Is it possible to have a professional and quality ITB mix (or mastering) that is as good as a mix (or mastering) made with hardware?

Personally, I think that today, with the computers, the software and all the tools available, it is possible to do as well and even to do even better than before.

And you, what do you think?

 

Hardware still wins for me

 

Be careful, the question is not which one you prefer.
The question is which of the 2 is more efficient to offer you the best quality of mix or mastering today.

 

Last edited: Nov 4, 2020

Hybrid.

 

Ah, Ah... Cheater

 

If you want to experience pure hell concerning recall, go for Hardware, especially for post production.

 

Ok.
Then my answer is : if you have enough money, hardware wins.

 

After more than 10 years as an audio engineer and producer the answer is YES....YOU....CAN...
Not to mention the crazy difference in convenience between using software VS hardware. With hardware you can't recall, undo, redo, save presets (not many at least). The benefits of going ITB far outweigh any perceived advantages that hardware has in sound quality (in my opinion).

And I say "perceived" advantages for a reason. Of course anyone who has thousands of dollars worth of hardware will tell you they're far superior, that's only natural. But I guarantee that in a blind test, very few people will be able to tell the difference.

Normal everyday listeners of course will have no idea if you used a stock EQ plugin or an SSL console, nor should they care, which they don't, and neither should you.

Go ITB, learn the techniques, be happy

 

Last edited: Nov 4, 2020

Hardware wins for true character, warmth, fatness, mojo, vibe and other Steven Slate's epithets. No aliasing, quantisation errors, sample rate/bit depth dependency (if analog gear) until it gets to/from ADC/DAC, but analog maybe noisier, dirtier....Analog has no latency.

ITB software is for fast, surgical works, flexibility, way cheaper + free stuff, preset recalling, AI/machine learning, cleaner results, go to for editing/restoration works, some unique stuff not available in analog, as well as almost close analog emulations (from year to year better and better algos) and other advantages. Some problems of digitalism: aliasing, quantization distortion, jitter, lossy codecs, near Nyquist problems, latency, linear phase pre-ringing, different filter qualities affects overall processing quality, other DSP problems......everything can be splved, minimized, compromised, but requires more maths, better algos, dsp skills of developers.... also requires CPU/RAM performance, speed for precise and better quality etc

 

Last edited: Nov 4, 2020

Choose with heart or reason ?

 

Take a listen at this Elysia Xpressor demo.I don't know any software compressor of this audio quality.

 

Mpressor hardware too:

 

Obviously top audio-pro gear sounds better than any of its virtual emulations and anyone who has used "the real thing" can confirm. Virtual emulation does exist and works for these purposes:

Low price
If I were to use all my apps and plugins in their original hardware version, I would have a multimillion dollar studio

Ease of use
Using only gear, I would need an airport hangar to put my studio in, not to mention the miles of cables needed to connect everything. Just imagine you're dealing with a 40-track project using only outboard gear - a nightmare!

-----

It remains crucial to have audio-pro gear while working ITB when we talk about:

• Mic
• preamp / channel strip
• audio interface
• Studio monitors

There is this strong hipster trend now to go back to the past, to use real keyboards / mixer / mastering compressor etc.. (I confess: I am a victim of this trend too) but in my workflow I consider it only a fun diversion: going back to producing music 100 % outboard gear as they did in the 80s would be too time-consuming, expensive, impractical

 

With intuition, logic and with love

 

Vote me, Im building a wall around Silicon Valley so all the entrepreneurs have to work their hardest to give us the best plugins on earth!
Fucking leftists using Hardware but that costs money for the electricity and pollutes the environment with plastic, such hypocrites

 

Hardware is better if you want some specific color of a piece of equipment or to sound exactly like something from a certain era, with all ITB you can achieve a great sound to, but with less of that "color". Is that "color" a good thing or not, it's a matter of personnal taste, and also of genre (hard riddim/dubstep will probably sound better ITB than on a 100% hardware setup).

So there is not one better than another, as long as you know how to use your tool and know what you want. The lack of option in hardware (unless you got unlimited money) can be a good way to focus more on what you got, but is also not really great for large session with automation and preset recall, so you have to commit to what you're doing.
Doing the same with plugin give you more option but having to much option can put you in an eternal rabbit hole of tweaking and "make it perfect".

You can achieve great mix and mastering with both, just with different color, but in 2020, none is really better than the other, one got more option, the other push you to commit to what you're doing, but if you know how to use the tools, you can achieve great sound with both

 

Noobs, what are you talking about? Have a look, here's the winner (or at least one of them)

Spoiler

OP didn't say anything about analogue, right?

 

You can do well with either, or a combination. Whatever works best for you based on experience will get you the most workflow. I like hardware for some things, For other processing, no need for hardware. My friend Elise Morris had her album done at Gateway. Bob Ludwig's Mastering studio. She told me it was mastered all with VST. hard to argue with that. ( One of Bob's engineers, not Bob himself.)

 

@11Fletcher, If you want a studio with the same amount of hardware as some plugins that some people here have on their computers, you need an Amazon warehouse