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You will have a much stronger, more usable track if you track dry.
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Commercial studios process on the way in, because the sound to them is better.
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Both of these are completely right and completely wrong at any given time. There is no rule to this. Basically, if you don't know why you should be processing on the way in, you shouldn't be processing on the way in.
It's very common to use compression on the way in for vocals in a situation where the engineer wants a specific color from a specific compressor and the vocals are completely isolated from the engineer so that the engineer here's nothing but the monitors. ( I prefer tracking vocals in the control room. I like to be in the same room with the singer. This rules me out.)
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You can always monitor with effects and still print dry.
that way you don't limit the flexability of your track.
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"Flexibilty" is a tricky word. It implies "choice". Every big engineer I know HATES choice. Get it right and get move on.
The bigger issue here is knowing when to compress on the way in and when not to. Most beginners have no reason to even try with hardware compressors unless they know exactly what they want. With that said, I'm inching my way towards compressing vocals on the way in. I think I may be missing something that is hard to get with plugins. I'd like to get a nice high end outboard EQ as well. Of course, me finally getting outboard eqs and compressors now (after nearly 7 years of recording) is much different than using harware eqs and compressors when I was a beginner.