I'm working on turning my extra bedroom into a mixing studio (studio B). I was wondering, what purpose or how exactly would one use outgear in a mix and is it necessary? Other than just getting a certain effect from a peice of gear, why exactly do people have outgear in the control room (like other compressors, and such)? How do they use it if the mix is in the computer? Or do they do something else before they enter it into the computer like a redump or something?
Comments
why exactly do people have outgear in the control room (like oth
why exactly do people have outgear in the control room (like other compressors, and such)?
It's simple - my mixes just sound much better when I use outboard gear. But I think one day plugins will be as good as outboard processors. I'll still use my outboard then cos I like knobs :wink:
BTW Cubase has a nice feature now called vst connections. If you have multiple ins and outs in your soundcard you can connect your outboard gear and control it just like plugins.
some of us use the outboard gear before it gets to the AtoD ...
some of us use the outboard gear before it gets to the AtoD
... as well as use them as part of the mixdown process.
it may also just be a unit to aid workflow and the over all process
... perhaps a limiter on the cue send before the IEM system and never actually part of the end result.
Mastering still uses a lot of analog gear.
In a home-studio situation where connectivity may be limited, ou
In a home-studio situation where connectivity may be limited, outboard gear is generally used on the way in (ie: while tracking). Adding compression/EQ/etc... while tracking will seriously reduce the load on your PC during mixing as it will reduce the need for using plugins, etc... Furthermore, outboard FX can impart thier own sonic characteristics which you may prefer to plugins.
Reverb/Delay/Chorus/etc... plugs (even the default ones that come w/ your software) should be more than good enough to handle home-studio projects and the potential headaches of running an OUT from your PC into the FX unit, then back to another IN in real-time while mixing can be avoided by staying "in-the-box".
Make sense?
On a personal-preference note, I MUCH prefer the intuative graphical interface of most Plugin-FX to the scroll,push-button,turn-dial,select-next-parameter,etc... UI on outboard FX when it comes to 'verbs, delays, EQs, etc...