outboard gear? should i even look into it?

hey mpc headz! havent been on the forums in a while. been all crazy busy with bills. livin in LA has its pros, but seriously it costs to live here....
anyway! my studio i love, but ive been looking into outboard gear/hardware to add on. ive only scratched the surface with it - dbx compressor, limiters?? but i have really have no clue where to start. i was thinking of going on the tweakheadz forums, but those gear head guys [who dont even write/create music, just collect gear] can get somewhat snobby. im just looking for something that boost my overall quality of sound with my beats. not to go as far as mastering, but stuff to add to your project studio. if anyone can just throw some companies, gear, whats good as an addition that would be awesome. also, is it even worth it? let me know your opinions as well...

heres the gear im currently working with:
Presonus firepod 8x8,
MPC2000xl maxed out
Logic Pro 8
Reason 4 (just got it)
Powerbook g4 (yes, i need to upgrade!)
KRK rokit5
Yamaha mm6 synth
various basses, guitars

thanks in advance!

From what I understand buying outboard gear is like cigarette smoking. Nice at first, then terribly addictive, and later fatal.

maybe you can look into a Black Lion Audio moded interfaces for better sound and clarity. They mod existing gear and they are starting to do there own line (clock, eq, compressor, summing mixer etc) at prices 5 to 10 times cheaper than comparable sounding gear. Peep these vids. I know someone with the BLA digi002r sig series that raves over it and a bud of mine just got his rme fireface 800 moded too.

http://www.gearwire.com/digidesign-digi ... on001.html
http://www.gearwire.com/digidesign-digi ... on002.html
http://www.gearwire.com/blacklion-audio-clocks.html
http://www.gearwire.com/blacklion-audio-advice.html


Their site
http://blacklionaudio.com/content.php?p=29

Here's my effects rack that I worked so hard to get only to see it succumb to newer technology (vst's/plugins).



Still have it, and very well plan on using it again when the space becomes available.

But TBH, I miss it.

The rack gear I invested in is either gathering dust or has been sold. VSTs changed the game for me, but I can appreciate why some people love their rack processors.

Converter upgrades help a lot. Monitor and room treatment also.

You could easily get by with excellent converters, monitors and treatment and so so plugins than one really great compressor and shitty converters and monitors.

One of my most important pieces of gear is my outboard pre. Plugins only go but so far

Know it's pro's and it's con's. And ask yourself if u really want to go hardware.
Me for example will def. go the hardware route when money allows me to.

Menco wrote:Know it's pro's and it's con's. And ask yourself if u really want to go hardware.
Me for example will def. go the hardware route when money allows me to.

point is, you still need hardware for music. you still need mics, you still need pres, you still need cables.... and IMO, you still need mixers..

Remember 1 thing:

Hardware doesn't always = better.

I'd rather have Softubes entire plugin line than behringers entire outboard line.

By the way, Softubes CL1b and Trident A-range a I-L-L!!!

Kno1ills wrote:Remember 1 thing:

Hardware doesn't always = better.

I'd rather have Softubes entire plugin line than behringers entire outboard line.

well honestly... if you are looking for a very particular effect like crosstalk, ultra dry very low signal to noise ratio, and things of that nature... you cant beat behringer.

All depends right?

The problem is if you treat your studio like a pig pile you'll just have too much stuff. In software it is far easier to have a giant gear pile of junk you never really learn how to use so you never really know how to lean on it when you need to.

People who have a hardware gear pile end up with the same problem though. If it isn't organized and well thought out how can you get the most out of it?

Currently I've stripped out just about all the cruft in my software, trimming back to just Ableton Live and Reason/Record for now. Heck even been thinking about punting Live out for a while and really dig into Record's features and just use my MPC as the sequencer for sand boxing. Honestly, those two cover so much ground it's crazy. As for my hardware, I've got a ton up for sale on craigstlist, I figure what pieces don't sell I will put together. I'm at the point I don't really need 2-3 VA synths, 3+ samplers and all that mess. My next step will probably be offloading some software. Yeah resale value is garbage, but it's just taking up space... heck maybe I'll see what I can donate on these boards if I really don't want to deal with it.

My plan is offload some gear, upgrade my audio interface and just go lean and mean.

mr_debauch wrote:IMO, you still need mixers..

I can't go without a mixer. For that reason I picked an interface which also is a mixer with firewire for monitoring and recording. But I really hate to move faders in a daw after recording. Would love to mix on a hardware board and plugging cables and really twisting and moving knobs and faders.

All I can say is, I've tried comparing a synth patch I made from my prophet 600, running it thru decent EQ plugs and saturation plugs. It sounded good. But after running it thru just my pre with a small boost around 50hz and driving the output stage, it had this big, round harmonically rich texture I couldn't duplicate with plugins

Kno1ills wrote:Remember 1 thing:

Hardware doesn't always = better.

I'd rather have Softubes entire plugin line than behringers entire outboard line.

By the way, Softubes CL1b and Trident A-range a I-L-L!!!

True! However I've come back to a more hardware route.. anyway the Softube plug-ins are really great!
Checked the Softube Valley People Dyna-mite? AMA-ZiNG!!