Plug-ins vs. Hardware

Excellent question. I want to know too

You can never go wrong with getting anything from Cranesong. I've been blown away by the HEDD 192 A/D D/A unit and use very little compression since I started tracking with it. Not sure how that works, but I'm sure Rail can enlighten us on it. I would up your front end A/D D/A , pre, mic combo quality first. Allen

Option #5 Stop hanging out in gearslutz forum. That's what it's all about over there buying the best of the best whether you need it or not. What are you using for your front-end? Mics? Pre? EQ? Comp? A HED would be a good move, BUT a HED before it's time means you won't get the full benefit of it. While I do BTD I still prefer to go outboard for my mixdown. All the pieces you named (2-1176, a Fatso and an Alan Smart C-2) were nice pieces and correctly used should have made a more noticable difference. Still with outboard gear you are looking to use it front and back (into PT and out of PT) because you still need to capture a certain essence of the sound. These are not magic boxes that can create what's not there so I would suggest re-evaluating the units being used both on the front and back. Also while at it question how thorough your understanding of the usage of these unit really is to be sure you are using them correctly for the goal you seek. One more thing I would probably look at a pair of Distressors instead of a FATSO, the FATSO can be a good choice if you already own a pair of Distressors. Still if money isn't a problem then the HED is definitely the way to go.

Sheep, if you think the bomb factory 1176 compressor is good then you should try the UAD1 1176 compressor. It will just blow you away. However, it is just VST only and obviously uses its own DSP card. But the fxpansion wrapper is now supposingly working with DSP cards (just waiting for the next release), it would definately be worth checking out. Plus you get the Pulteq EQ1 (or whatever its called) and the LA2A, which also sound marvelous. Not to mention a host of other plugins too. And since they run on their own DSP card they don't use up your CPU which is a big plus. For the price they would be rather hard to beat IMO.

Applefunk -- are you saying that the UAD-1 card will somehow work with PT LE on a Digi 002? I thought they were incompatible. Thanks!

Yes, indeed. And Powercore too. Both of these DSP's use the VST format for their plugins. The fact that these plugins run on DSPs is beside the point. Using the fxpansion wrapper, all VSTs can now be used with PT LE, although there seemed to be a hiccup concerning DSP cards. News has it though that this has now been fixed and everyone is eagerly waiting for the next release of the wrapper which should be out soon, and will work with DSPs. Hope this helps Apple