Hardware provides immediacy?

I feel like HW has a larger sweet spot, especially compressors. In my experience, its a bit easier to get something punchy/upfront because it at least seems you can hit things a little bit harder before it sounds lifeless or unnatural. Now, that doesn't mean I can't get the same result ITB....but I may have to use several plugins doing little bits to do what I can do quickly with one EQ and/or compressor in the HW realm. As far as immediacy with EQ, I still feel HW has an edge when it comes to boosting top end....you can get an extra couple of dB before it starts sounding brittle or harsh.

I think there’s something psychological, and tangible, about having your hands on an actual knob. It allows part of your brain to relax because you’re not looking at a screen and for me, I listen better. Like the others have said, with HW I’m not really caring about the “numbers”, just how it sounds. With plugins I’m always second guessing my self because a +12 db high shelf just LOOKS CRAZY, lol, but is sometimes exactly what is needed.

I also think HW is generally more forgiving.

That being said it could all be placebo, lol. BUT, placebo is real…as in it effects results in reality, so I’ll stick with it

I used to believe this very thing. Hardware just got you more excitement quicker.

The problem is that when I went back to blind A/B, I found that the "obvious" immediacy wasn't there. Knowing which one was which I could tell the difference.. If you get my drift.

IMO, if you like it better when you do it, it IS better. Beginning and End of story. Doesn't matter if it's a Strat vs. Les Paul, Moog vs. Oberheim, Neumann vs. AKG or Digital vs. Analog. If you think it is better - it IS better. Because "better" no matter how you define it, makes you more creative. And that's the end game. For me, that's Analog. Whether or not I can pick it out of a blind A/B. Digital always leaves me feeling blah....

Well most digital dynamics processors suck. They simply don’t work well and are gritty, grimy overshooting pumpy messes because the sidechain signals are so aliased at 44.1 or 48khz in traditional compressor designs. The peak detectors and smoothing filters (attack/release and the switching between various co-efficients) simply don’t work and sidechain has distortion bouncing off the nyquist frequency and dc

That being said there were always decent ones available, eg Oxford Dynamics, Renaissance Compressor, and OldTimer, and now several rival any hardware. Right now I’m obsessed with Sound Radix Powair.

YUP!!!  The plugins don't give me this kinda feel....  And feel makes creativity mo better too!!

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Yup.  I don't want to come off like I never use plugins - like you, I use them every day.  They are sometimes better at certain jobs than analog gear, but the analog gear gets pulled up first, and sometimes a plug for a finishing touch.  

"Delay/reverb/modulation" is where I lean heavy on plugins too.  

Many of the people here grew up in the era of science fiction movies and tv and saw these insane space ship control decks - panel after panel of blinking lights, bakelite dials, meters, all that goodness. And, with every piece we added to our studios (or the studios we worked at), manning the controls of a 48+ fader console, racks of outboard, all in an architecturally-bizarre room - we felt like Hans Solo, or Ripley, or a Klingon, what have you.

In the 80's and 90's, sci-fi modernized and the big amazing tool was the computer. Think of War Games or Hackers. "Ohhhh.... a InterTech XPX 5000!"

One is a lot more visually captivating. 

Or, as I once semi-famously said to an outspoken ITB engineer, "you will never impress a client with the size of your plug-ins folder."

It's all visual, of course. And you can make a great record in, out, or half-way inside the box.

I like my big rack of toys. They run without an authorization app. They never need updating. They rarely, if ever, crash.

I listened to a few demos of gear lately. Some that really impacted me were 1)Demo of running a mix through Elysia Skulptor mic pres and other gear and 2) Heider demo with Colt Capperune. Downloadable files of Heider recordings.

I am hearing things my plugins don't do.

I don't think I've ever understood the "fun" thing of hardware.

The fun part for me is literally the song. I love the songs. I love making the songs better. I love looking for ways to tie the emotional content to the audio content. I love looking for ways to make it all groove harder. I love creating moments. I love slogging through it all trying to find a way to make the bass lock more with the kick. I love the guitar vs banjo vs mandolin vs vocal dance...and I love when the song's done and I can move on to the next song I'm also going to love.

I set hardware, experience some anxiety about making sure I have good recall notes, tweak the hardware, tweak notes, tweak anxiety, tweak hardware, tweak notes, tweak anxiety, delete old photos from phone, tweak hardware, tweak notes, land on safe settings that are easy to recall, need a little more so I get it in the box, get revision notes from another artist, recall that analog, send a set of test signals, print the "can you add a huge bass drop here" mix, recall the previous settings, double-check the patches, absolutely fucking forget something...and it goes forever. Until the next day when I use everything for some drum tracking and I another mix revision for 10% more bass drop.

That said, damn I love running the master out through a set of preamps/channel strips and some analog compression. My Stam SA4000 MkI still sounds awesome as does my recently serviced-and-modded Alctron CPS 540 compressors. That stuff definitely sounds awesome.