Weapons of Choice - part 3 - Hardware
Hard…WHAT ?? Wasnt i planning to produce an ELECTRONIC album ? Didnt i write about all those great sounding Plug-Ins ? Is the time, money and loss of space worth it ?
To my mind - Yes !
There still is a difference. A small one if you already have perfectly recorded tracks from “real” instruments. But if you tend to stack sound generated by algorhytms only as when generally using Plug In Synthies & Sampler, the difference is not so small anymore. And if you are going to saturate or even go into distorion with real analog hardware you will more clearly notice it. You will see - no - hear it soon 
The newest addition to that rack is a pair of Chandler Germanium Compressors (the blue and yellow ones) displacing my SSL Mixbusscompressor Clone. These versatile new units will become quite busy while “tracking” the various sources be it Plug Ins or recordings.
The silver-grey Box is a clone of two vintage UREI 1176. Thats the reason for me not to use the UAD 1176 that much anymore… Hard Sounds - this is your destiny - get squashed even more by this classic.
The Black Unit with silver knobs is a custommade Guitar Pre-Amp (with Tubes of course) for the Sounds which are not hard enough yet
The one at the bottom is an old TLA Tube EQ. Instant thickness with presence (by dialing in a certain frequency and tunrning the gain until the peak LED burns… constantly) Not for the fainthearted. Many times used as a Mic Pre as well (with the highs boosted while recording). The knobs are making ugly noises if they are turned. That is a bit annoying. Maybe i should use that noise as an effect ?
The Audio Interface is nothing to be proud of but it works reliably… if it breaks i might get an Apogee… Oops, that was my drink going into the 828…
14. May 2008 at 22:16
Rolf, you are right!
Electronic music for me doesn’t mean software music, but there is a good part of hardware that is extremely important as you posted.
I tried to do some little projects only with software and I get better results when I use together some hardware that I borrow from my cousin. …. ok ok, it’s not professional and amazing like your sounds, but I see the difference.
Thanks again for this blog, Rolf!
14. May 2008 at 22:24
I want to add that real drum kit with such hardware in combination with the software to generate more typial electronic music is very nice. And when we add someone that can play the piano directly, it sounds really different and nice.
And I think that you have good experience with that. I remember “Reality”. If you did it with sound coming only from some plug-ins, the guitar will not have the same effect as if you take (like you did) directly from a real guitar. Some special sounds can not be reproduced with perfection by software.
Am I out off topic?
15. May 2008 at 08:42
…just ahead, because the next posts topic is “sound sources”…
28. May 2008 at 17:28
hey rolf, sehe grade der gewisse clone is ja vom steffen
geil!
28. May 2008 at 19:09