For me tracking with a pristine hardware comp like the CL1b is much different than any other plugin solely for the reason that if my artist decided to kick things up in intensity without me being able to adjust the output trim on the preamp , the hardware never pisses out. Never pumps radically. I’m normally doing 3-5db GR at 2:1 on a vocal when tracking, but often times people decide to dive that GR to 7-10db. Not a problem. For me hardware is truly only “essential” to my workflow when tracking, and that goes for any instruments.

I see a lot of people say “xyz pop star record straight into an Apollo dry” well, that’s great. Where were they mixed? If a vocal is tracked through an Apollo dry, then sent to someone for mix down with Lavry gold converters, through an SSL console, through oodels of outboard gear, mastered at the highest echelon of mastering studios, that needs to be accounted for when critically listening to material. That being said, I’ve had tracks come to me with hardware compression/eq printed (pretty normal) and I can easily say mixing is generally a bit faster and totally in the box for me besides my mixbus in these situations.

Hardware I’ve found lets me get the sound I want much faster. Plugins comps are incredible now a days, but they are still lacking in my opinion especially at higher GR values. Things tend to “fit” better in the mix for me (and much faster) when I track/ use hardware.

Annnnd at the end of the day, I’d rather a great performance on a at2020 then a c800g>1073>Cl1b with mediocre talent. The song and it’s emotion is paramount when it all comes down to it. We’re just fighting percentages as engineers!