Outboard gear

Musical outboard equipment or outboard gear is used to alter how a musical instrument sounds. Outboard, external effects units can be used either during a live performance or in the recording studio. These are separate from the effects that may be applied by using a mixing console or a digital audio workstation. Some outboard effects units and digital signal processing (DSP) boxes commonly found in a studio are:

analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters[1]
musical instrument digital interfaces (MIDIs)
microphone preamplifiers ("microphone preamp", "mic preamps" or "preamps")
equalizers ("EQs")
dynamics effects units: compressors/limiters, noise gates
time-based effects units: reverb, flanging, delay, echo, chorus etc.[2]

Devices

The term "outboard" was originally used to describe a piece of audio equipment that existed outside of a studio or venue's primary analog mixing board. Today, analog effects are also considered "outboard" when used in conjunction with console-free computer-based digital recording systems.[3]

Famous examples include UREI's analog dynamic range compressors, such as the LA-2A and 1176, early multi-effects units like those made by Eventide, and physical or digital reverb processors invented by EMT and Lexicon.

Vocal effects

Some units either introduce a reverberation (echo) effect, or some kind of pitch transformation or "colouration" of the singers voice. Digital units have been designed that can compress or expand the duration of sound, these alter the speed of length of the original sound.

Digital units

The invention of the MIDI interfaced electronic keyboard has seen a leap forward in the way that the sound of musical instruments is produced on stage or in the recording studio. The modern keyboard produces digital signals when the keys are depressed, these signals are processed by external effects units to reproduce original digitally sampled instrument sounds, such as a classical piano or string and wind instrument. This allows the user of such a device to reproduce the sound of virtually any instrument.[4]

Etymology

The term outboard can be considered "out of board" or "not inside the board". When recording engineers / live sound technicians needed an external processor that was not a part of their mixing surface they would go "Outboard".

gollark: There are lots of *attempts* to make "C but newer", but they're not as ubiquitous because C is, well, old and comparatively simple.

gollark: It's a newer idea, and a nice one which lots of languages now *have*.

gollark: Yes.

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gollark: They're not namespaced unless you just prefix all your symbols with something, which is ugly, and I've heard they're not very good for compilers.

References

"Digital Products". Musikhaus Thomann 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
"The classics". Musikhaus Thomann 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
"Hybrid Recording with Outboard Gear". Sound on Sound.
"The Art of Electronic Music". Tweakheads Lab 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2011.

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[1] "Digital Products". Musikhaus Thomann 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2011.

[2] "The classics". Musikhaus Thomann 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2011.

[3] "Hybrid Recording with Outboard Gear". Sound on Sound.

[4] "The Art of Electronic Music". Tweakheads Lab 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2011.