hardware vs plugins

[weiss2496]

Risking the danger of sounding like a squeaking door: hardware vs plugins - opinions?

Daniel

[Rufuss Sewell]

See, I love the fact that questions like this get asked over and over again. If people only asked fresh new questions there wouldn't be much going on in this place.

Plus the answer to this question might change depending on the day.

Bottom line... get what you can afford and make art with it. If you can't afford a real LA-2A then get a plug in and go for it.

Which one is better?

With my hardware original LA-2A and UA reissue 1176, I put stuff through it and the stuff comes out sounding REALLY good. Most compression plug-ins just make stuff sound bad to me. Although with some work they'll usually get the job done. I'm a lot more into software EQ's than compressors though. Especially filters. I have a Daking board, and for the important stuff I'll run it through the Daking for EQ, but a lot of the time I'll just throw Logic's linear phase EQ on there and be done with it.

So far to me, analog hardware wins by a huge margin every time. It's kind of like computer animation. Some of it is so good you can't tell it's fake. But most of the time you know. It's in the memory. When I'm watching it looks real, but when I think back my mind has captured the fakeness. I don't know if others have had that experience. Sometimes, like with Pixar films, fake is cooler than real.

If you have money to burn, get the real thing. But don't let that stop you from making your art.

[Madkour]

Originally Posted by Rufuss Sewell

See, I love the fact that questions like this get asked over and over again. If people only asked fresh new questions there wouldn't be much going on in this place.

Plus the answer to this question might change depending on the day.

Bottom line... get what you can afford and make art with it. If you can't afford a real LA-2A then get a plug in and go for it.

Which one is better?

With my hardware original LA-2A and UA reissue 1176, I put stuff through it and the stuff comes out sounding REALLY good. Most compression plug-ins just make stuff sound bad to me. Although with some work they'll usually get the job done. I'm a lot more into software EQ's than compressors though. Especially filters. I have a Daking board, and for the important stuff I'll run it through the Daking for EQ, but a lot of the time I'll just throw Logic's linear phase EQ on there and be done with it.

So far to me, analog hardware wins by a huge margin every time. It's kind of like computer animation. Some of it is so good you can't tell it's fake. But most of the time you know. It's in the memory. When I'm watching it looks real, but when I think back my mind has captured the fakeness. I don't know if others have had that experience. Sometimes, like with Pixar films, fake is cooler than real.

If you have money to burn, get the real thing. But don't let that stop you from making your art.

Well said .

[Andreas G]

Originally Posted by weiss2496

Risking the danger of sounding like a squeaking door: hardware vs plugins - opinions?

Daniel

Plugins sucks so far, please proof me the opposite I'd love have a Daniel Weiss plugin.

Andreas

[sheltersoton]

this kind of thing runs and runs...

im a "halfway house" studio i have some nice out board and some nice ...inboard? i use both and both definately have their place. i used to have a mackie 8bus and the eq on that doesnt sound as nice as the UAD 1073... i have an 1176 and theUAD 1176 the only real noticable differences are when you really push the analog one it does something special the plug doesnt AND when you want to be super gentle it does less than the plug which is what your after. i still use the plug LOADS!!

i have an old sebatron eq/bus compressor that does something special on the 2-buss that i havent heard any plug do but it doesnt mean but i prefer using a plug like the la2a or 33069 for parralel drum tracks than the hardware sebatron as they do something special too.

a good triend of mine works entirely in the box and he is very much in demand and his work sounds much better than a lot of analogue guys... so basically roll with what you want to roll with!

[aussie_techie]

there is no blanket one is better these days, the only thing that you can say is one is better for a certain task within a particular song
hardware vs an emulation of the hardware logically the real thing always wins as an emulation will never be the same. its the same with hardware clones, they may be good in their own right but they are not the same as the real thing. however when a plug in can go beyond what is possible with hardware it is a different story for example the MDW EQ exceeds what is possible in the analogue world. if i can quote George Massenburg
"i would go so far as to say if i could of made my analogue EQ sound that good it would of been an option for the analogue EQ. heres an EQ without noise and hum or distortion products."
any direct comparions need to be about a particular hardware unit and plug-in as comparing an alalogue EQ to something like the MDW EQ and a waves EQ are compleatly different.
other plugin just dont have hardware countaparts so simply you can not make direct comparions.

can an LA2A or an 1176 be put into a plug-in and be exacly the same no, but plug-ins have they own place and are different tools in their own right. there are plenty of bad plug-ins around (and plenty of bad hardware) and the majority of plug-ins still have a way to go and that will keep this arguement and overall plug-in bashing by some going for a long time but at the end of the day you have to use what you can get and work with it to get the best results.

[theblotted]

my view is that plugs get short end of the stick as well, cuz they'll always be compared to an original. at least emulations, anyway.

but there are respectable plugs coming out all the time, and it would help to hear the plug as its own animal. once familiar, then use it for whatever it's good at.

the point is, one man's trash is another man's treasure. a plugin can suck for some things, but may work in another context.

i also agree with rufuss, they're just means to an end really.

[5down1up]

my ears telling me that a lot of outboard gear is adding a more ear pleasing tone to the music when you run signal through it.

control freaks often dont like that phenomen.

but i like it most times when i switch on a hardware unit, sending something in and the output sounds " better " to me as the original source sounded.

if its good or not adding another conversion process ?

youll figure out yourself

[ISedlacek]

It depends on the kind and quality level of hardware we are talking about ... Behringer is also hardware, isn´t it ?

Seriously - if we consider the top quality hardware (like Cranesong, Pendulum, Gyratec etc.) and compare the sound results with the top quality plugins (EQ, comp), we are close to night and day difference.

Like someone already nicely mentioned, the difference is like between an apple and a picture of apple ...

The analogue hardware of the above mentioned level will give your record depth, dimension, beauty, sweetnes, energy and "vibe" that no plugin on this earth can even come close to ...

I am fortunate to have this kind of hardware for my daily sound alchemy work and I also have all possible plugins. So I am not talking from some academic point of view

[zboy2854]

There are no blanket statements that can be made anymore. Plugins have been getting better and better, and there are now some plugins, which when not being billed as "emulations" have a great sound all their own. Just the other day during a mix I chose the Massey CT4 compressor plugin over one of my Distressors for an acoustic guitar track, simply because I liked what it was doing to the track better than the Distressor. Doesn't make it better in general than the Distressor, but I wouldn't hesitate to choose it instead of the Distressor for certain applications, and I wouldn't feel like I was compromising the sound.