Are you in doubt to go OTB or Hybrid? Read this!

Plus, if you have to raise money really quickly, try selling those plugins! Plugins are mostly a sunk cost. That's what keeps me from doing any subscription. Hardware exists as a real entity in this world. An empirical item for sale!

My next 400 is gonna be to get a GSSL, because that looks like a fun build!

That's right. It should be fun…not so much of a "science project."
Agreed. hardware doesn't need to be "updated."
As many will say, plugins are getting better and better, but also in many cases you need more and more computer power to process. Time to buy another computer? No thanks. OSX and Logic Pro 9 is getting the job done for me.

Good post mrholmes. Getting the vocal to sit right has been my main difficulty in ITB, next is getting bass tight, but it might not be the ITB thing that's causing that issue.

I track through hardware though, but it's still difficult. I'd love to get the new WA2A, I think that might be a key ingredient to me getting what I want in the first place.

Down the road, once I get past some real priority issues like a new computer and a new Apollo, I might just try a real Lexicon reverb. I never had issues setting reverb and delay when I had hardware, you twisted the knob till it sounded right, and you were done.

For some reason ITB there's a huge amount of second guessing. It might be my inexperience as an engineer, or it might actually be the digital thing getting in my way.

To me its simple I get better results hybrid.
I am not discussing OTB vs ITB.

I say:
If you ever had problems to get the goal ITB please try hybrid.
Or if you ever had the feel that your ITB mixes have been a too big compromise please try hybrid.

The ITB vs OTB discussion is stupid, because a nice mix is a nice mix.

The main reason I did write it is the FUN factor.
I have no fun doing it all on a TFT screen....

I simple don't like mixing pure ITB.
My guesswork is the fact we stare on a screen, we need to think the mix - rather than touching a knob by intuition.
In this process of clicking windows and faders sends etc. you loose to stay patient, it starts to stress you.
I think that's the main reason why many ITB mixes turn out flat, no depth no dimension.
They glue to the speakers like pan cake in the pan.

To me all those attributes, depth, dimension, balance..... fall easier together when using the console and a limited amount of hardware.
That's all.

Very good point making decisions is to me more easy hybrid.
Use that dam WA76 on the lead vocal touch the dam knobs and TADA the damm LV sits better.
Fader down fader up... first balance... done.

ITB is more like wait that is OK but not right.
Better, but wait ah dam it the mouse move was wrong.
Ok that it next knob... same story.

On the HW I simple touch two knobs and I move them with my HANDS.
Touching a real tool gives me better control over what I am hearing.

For me track hardware, mix plugs and inserts when needed...

Great point ...
Hardware in the front or (and) backend helps.
Its diffrent layers of analog artifacts, tracking, mixing, mastering....
I like it - even with my small low end setup.

I have been operating a hybrid studio with a console for years now. I can't even imagine going back to ITB. I use plugs often but nearly everything gets some sort of processing through external hardware. I also have no pronlem using a couple of compressor and eq plugs while inserting another hardware compressor or eq during mixdown. I think a very light setting of an ssl type comp (with turbo) on the stereo bus is the bees knees and so far haven't found a plug that does it for me. Im building a line level summing mixer to make it a little easier but im not sure if i will ever truly ditch the console even though i use an artist mix and rarely use the console faders. My hope is to build something that incorporates both the artist mix and the summing mixer so it acts as a console. I had been ITB for several years after working at a popular pro studio but when I went back to a console everything sounded so much better a lot quicker, and my mixes were far easier to finesse. When i do give it up for a summing mixer ill have to buy (or build) a bunch of outboard to compensate. I love the recall daw's offer and so it is my only reason i would be switching. Had i owned a nice console (Einstein, jade, merlin, cinemix, etc... something i could reasonably afford) id probably not be posting this. And although i like it a damn bunch my Ghost doesnt have any automation or recall and that is my weakest link; getting from one session to another quickly.
That all said mic placement is definitely of the most crucial parts of recording and mixing, and getting everything right during the tracking process is so so so important. If I was a better AE I would get it right every time, but I can hear sometimes when I have to punch in a guitar part i have rerecorded and it sounds better and more open and clearer than the first untreated take. I'm not that great... yet. I see the work I have before me and what else I have to do to make myself a better AE. I think recall would help tremendously. Im good on the outboard. ... for now.

Hybrid for me is tracking with lot's of really nice hardware, great mics, pre's and compressors then mixing ITB.

My only exception is some stereo analog summing by using a hardware mix bus compressor as I mix and a touch of lovely HEDD 192 FX.

It's the perfect balance of loads of analog vibe when tracking and total recall by mixing ITB which allows me to work on multiple projects at once.

Every time I try hybrid mixing by sending out tracks to analog processors I personally find the it too much effort for too little return.

I'm very happy with the plugins we have today and as long as I've tracked with heaps of analog vibe I'm very happy with my mixes.

My days with a large format console are very far behind me.

It's all about tracking for me, ITB mixing I find to be great fun as I love the control you can have and I feel no need to faf around with analog at that point in the creative process (bus compressor aside)

It's great that everyone has their own approach - all approaches are valid if they get the results you want.

Since Mixbus i am done with searching for console or preamp saturation/emulation plugins, except maybe for a real "effect" type of use. I was already sick of trying, dialing in, using obscure parameters etc.. Only thing that came near was Nebula programs if they were recorded and set up in a very good way. There were some that i found sound very much if not really equal to hardware. But what a hell to use them - steep learning curve about how Nebula works in general, then doing perfect gainstaging to avoid funny effects and then - processing power needed knocks down even powerful modern machines, esp. for a full console emulation. Although it is possible...there are sets of programs with 3 gain stages of analog consoles that i doubt can be distinguished from hardware. But what an effort to set this up, freezing/bouncing tracks to come along with processing power, then bus stage, then master section stage...
Other solutions i found sounded lame in comparison.
Now, Mixbus changes the game for me. OK, i can't emulate a Neve, an SSL, a Trident, an API, or even Neumann consoles, "only" a Harrison, but i don't need to think about saturation, 3D, getting the bass right (most of the time) or if the top end sounds bad with artifacts. The only stage i sometimes really fiddle with saturation are the tape emulators, which are gorgeous, they are perfectly placed into busses so it feels like recording to tape in a real setup sonically. Just worked for me from the start (which was V.2.5). Now it runs considerably stable, and with the new 32C 4-band EQ in the new full blown version, i am not sure if there is anything inferior to any OTB console setup. In terms of glueing tracks, 3D, getting bass right, nice sounding highs or flexibility while getting around the "pluginitis" and staying minimal and more on the side of purity with an "more eq instead of dynamics" approach. This is much easier OTB than ITB normally, at least for me. (Not that the Mixbus dynamics sound bad in ANY way. They don't and setting them up couldn't be more intuitive. I come from the live and small budget analog studio thing in the early nineties in what i know about mixing. That time there often was a console and a small rack with a reverb, maybe a delay, sometimes some gates or a funky psychoacoustic enhancer, and if you are lucky, a de-esser. And - maybe - more than one compressor and/or limiter. Maximum 3 of them.  Just can't get this right ITB with such limitations. In Mixbus i am sometimes surprised, how minimal i can stay because the console glueing thing just works and the EQs and filters just sound right. To me, the digital filters in most EQs ITB don't feel right. ITB EQs are great for surgical operations on tracks or sums and i don't want to miss this, but i never felt i can get the console feeling.
On most ITB EQs i do like cutting frequencies but boosting them does not feel right to me.
Just still trying to get more out of the control surface for my controller hardware (TASCAM US-2400, B.ringer BCF2000/BCR2000) for Mixbus, but i guess i have everything like i want it to be soon.
Nevertheless, we just set up a console again, it was fun to rebuild and bring it back to life again.
But instantly i miss the total recall thing when i want to work on the same track later. OK, nowadays you can make photos with a mobile instead of recall sheets, but it still sucks. Not only it costs time, but you never get the exact same thing again. Too many small differences and it just does not sound the same really, more like "in the ballpark of last times mix"....
Hybrid studio?
Sure, what else. You already have an analog signal path on each recording before the AD (except for software synths). And DA->AD loops really are not half as critical as they used to be 20 years ago. If the processing you want to make in an analog DAW insert is so small, that it does not outweighs the converting artifacts of half decent converters, it most certainly is superfluous.

That's fine, but what about the limits of it?

On the EP I'm currently working on we have a loud section at the end of one of the tunes, so I automated a set of compressors to hit the room mics just for the end to get the cymbals really swelling and thrashing. It was easy to try, I didn't need to worry abut the number I used or reconnecting it or remembering to turn it on on the first downbeat after the fill. It'd also have required me to do 3 at once, and to have 3 broadcast limiters. Then send them the mix, wait for feedback and get back to work on the choir recording I did the other day. No thanks.