Ableton Forum

I want to get some hardware to take the place of all the plug-ins I currently use - but where's a good place to start? What's most important to have as hardware rather than software? A nice reverb box? Maybe a compressor?

All I've got in my rack right now is my firewire interface, a power conditioner, a synth module and a mixer. Help me fill in those empty spaces.

I'll jump in early with this and give the advice i always do..
If you have plugs that you like, keep them and spend the money your ready to spend on external processing on a better in/out box with better AD/DA..

Okay,,
Now let the hard ware porn begin...

if you're looking for effects I bought a quadraverb gt for 75 bucks and a midiverb 3 for 40 bucks. they might not be for everyone but they do sound really good and can add a ton of reverb and delay (among other things) to your project.

they are dirt cheap and they sound great.

My latest purchase was the Focusrite Liquidmix. It emulates 40 classic hardware compressors and 20 classic EQ's. I love it! And it was what I needed. It uses its own processor, so no strain on your CPU. But indeed, the best soundcard you can buy should have your first priority.Some FX plugins are great nowadays, but if you want a consistant sound on all your tracks, you might want to buy something like a Lexicon or an Alesis unit for reverbs and delays...no CPU strain either. I also have the Vitalizer MKII, wich is an exciter to finish my mixes before it goes to the final tape. So it all depends on what you need and want to achieve. I think most hardware still sounds better than software. Its just a little fuller and warmer, but i guess not everybody will agree on that.

Another approach to just filling up empty rack spaces is so seek out those signal processors & effects that have physical interfaces that allow you to manipulate your sounds in unique ways to really "play" the effects. Examples would be:

-Alesis AirFX
-Korg Kaos Pad -models 1, 2, 3, & the mini
-Red Sound Federation BPM FX Pro (has a nice joystick)
-Electrix Filter Factory, MoFX, Warp Factory, Filter Queen, & EQ Killer all have playable user interfaces: lots o' big knobs, illuminated buttons, & blinky lights!

Some of these are discontinued, but you can find them used on occasion.


As for filling up the the rack, lately I've added vintage effects:
-Orban 111B Spring Reverb
-Lexicon LXP-1 (reverb, delay, & chorus)
-Speck Electronics EQ16-32 (16 stereo channels of 3 band semi-parametric EQ -yowza!)

Happy hunting!

I still say the best effect sounds youll ever get come from guitar pedals. but i dig the grit...or just the sound of crappy converters...

oblique strategies wrote:Another approach to just filling up empty rack spaces is so seek out those signal processors & effects that have physical interfaces that allow you to manipulate your sounds in unique ways to really "play" the effects. Examples would be:

-Alesis AirFX
-Korg Kaos Pad -models 1, 2, 3, & the mini
-Red Sound Federation BPM FX Pro (has a nice joystick)
-Electrix Filter Factory, MoFX, Warp Factory, Filter Queen, & EQ Killer all have playable user interfaces: lots o' big knobs, illuminated buttons, & blinky lights!

Some of these are discontinued, but you can find them used on occasion.


As for filling up the the rack, lately I've added vintage effects:
-Orban 111B Spring Reverb
-Lexicon LXP-1 (reverb, delay, & chorus)
-Speck Electronics EQ16-32 (16 stereo channels of 3 band semi-parametric EQ -yowza!)

Happy hunting!

+1

And don't forget midicontrollers! Don't know if you own one, but thats one thing that changed my life, especially with Live!

Okay here's something I just realized...

My interface (a MOTU 8pre) only has one set of outs. That means I can't route effects in can I? Unless they go across my whole mix? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I've never had audio effects in my rack, just DJ gear and MIDI...

Get a yamaha spx 90, still one of the best reverbs...and flangers chorus and delays.
Also consider a DP2 or DP4 from ensoniq.....brutal

andrew_ wrote:Okay here's something I just realized...

My interface (a MOTU 8pre) only has one set of outs. That means I can't route effects in can I? Unless they go across my whole mix? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I've never had audio effects in my rack, just DJ gear and MIDI...

Short answer: with only 2 outputs you are limited.

The most immediate solution might be to use the audio outputs built in to your computer as aux sends to your effects. Then route audio from your effects back into your computer if you are mixing with software in the computer. Could swap this method by sending your main mix out the computer audio outputs, & using the MOTU for your effects. Depends on what you need to achieve at the moment.

You could also work in a sort of non-real time mode where you process everything individually, record those processed sounds & tracks, then mix it all together later.

Might have to start looking at different, or additional, I/O options.

if you have a mixer in your rack you can use the efx send to route the whole mix through an effect and then mix that channel back in by using the efx return or just plugging it into another channel of the mixer.

cram33 wrote:My latest purchase was the Focusrite Liquidmix.

I was thinking of taking the plunge and buying Liquid Mix. You've had no problems then I take it?

andrew_ wrote:Okay here's something I just realized...

My interface (a MOTU 8pre) only has one set of outs. That means I can't route effects in can I? Unless they go across my whole mix? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I've never had audio effects in my rack, just DJ gear and MIDI...

if you want add effects to one track you can solo that track, run it to your effect and record the output back into your computer with monitor set to off. then play it all together. it's a little bit like flying blind though as you can't hear how it sits with everything else but it does work.

Get things that still to this day don't sound as good on the computer. Couple things that really come to mind are tube distortion, raw filters, and gritty analog synths.

JMP-1 Even has MIDI to change patches etc.


This I'm sure just absolutely kicks ass, I recently came into a few of their boxes, and they defiantly FSU.


analog filters etc. There's a rack version.

Stace wrote:

cram33 wrote:My latest purchase was the Focusrite Liquidmix.

I was thinking of taking the plunge and buying Liquid Mix. You've had no problems then I take it?

No problems at all. Great sounding box imo! Made a real difference in my mixes. The only thing is that because of latency the LM isn't really suitable for live use, but thats no problem for mixing! I love it. I can't wait to mix my next track. So far I mainly used it for mixing reggae and hiphop tracks. Not dance-/housemusic yet, but I think it will sound great.