To me the software tools are becoming better and better, and at least in my specific case, I had quite a few plugs built for me EXACTLY the way I wanted, so if there's anyone to blame for not liking them I can only blame myslef. I wish I could program and save these poor coders my incessant bugging.

I say for noisegates its a no brainer. ReaGate and Sonitus Gate R3 bring all the time travelling dreams of the hardware days into reality! All that time you wished your Drawmer could truly see ahead in time (without delaying the signal) for detection purposes is completely implemented in these plugins

With EQ's and Compressors, it usually starts flame wars, and peoples' preferences are so varied.

I usually get accused of not knowing what real gear sounds like or whatever when these topics come up

Heres one of my mobile rigs
[Linked Image]



I am quite confident that I DO in fact have the actual hardware to make comparisons with and before I get flamed or accused ( not that anyone here has shown anything but being cool to each other, its just that I'm used to other, more flame-likely boards smile ) you could easily check these against my studios sites or bands' webpages or whatever, anyway:

I really do believe that in many cases, and especially for compressors, "character" can be achieved in software.

In the following two videos, I show how *I* might use a certain compressor to achieve the types of behaviour AND sounds that I look for when I am going for something other than a technical compressor, when I am actually after a sound altering type of comp

http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/Tutorial_7_-_ReaComp_Basics

and

http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/Tutorial_8_-_Using_ReaComp

You can pull this same type of technique with other compressor plugins, as long as filtering and rms size controls are available to you.

So though I have the hardware available to me, I am almost 100% in the box at this point

But the original poster REALLY hit the holy grail nail on the head when he mentioned reverb!

For me thats one that is REALLY sore in plugins. COnvolution reverbs help, and this latest generation of reverb plugs is showing some serious promise. IK's CSR is one Im currently trying to wrap my head around, Im really really enjoying it! But for the moment I am mostly using reverb impulses I download from http://noisevault.com/nv/

So whats the point of all this rambling? While sometimes I miss hands on the knobs, I personally am entirely comfortable with staying in the box.

REAPER Basics Videos http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/ReaperTutorials