Before the digital revolution.. What gear was most common?

[Timo]

Before digital was....analogue.

ok...

I think all samplers were digital? Apart from tape, of course.

I'd take a guess at: feedback delays being roland space echos n stuff; reverb = recording REAL ambient spaces to tape (ie., like taking an amplifer + speaker to a room, playing music through it and then recording the result via a mic), or using spring verb and stuff; distortion being guitar pedals, stomp boxes, and overdriven mixer channels; Nice analogue circuitry inc. valves n shit for compression, eq, pre-amps, and just about everything else; plenty of analogue outboard; and of course analogue synths galore for sound sources; and mixers being 8-buss consoles, like the mackie 8-buss or soundcraft ghost.