[New Feature] Hardware & Software Equivalents

Hey everyone! We just added two new tags to the Similar Items section:

• Software Emulation - for when a plugin is modeled after a piece of hardware
  
• Hardware Original - the reverse, linking back to the original gear

A huge category of plugins out there are digital recreations of classic outboard gear (compressors, preamps, EQs) and synths. Until now there wasn't a clean way to connect those on Equipboard. Now there is.

Example: The Brainworx (Plugin Alliance) Friedman BE-100 Amplifier Plug-in is a software emulation of the Friedman BE-100 Guiar Amp Head. You can see the connection in the Similar section of the page.

If you know of any hardware/plugin pairs, feel free to add them! Just go to any item's Similar section and click Add recommendation.

Nice! I like it.

Just tried it out. FWIW, it's a bit strange to require a decent-sized sentence of notes when you're tagging the original hardware.

[notes empty] -- Rejected: must have notes

"This is the original hardware." -- Rejected: notes not long enough.

"This is the original hardware, because there are multiple pieces of info on this page telling you that this is the hardware it was modeled after." -- Accepted!

...But I get why notes are required for submissions now, in general. It'd be weird to waive the requirement for some tags, but not for others, I suppose.

Just tried it out. FWIW, it's a bit strange to require a decent-sized sentence of notes when you're tagging the original hardware.

GREAT point! I had the same thought but needed to hear it from someone else, so thanks :) We should relax that requirement. Also, this particular form is still on the old Equipboard layout and somewhat convoluted, let us see if we can't sexify it a bit... 🤔

Just tried it out. FWIW, it's a bit strange to require a decent-sized sentence of notes when you're tagging the original hardware.

GREAT point! I had the same thought but needed to hear it from someone else, so thanks :) We should relax that requirement. Also, this particular form is still on the old Equipboard layout and somewhat convoluted, let us see if we can't sexify it a bit... 🤔

for an alternate item like soundcraft ghost and soundtracs topaz or ghost and A&H gs3000 I needed a long explanation to say the same peeps designed them and the schematics are really similar in a lot of places, they use all the same parts the same way outside mic preamps, you know, it needed an explanation. SPL transient designer hardware and software requires no explanation, they do the same thing the same basic way, but one is analog and the other is 1s and 0s. Manufacturer authorized plugin versions of hardware should be completely exempt from explanations. An acme audio opticom plugin is the official plugin version of the awesome but costly hardware unit and its pretty darn good I must say as are most of the official plugins you find out there these days.

Jim, you write as much as you want 😆 This is every time Jim contributes to EB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0HuQ1ep260

Also, we spruced up the similar item submission form, and lowered the character limit to 30. As always, we welcome and and all feedback!

HAHAHA

in highschool they called me punkrock mcguyver... my friend Paul from DC has professor punk but he's an archivist and almost a literature professor so it's not that punk actually

could we, like, automate the plugin alternatives that are manufacturer endorsed or created?

EDIT: I just wanna stop kids from getting electrocuted, man... I was electrocuted as a kid and I don't recommend it, that's why I learned all this tech stuff