. WOW.. hardware isn't needed and thats for real..
it got me so much.. i'm getting ready to build a ptHD3 studio.. 192tracks at 48khz
 
Well, I would assume actual reverb units and compressors and such would be much better, I have absolutely no experience with those though. I do have some great Waves plugins and I absolutely love them.
 
Ooooo, yet another software vs hardware thread! :eek:

Both have their cons and pros, both are here to stay. What is better hardware synths or software synths? Well, I use Absynth, Reason, Attack!, rarely Pentagon, Kontakt (ok, that's a sampler), Kurzweil K2600 and just picked up a Juno-106. They all have their con's and pros, they all sound different, and they're all useful. I also use guitar stompboxes and Antares Tube for distortion. Does Antares Tube really duplicate the tube sound... hell no! Does it have it's own distinctive sound and is it useful? Hell yes!

My take on all this is, these are tools, and you use the right tool for the right job. It shouldn't matter whether it's hardware or software.

As for reverbs and delays being digital and thus being prime candidate for turning all "soft" is debatable. Good reverbs are quite processor intensive, and even today's processors have a hard time keeping up. Plus, different manufacturers' reverbs sound different whether hardware or software, and it depends on what sound you're after. A lot of time I find myself turning to the KDFX reverbs and other fx in the Kurzweil just because I like the sound and the complete MIDI control I have over them.

I will not even speculate what will happen in the next 50 years.
 
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