I get Electronic Musician magazine and everytime I read through it, I'm always amazed at the vast amount of audio hardware available from a host of different companies. Many of these things I have no clue as to their actual application in audio production and the more devices I see and read about, the more confused I become.

The same thing happened when I clicked on the thread in this forum for X-Orcism and visited the Solid-State-Logic website. Among other things they make this crazy looking box called the SuperAnalouge and from what I'm reading, it sounds like something I could benefit from if I had several thousand dollars to blow. I say all of this because I can't help but wonder what benefit I'm missing out on by any one of these devices I see and read about in these magazines or online. Maybe many are overkill and are not necessary but I'm always wanting to better myself and my studio but with so many choices of hardware I don't know where to begin. What do you all think?

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Well if you list some specific devices, I'm sure some of us can tell you what they do.

The SSL SuperAnalogue you mentioned is a hardware channel strip. A channel strip is basically an EQ, Compressor, and Gate all in one unit, although different manufacturers may put different things in it. Generally all channels strips will include at the very least an EQ and a compressor and some will include a gate and/or limiter as well.

The idea in audio production for a chanel strip is basically the same as the way you would use a software EQ/Compressor. Things like this are generally aimed at more of the high end live recording market. Electronic musicians can get away with using software for things like this, although you'd definitely notice a difference if you ran a hardware synth through it versus just recording it straight into your audio interface.

This thing with stuff like this is that you start getting into needing other fairly high end components to realize the full benefits and this can get expensive very quickly. High end AD conversion along with great monitors (not just good) is a must to really get the most out of something like this, which is why you usually only see this type of stuff in expensive studios. Most dance musicians simply can't afford gear in this range (with a few exceptions).

Thanks Eric that is precisely the kind of answer I was looking for.

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Stop reading the magazines and go give your Virus TI a big hug now!

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Listen to and download all my tracks at www.gregnicot.bandcamp.com