The other morning I was looking through some old pictures of my past studio setups. From these pictures, it was clear that I have never been the type of person that got really into the studio outboard hardware thing. Why is this? Why have I always chosen to have a humble collection of studio outboard gear?
My Introduction To Studio Outboard
When I was a student in 2002 learning the foundations of audio recording I had access to two studio control rooms that shared one live room. One of the control rooms was fully digital featuring Pro Tools 5 with a Control 24, the other was fully analog with tape machines and a wall of studio outboard gear. The purpose of these two control rooms was to help students learn signal flow, gain structure and fundamental audio workflows in the analogue domain so that these core skills could be easily applied across to the "modern" digital audio domain.
This method of teaching worked. If we didn't understand a process in Pro Tools, such as using effects buses, we would go into the analogue control room for a "real world" demonstration for us to then reapply in Pro Tools. I think it was in this period at the start of my audio production journey where I decided that hardware was a slow and dated way of working with audio whereas Pro Tools and plug-ins proved to be the faster and more productive way of producing music.
The Studio Outboard Gear I've Owned
In the last 13 years, I've invested in very little studio outboard gear. I've owned a Lexicon effects unit that I sold as I felt plug-ins were more flexible. I've owned 3 preamps of which only two currently remain in my studio for my Pro Tools HDX setup. I've owned a dbx compressor that collected more dust than my running shoes and a handful of headphone amps. There is one type of studio outboard gear I've preferred over the years that I call utility tools as these types of outboard units provide me with certain features missing from my Avid I/O audio interface such as headphone amps and monitor controls.
Power To The Plug-in And Out With The Outboard
When it comes to audio processors such as EQ's, compressors and effects I've always sought out the plug-in format over outboard as plug-ins are faster and a more cost efficient way of getting from A to B in DAWs. Hardware, as good as history tells us, is brilliant hence why so many plug-in developers produce emulation after emulation of "classic gear".... but I don't really care for emulations much as whatever the original hardware unit an emulation has been based on was never in my era. I started my journey in music production just as digital audio production really started to flex its muscles - nowadays digital audio is as strong as a world-class athlete - why should I invest in studio outboard gear when I feel it's an outdated way of working in digital audio production?
One Outboard Or Ten Plug-ins?
For me, the bottom line with hardware is the price. When I buy a plug-in I treat it as a straightforward purchase with little consideration of cost. If I am looking at buying an outboard unit I have to treat it as an investment as generally outboard gear demands higher prices. When I'm considering an investment I will always put in a fair amount of research to see if there is a smarter way to invest my money for "said feature set". 99% of the time the smart option is in purchasing an original plug-in or emulation that exists for a fraction of the price.
The One Outboard Compressor EQ Unit I Own
Regular readers of the blog will most likely know that I do own one very nice studio outboard unit. My Tegeler Audio Manufaktur Crème mastering EQ and compressor. Why did I buy this if I'm not a hardware whore? Simple, plug-in emulations of Tegeler hardware do not exist and I truly believe this is the best sounding compressor around. After I reviewed the Creme for the Pro Tools Expert community I was torn between paying the included invoice and sending it back, this is when I had to consider the Creme as an investment.... which made the choice easier.
Hardware Has A Place
I'm not for one minute saying studio outboard gear is dead in the water and that we should all buy plug-ins from here on out... not at all. Outboard gear will always have a place in the world of music production, however, I just don't see outboard being much more than a niche of a niche in the future with the next generation of music producers and engineers that haven't had much if any experience using studio outboard gear. As I stated earlier in this article, I had a very small window of experience with studio outboard gear in 2002 in one of the best music tech schools in the country and the hardware bug never bit me.... Digital did.