For the better part of a decade, my mantra had been “just do it in post.” Perhaps this developed due to the fact that I initially took up audio engineering out of necessity — none of my bands could afford legitimate studio time, and we wanted to make records. So, I utilized whatever basic gear I could get my hands on and tried to bridge the gap between amateur and professional via software plugins. I did several albums with no outboard equipment, which required tremendous “massaging” of each instrument track during mixing. In many ways, I prided myself on this gear minimalist way of doing things. Yet as I get older I find myself embracing hardware more, particularly decent preamps. Now I really had no complaints with those that came loaded in my Tascam 1641, but then again, I wasn’t expecting anything magical out of them, either. However, when I … Continue reading →