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Post by copperx on Dec 25, 2022 13:46:40 GMT -6
I'm curious to know, as this year comes to an end, have any of your preferences changed last year regarding hardware vs plugins? Have you gone completely ITB or OTB? Did you hear a hardware box or plugin this year that made you reconsider your previous choices?
I'm not debating which is better because it's obviously a personal choice. I'm just curious to know if anything made you change your point of view this year. Or not.
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Post by sirthought on Dec 25, 2022 13:54:40 GMT -6
No charge this year. Thankful for the gear I have for tracking, and the plugins I use for everything else.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
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Post by ericn on Dec 25, 2022 13:55:57 GMT -6
It’s still the same both have their place.
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Post by thehightenor on Dec 25, 2022 14:36:15 GMT -6
I'm curious to know, as this year comes to an end, have any of your preferences changed last year regarding hardware vs plugins? Have you gone completely ITB or OTB? Did you hear a hardware box or plugin this year that made you reconsider your previous choices? I'm not debating which is better because it's obviously a personal choice. I'm just curious to know if anything made you change your point of view this year. Or not. Given the choice, space and finance’s I’d be 100% hardware save for digital as a recording medium. In my situation, it’s still hardware going in (to capture the magic sauce at the source) hardware going out (on the stereo mix bus) and plug-ins on the channels ITB. It’s a reasonable compromise I find still sounds great and it’s affordable (a relative term of course) and is space saving. |
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Post by kcatthedog on Dec 25, 2022 14:49:41 GMT -6
Ob for tracking, plugs for mix and ob on 2 bus mixing/mastering. If I had the budget, I’d buy more ob for mastering. Can anyone say bettermaker ?!  |
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Post by drumsound on Dec 25, 2022 15:06:43 GMT -6
Ob for tracking, plugs for mix and ob on 2 bus mixing/mastering. If I had the budget, I’d buy more ob for mastering. Can anyone say bettermaker ?! This is mostly where I've been for quite a while. Last December I bought a new bus comp (I didn't sell the old one...). I used to do a lot of outboard effects, recorded back into PT. I do less of that lately, because things like people wanting edits, or one line re-sings and stuff where I then needed to attempt to recreate the blend to the effect. I'd have parameters and preset numbers, but not console send notes, but multiple things often hit the same effect. I still used some of my outboard effects, but less and less these days. |
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Post by kcatthedog on Dec 25, 2022 15:39:32 GMT -6
Same: just no clients, my own song, bettermaker quality and its recall and daw control seems huge to me.
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Post by drbill on Dec 25, 2022 15:54:30 GMT -6
No change here. Reality does not change. Truth is always truth, no matter the culture swings. What was true last year is still true this year. Happy Holidays all!!!
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Post by ab101 on Dec 25, 2022 16:31:55 GMT -6
I am waiting for Groundhog Day when I can stop repeating all my past mistakes! The more I am exploring plugins and hardware, the more I see the value of both. |
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Post by tkaitkai on Dec 25, 2022 17:09:30 GMT -6
I’ve actually had a slight change of heart this year. Don’t get me wrong, I’m keeping my HW because I’m an obsessive gear nerd, and I still have a personal preference for HW, but as I’ve been getting busier, I’m starting to care less about what gets me to the finish line. You can do some crazy stuff with plugins these days, and if you know what you’re listening for, ITB can sound pretty much just as awesome (just different). I feel like I’m at a point where I’ve done enough shootouts and comparisons and blind listening tests. Everything has its use and you can make great music with all kinds of stuff. But to reiterate, I’m not selling my outboard anytime soon.  |
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Post by jcoutu1 on Dec 25, 2022 17:22:25 GMT -6
Lately I’vebeen of the mindset of using what inspires you. Maybe a new delay plug-in will motivate you to try something daring in a mix. Maybe a Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor makes you feel like god and you do better work because of that. Maybe you’re pumped to get a cool sound out of an alesis nanoverb and it motivates you to show everyone how great you can do with so little. Maybe a new guitar will help you write a better song.
With the quality of everything these days, I think hits can be done with any of it. Whatever motivates you to be the best you can is worth it.
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Post by lowlou on Dec 25, 2022 17:29:59 GMT -6
I'm running away from plugins more than ever, and I want most things out of the box now.
Hardware - The UTA Pyrasum is something that brings something new to the table. A new path ? I'm definitely going 300% hybrid, and now I know exactly how. The Pyrasum makes total sense. I hope to see new Pyrasum variation in 2023, one with more busses.
Software - On the plugin side of things, I really want GPU audio to succeed. Let's see what they come up with.
& Reaper for the win, always. The center of it all. Customize it, make your own workflow, create your own tool.
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Post by paulcheeba on Dec 25, 2022 17:41:33 GMT -6
2022 has brought in different workflows for me. 1 is a console and anything I need. 2 is fully recallable with Wes, Bettermaker, APB and high quality plugs and 3 is an all tube system based around 8 Coil’s and a Thermionic Fat Bustard with other various pre amps.
That should keep it interesting!
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Post by ab101 on Dec 25, 2022 18:04:27 GMT -6
Lately I’vebeen of the mindset of using what inspires you. Maybe a new delay plug-in will motivate you to try something daring in a mix. Maybe a Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor makes you feel like god and you do better work because of that. Maybe you’re pumped to get a cool sound out of an alesis nanoverb and it motivates you to show everyone how great you can do with so little. Maybe a new guitar will help you write a better song. With the quality of everything these days, I think hits can be done with any of it. Whatever motivates you to be the best you can is worth it. + a lot! Great post! (A like is not enough! ) |
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Post by gwlee7 on Dec 25, 2022 18:41:49 GMT -6
I am holding firm on tracking and reamping only and letting someone else mix for me. So I haven’t bought any plugins in a while. I am looking to add some more things that make the front end of things fun.
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Post by Bat Lanyard on Dec 25, 2022 19:47:39 GMT -6
Hardware is where I do my best work, so I've expanded there exponentially this year. Plugins are part of it as well though so I've picked up a few like the UAD AMS DMX and those are working out great (because the hardware has gotten a bit out of control, price-wise). And their OTO plug that might do the thing we need it to do now and then but can't justify having that hardware lying around.
More of the same, in the best way.
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Post by chessparov on Dec 25, 2022 20:18:01 GMT -6
My Interface Pre's are just nice/clean. Learning more if/when to use my "toneware". Ala Soyuz Launcher/Focusrite Air Button/and now UA Volt "Vintage"/610 Button. They can be used with a degree in creativity. (That's why I may go to the Musician's Institute ) Plugs for fun! Chris |
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Post by viciousbliss on Dec 25, 2022 20:57:04 GMT -6
I just started using Fusion to commit busses in PT through the Aurora N and I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I get better results using that thing over any combo of plugins I've ever come up with. The mixes are still a bit sterile no matter what I try. But this is way, way faster and better than using stuff like Black Box MS followed by Lindell 80, Phoenix and Dopamine, give or take an extra plug or two. The Fusion mixes are wider, deeper, and have much better low end. Wish I had some kinda hardware FX like an H8000 or Bricasti to see if they smoke the plugins. Been using Atlantis Dual Chamber a lot lately as it has a lot more life than any other reverb plugin that I've tried.
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Post by RealNoob on Dec 25, 2022 22:00:44 GMT -6
Well, Q4 I got back into some hardware and swear it makes a difference (EQs specifically) and then I watch the Puremix Michael Bauer course and listen to him being excited not to have to maintain hardware and finding equal results with more room for creativity - ITB.
--
go figure
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Post by seawell on Dec 25, 2022 23:38:28 GMT -6
Well, Q4 I got back into some hardware and swear it makes a difference (EQs specifically) and then I watch the Puremix Michael Bauer course and listen to him being excited not to have to maintain hardware and finding equal results with more room for creativity - ITB. -- go figure Just listen to his work during his console days vs now…I’m a huge fan and I hate to say it but I would not call them equal results 😬 |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2022 23:41:57 GMT -6
2022 has mainly been about practice, I stopped for about 3 years during covid and focussed on houses / career etc. however its been the perfect time to experiment with HW and plugins. Sonically I've gotten better results than ever with a hybrid approach, I avoided HW that didn't add much to the party but ended up in a situation where the chain was a bit much.
So, for example on the 2-bus I have an SSL G-Bus > Gainlabs Empress > 33609 > Bettermaker mastering limiter but adding Ozone at the end of the chain improved it. By itself Ozone is okay and so is the chain, together it adds up to a nice balance. I tried doing a mix with nothing but Tokyo Dawn and UA verbs / delay's, it sounded great but the HW chain sounds different which is what I was looking for.
At the beginning of 2022 I had 8U's worth of HW, by summer I had 50U's (most of it demo equipment) and by the end of this year I have 30U's, a small mixer + most of UA's plugs. Yeah, its been a journey.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2022 0:21:09 GMT -6
I mean even the amount of digital dynamic processors that don't sound like shit is very low. Good? We can count them on our hands if we were all in the room together. Great? You can count them on one hand.
Hardware? There's a ton that doesn't sound bad. Most of it doesn't sound bad even if you don't like the behavior. Good? A ton. Great new hardware? You can count them on a few hands. A lot of the best clean stuff got effectively discontinued and wasn't replaced by equivalent items.
I mean take tracking. You want zero latency. The only zero latency compressor that rivals analog is the new MDWDRC2. And that costs money and needs a beast of a computer to run on low buffer. DSP won't save you because UAD and HDX plugs add latency, especially the ones that sound good.
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Post by carymiller on Dec 26, 2022 0:41:29 GMT -6
I'm curious to know, as this year comes to an end, have any of your preferences changed last year regarding hardware vs plugins? Have you gone completely ITB or OTB? Did you hear a hardware box or plugin this year that made you reconsider your previous choices? I'm not debating which is better because it's obviously a personal choice. I'm just curious to know if anything made you change your point of view this year. Or not. Especially if you have a small class A console, summing box, or a Silver Bullet kind of box to use as an analog insert to mix through from the start. This way you can "bend" the sound of summing at the 2Bus point, pushing things a little into the red musically. But let's make a list and check it twice since it's Xmas:01. I can get far more surgical, reliably with plugins than I can with almost anything in the realm of analog. 02. There's far more digital FX to play with ITB. without having to rely on digital hardware and conversions degrading the signal. 03. Unless it's stepped and/or plugin-controlled, recall in the realm of analog is extremely laborious and far too time consuming for the way I like to work. 04. I prefer digital recording to analog tape (yes, I said it). Others do not feel the same, and I get why. but there's a lot of solutions to getting an analog tape sound without having to buy a tape machine these days. 05. I prefer editing in a digital world. Again, it's just better for getting results in an amount of time which isn't crazy. 06. Now we're going to sing analog's praises. I much prefer Analog for broad stroke EQ! It's always far more musical if you invest in a good EQ or two for an analog chain. 07. Analog compression with class A gear sounds far more musical. Period. 08. Stepped/plugin-controlled analog units are very quick to recall, and easy to mix/master through. So, you don't have to do a lot of prep work when you change controls for tracking, just take a few photos and/or make some presets. 09. Having a great chain for tracking will save you hundreds of hours when it comes to mixing. 10. Having a great chain for top-down mixing on the 2Bus will save you hundreds more. 11. Having a combination of high-class analog and digital tools for mastering will keep you competitive in today's market. There it is...you really need both in modern times. Even great analog only recordings will almost certainly require some digital elements during mastering, even if it's just metering accurately, to make sure they're hitting -14LUFS correctly. I love analog...and I'm going to be investing heavily into analog this year. But I don't regret swapping to Pro Tools Ultimate or investing in my plugins. |
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Post by copperx on Dec 26, 2022 1:24:03 GMT -6
I mean even the amount of digital dynamic processors that don't sound like shit is very low. Good? We can count them on our hands if we were all in the room together. Great? You can count them on one hand. Do you mind sharing your latest list of great ones?  |
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Post by carymiller on Dec 26, 2022 1:52:42 GMT -6
A few things continue to irritate me. -Subscription models first of all. Adobe (and maybe Microsoft before them) unleashed a behemoth upon the world that takes advantage of captive industries and the problem gets worse every year. Would love to see some regulation in this area. -Plugins that are essentially re-combinations of mediocre individual processes. Shortcuts that don't sound better than stringing together individual bits aren't shortcuts? -I continue to hate that many companies still do not know how to design a UX nor do they innovate along the psychology/workflow realm. COVID unleashed a lot of new entrants, but the depressing part is just how many sheep there truly are. I'd love to see non-music/audio people take their hand at addressing problems in audio, as was often true in the past with respect to a lot of outboard we love. -Perhaps the thing I loathe the most is the bad habit of buggy releases coming from every echelon of developer in a rush to capitalize on the initial wave of buyers. Take six months and just get it right and save yourself weeks of responding to the same emails over and over. Bugs happen, but the kind of things I'm seeing become more commonplace are flat-out negligent. In the end, a tool is a tool. I've made bad things work for years. Buying a new computer forced a bit of research into the new batch of plugins. I've been impressed by a few but on the whole, a sea of mediocrity. Hey Jdaw have you tried anything by Kazrog (LINK HERE)? I've been watching a lot of youtube videos on True Iron, True Dynamics, and True 252 (Lang Graphic EQ). I'm thinking about buying them since they're relatively cheap and on sale. Just seems like they all sound really good and are reasonably priced (Like Valhalla DSP stuff). I'm kind of on a deep dive with plugins ATM, because I have a small budget for end of the year sales I haven't dipped into yet. |
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