Been reading a bunch of threads here, and reading Q&A and watching interviews from Andrew Scheps....as a MIX Engineer mixing ITB...gear is sort of pointless.

Things you absolutely need:
Computer
DAW
Interface / Quality DA Converters
Monitors
Plug-ins

I think thats it....?

I mainly mix sessions that are emailed to me by local musicians and artists...and I've got a nice bit of play money saved up to buy...

Oooooo an SSL Bus Compressor would be nice! Bought a Chameleon labs 7720 and sold it...opted for The Glue and T-racks Bus Compressor...both of which have the sidechain HPF that I LOOOOVE.

Oooooo a SUMMING MIXER would be awesome! Meeeehhhhh...digital summing is good.

I feel like I have everything I Need....I got

RME Babyface Pro
Plugins
Pro Tools 2020
Yamaha MSP10 Studio
Yamaha NS10M Studio
Room Treatment

Im losing my slut-ness my friends...I ended up selling more gear than I bought for the first time ever.

Mixing ITB is boring and cheap, but convenient and adequate. I guess i'll save the cash for a down payment on a new house one day.

I feel the opposite... I am really not having fun making music with a mouse..

If you have over 500 plugins, you move out of the un-slut like classification.

I've been on a computer since the 90s heavy....I was a heavy PC gamer, Warcraft, Warcraft 2, Diablo, and Starcraft....heavy mouse movements. The mouse has become apart of me...I am mouse...mouse is me.

Not quite 500 lol. I do have hundreds, but I use maybe a good rotation of 40-50 plugins...probably not even that. Im a creature of habit and I tend to use alot of the same stuff...might mix it up and use something different here and there.

Lighten up! You can still wh0re yourself out. Build yourself a disgusting mic & preamp collection.

MAN, you have no idea how much I would LOVE to buy a nice mic and a preamp, get an EQ and compressor...some gooooood stuff...but then I think, but why? I don't record anyone...most of the people I mix for record themselves and send their Pro Tools sessions out to me mix...

I would record people, but I dont really have the space to invite people into my home and record...I have a sick mother that stays with us, 2 loud kids who love to talk with their friends while they game online, and 2 dogs who bark at everything that moves outside. Plus my social anxiety...yikes.

Mixing isn't about the gear.

The better you get at mixing the more true that becomes. The gear is the set of tools you're using to build a thing. Only in this profession have I seen people obsess over the tools. Architects design things. Carpenters fashion things out of wood. Glass blowers make glassware and sculpture. Artists create various works.

All of these professions and many more, creative and utilitarian, require tools. All of them have levels to their quality of tools and all of them appreciate quality.

But none of them are as sheeplike and silly as the audio production community that goes out of the way to obsess about tools as though all you need is the right tools to be legitimate, or to get high quality work done. It's so stupid it's like pre-school with adults.

I both have and appreciate analog signal processing gear. But ultimately I've found that maintaining a flexible, comprehensive all analog mix setup that could rival a good ITB setup is so crazy expensive that it's not worth it if getting things done is your goal over looking cool.

I want to get things done. And I don't want to pay tens to hundreds of thousands to keep my options open. Yeah you can buy a cute little mini analog setup and then congratulations you're a cool kid with a lot of metal boxes. But that doesn't make your mixes good. I guess it's good for the ego. But why tf would I care what a bunch of randoms think about my equipment? That would be the definition of insecure.

After years of being ITB, I said screw it and bought a small console and outboard. It makes me so happy not having to reach for a plugin.

Meh. Whatever works for you!

Mixing a boring song...is Mixing a Boring Song, no matter how much it cost you,

Yes those are the only game i play too.. using a mouse for gaming is ok. but i don't know.. For music its weird i don't feel inspired to work with the mouse.. its ok for some things... but its just not inspiring... thats why i just ordered a Nob control

I also recently got a console so now i got my hands on both worlds.. I feel better this way, always ready to try any stupid idea i got on the moment and experiments with weird stuff Sylvia Massy style you know..

I feel more inspired just by having more possibilities..

+100. There is a last 10-20% or so of a mix that I have never been able to get to sound right ITB. Outboard gear, summing, and analog mix bus makes this sooooo much easier. All of these examples of pro mix engineers mixing in the box are receiving extremely well recorded tracks. In general they are doing far less manipulation that the average non-pro mixer.

None of the music I mix is boring. Never claimed it was. Not sure where you got that from.

Holy shiiet, did I write this? Literally went down this same road over a month ago and ended up not enjoying the hardware side of it at all. Sold my Bus Comp and my D-Box. Kept my Babyface Pro though

I've got a couple compressors but I use them strictly for tracking

And THIS here...is the conclusion i've came to when I started mixing ITB. I was buying things merely to experiment. Like "ooo what would my stuff sound like if I had a hardware SSL style bus compressor?...what if I had a summing mixer...etc."

I would buy things, use for a few months...find out plug-ins do exactly what I could do with the hardware units, with the added convenience factor of being able to re-call sessions and settings exactly as I left with them without charts and sheets to outboard settings...and be able to offline bounce and send back to an artist within minutes.

Time saved...money saved...

Summarized -

For recording:
I think hardware is absolutely needed, and I can get as slutty as I like...

For mixing:
Not really needed in my honest opinion...

Are you me? Am I you?

If so...we will have to fight to the death. There can only be one.

You did. You said Mixing in the box is boring, implying that the song you are mixing is not enough for you to be entertained,

The post was about gear...meaning mixing ITB is boring because theres no need for exciting gear.

No, now don’t be picking fights, you..... crazy person! Remember your social anxieties?

Diversify between IRA, stock investing and save some cash. Also donate to a charity for a tax write off.

The music business went corporate a long, long time ago hence the way its run is more like a giant hedge fund( risk analysis, software analysis in what artist and songs are worth investing in, putting billions of dollars in marketing over the "art" itself and developing AI software that can better predict what has the best chances of a financial return) that it makes sense that the tools to produce said product has become more automated and made for repeatability.

From selling Tunes. To selling Auto Tunes.
Chris

Where am I picking a fight? How am I crazy?

Did that years ago. But yea great advice!

Literally!

Well invest more!

Its become the one industry that is "Coronavirus" proof.

The gear thing is for all intents and purposes is a grown up hobby. Like collecting watches, cars, arts, comic books, etc.
Or like the carpenter that has million of tools and doodads in his garage for every job in the book.
When he is building houses or in this case flipping houses for a living, is he really going to used that expensive Marfell mortiser or will he just go ghetto and dirty with the trusty Jigsaw?

full support for the op:

mixing itb IS boring...

...which is the very reason why i wen't back to mixing on desks some years ago; it's NOT that itb mixes lacked anything - except for the fun!

Started on a board > in the 70's >> wouldn't know how to mix == without faders under the hands ...

Very little mouse moving with our DAW -- knobs and faders -- external effects mainly -- 24 years on one of these ... Mixdown with 48 channels

Many plugins are just as good as the hardware. Said it before, saying it again.

Recorded comparison examples please!
Chris