Getting some outboard in your life

[acappa]

I once made a short shootout between a friends hardware api 2500 and the my software.

You mean the API plugin version was close to the hardware version?

 

[gabriel g.]

You mean the API plugin version was close to the hardware version?

It was a short shootout but the software was damn close.
Let me say it like this:
You can tweek the software and hardware to sound the same. Not on every setting, but it works.

The biggest difference was on the snare when we used a stereo-drum track

 

[tenebre]

Completely agree. I think the combination of outboard with some plugins yields the best results. Never get snobby in either direction and you are open to more possibilities.

those DBXs are cool too

 

[crillemannen]

Plugins are very good nowdays. But you will hear big difference when you hit the source hard. Like vocals, which you smash. I got both a SSL and a 1176 hardware and i was a bit dissapointed when i started using my SSL because it was such a small difference between the plugin vs hardware. And that has mainly to do with you're hitting the source quite soft, just a few db's.

The first outboard anyone should get is a 1176 or a distressor. Those can really make difference in your mix.

 

[TonyS.]

But what do you do with a single 1176, for example? When I would like to use it on different vox tracks, snare, toms kick etc., I had to print all these tracks--> huge time exposure?!

 

[Trevoire520]

To be honest you'd probably find yourself working faster with outboard as it creates a workflow where you need to commit more. When you have the plugs instantly accessible in your DAW I find myself tweaking constantly. With outboard I tend to get shit sounding good, print it and leave it.

Really want to do myself one of the 1176 clones when i get some cash. The plugin 1176 is all over my vocal and bass tracks these days and I'd love to get that grit and character of the original. Distressor will have to wait until I'm properly rich

 

[TonyS.]

With outboard I tend to get shit sounding good, print it and leave it.

Shit/good clip?

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

At the moment I have a focusrite voicemaster pro wich I use to run vocals through (and I hardly feel the need to add anything else plug-in wise afterwards except for reverb and delay) and a spl vitalizer mk2t wich is the last thing I run the masterbus through. Especially with the vitalizer I feel it adds way more body, depth and warmth to a track then any itb production I've heard in the last few years. I'm thinking of getting hardware compressors, but don't know wich ones and how to incorporate them in my workflow.

 

[Charlez]

I would like to hear some clips too

 

[ElektricEyez]

Man I gotta agree with this thread 150%! These plugins can't touch what the outboard is doing. The coolest thing about the outboard is that the harder you push it, the more character you get out of it, with respect to compressors anyway. That's not to say plugins suck at all, I still use them, and I find that the PSP Old timer is a great plugin, but it still can't touch the hardware, because the hardware just has soo much more character. For example I just picked up a Distressor and before I was adding plugin after plugin to get my bass sound, now I just run it through the distressor and I'm done. Last 2 mixes I didn't even EQ the bass. So yeah, I have to re-print stuff but its faster to dial in the sound than using plugin compressors and trust me I have quite a few compressors to choose from including CLA and the ones that come with Waves Gold, plus a few PSP compressors. Before I got the distressor I was running my vox through an RNC which was pretty nice, but it doesn't go near the distressor on vox! Big difference on outboard gear! I'm hooked!