Plugins vs. Outboard Gear

[jeronimo]

What kind of advice the knowledge of the board can give? I'm a total newbie in this area, I'm also a drummer who wants to build his own home studio soon.
I have plans to buy a Digi 001 very soon, as the 1st step of my future home studio. I know that 001 uses a LOT of processor power for the plug-ins (I have a G4 400 w/ 448 RAM) so, what about using external gear for reverbs, delays, etc... ? If I want to record 2 channels of guitar at the same time, and I want to add, reverb for example, I'll need two reverb processors (or one that have two channels, right?)? Or, if I need to use compressor on the snare and bass, I'll need a two channel compressor or two compressors at the same time... am I right? Or, If I'm recording a live performance, and I need 4 channels of compression?? Got my question?
So, if I plan to record a band, one instrument at a time, I can have one of each "processor", right? But if I plan recording the whole band at the same time, maybe plug-ins are the "cheaper" solution...
Well, I don't know if I made myself clear, but... thank you guys for your time anyway!


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Think Diferente!

[Treble Hum]

I would definitely get a few outboard reverb units. PCM91, M3000, etc. But if those aren't in your budget, go for the lower end units by the same company (TC Electronic, Lexicon). Reverb plug ins suck up a lot of DSP, so it would be a good idea to have all or most of your reverb coming from outboard gear. Besides, most reverb plug-ins don't sound as good as the outboard ones. The only plug-in reverb that I like is the Lexiverb, but I think that's only for TDM. I could be wrong though. Anyway, good luck with your studio. Whether you get the Digi001 or the TDM, you've made the right choice. Protools Rocks!!!

[jeronimo]

Hey Nick, thanx for your reply... made things clear in my mind... but do you think I really NEED a G4 500?

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Think Diferente!

[AEW]

Jeronimo
I didn't realise you had a G4/400 already till after I read your post again. I had a G4/400 then I sold it, cause I found a G4/500 single for a great price (run-out sale as now all the new G4/500 are dual processors).

Stay with the G4/400, buy your Digi001, build up your other recording equipment and recording skills. Just take your time and enjoy it.

Nick

[AEW]

If you have a heap of money and you'll need it, get out board gear.
You would be off getting a fast Mac like a G4/500. With this you can purchase Waves 3 NPP which is the price of a decent reverb unit. Now you can run 24 compressors, 24 EQ, a reverb and a delay.(remember you can set your reverb and delay to a bus, so there is no need to have a reverb/delay in each channel strip).
The faster the Mac the more plugins you can have.
Don't forget you can use Audio Suite for your effects.

Jeronimo, take one step at a time:
1. Mac G4/500
2. Digi001/PT Le (you get Digi Rack plugins included)
3. Pair of studio monitors
4. Mixer (as you are a drummer you need to record four or more tracks at once).
5. Some mics
The above will do for a great start and will break any buget. Then once you've used all for a while, sort out if you need better plugins (which digi works around beautifully). I and others would highly recommend Waves, which has L1,S1,Q10,Q4,trueverb,C1, slap delay and some others.
Reseach, test, then buy.

Nick

[KSutton]

I second Terrible Hum's advise, I think the low end Lexicon verbs (the MPX series) sounds comparable to the plugins & the reverb plugins really do suck up alot of horse power from the CPU. Another DSP-hungry plugin is amp-modeling (since you mentioned guitar) keep in mind tough that you can always bounce to disk & free up DSP that way ( a little cumbersome though)