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Outboard Gear
Outboard Gear on Reverb
Whether you're building out your first bedroom studio or on the hunt for the next compressor or preamp to add to your rack, you'll find an expansive amount of outboard gear here on Reverb. Want to expand your know-how? We have plenty of articles and videos from how to get pro sounds in a beginner setup to an industry veteran reflecting on engineering as both art and science.
For newcomers to recording, be sure to check our Beginner's Guide to Home Recording to get the right equipment and start making your own tracks.
Outboard Gear for Home Studio & Beyond
To put it simply, "outboard gear" can be anything used to process your signal as you record. This includes different formats like desktop, rackmount, or 500 series units as well as different types of hardware from preamps to compressors to effect units. Technically, you can even use certain guitar pedals as outboard gear.
Here are a few common areas of interest for those in the market for outboard gear:
- Types of Outboard Gear: The term "outboard gear" encompasses a wide spread of types of gear used in a variety of applications. A few staple items are always good to have around: microphone preamplifiers, compressors, EQs, channel strips (mic preamps and EQ/comp in the same unit), and effects like reverb, delay, and modulation.
- Analog: Do you really need that organic tube-driven warmth of an analog EQ? Maybe. The debate rages on over analog vs. digital, but the fact is software has made leaps and bounds in its ability to emulate analog gear over the past 10 years. That said, there's still nothing quite like the color, character, and overall experience of using analog gear while recording.
- How to Hook Up Outboard Gear: This gets a little tricky in that connections really rely on application. For instance, if you're hooking up mics, it makes sense to send the signal into a mic preamp to juice it up to line level.
Outboard Gear Near Me
To exclusively browse for outboard gear near you, reference the list of top cities and countries available on Reverb to search within a desired location. You also can review shipping details within an item’s “Shop Policies” section.