software VA synthesizers make me wish i had analog hardware.

[V0RT3X]

Software synthesizers are fun, but After a while I often end up wishing I had hardware. Anyone else feel this way?

I mean after listening to plenty of demos of real analog synthesizers and I often come back to stuff like (Insert some of the best analog modelling synthesizers here) and think.. meh why can't it sound 100% like a Jupiter-6.. or a real MS-20? I mean lots of the general tones are there but something special is in the sounds of real analog synthesizers. Like for instance when you listen to a single raw sawtooth oscillator in a moog voyager and you lower the octave down to it's lowest setting, you get a sort of sparkling liquid like sound that is very unique. Filter overdrives and resonance peaks that just seem to go into infinity.. etc

I love the flexbility, and the daw integration but lots of times I end up wishing i had a real analog.

Don't get me wrong, i love the immediacy and flexibility of a good VA synth but I keep thinking we still aren't there as far as replacing a real analog goes.

[Sampleconstruct]

No, on the contrary, I'm happy I don't have to touch my hardware synths any more, they just look good in the studio.

[BBFG#]

Personally, I love having both.
Of course, what the computer has replaced completely is the 20 space rack of synths I had anyway. I still have four rack units and three keyboards, but one keyboard and at least one rack I seem to be keeping out of some sense of sentimentality since I don't even turn them on anymore but can't quite let go of them either. The box was originally only a concept of what my keyboards don't do as deep or the track building sweeteners and rhythm sections. But where I write from can be from one or the other and it gives me different ways to go about it. Sometimes when one process seems dry the other produces a breakthrough. I also find having at least two separate boards or more (currently using four most of the time) gives me the ability to do some nice self-generating jams I can play through and do a multitude of things after the initial save.
Would like to add a pedal bass controller at some point too, but it isn't high on the list right now (hoping one of the companies will get around to adding USB to theirs as well as MIDI.
No, one doesn't make me want the other instead. It just gets me to find ways to use them together more effectively.

And true analog?
I only miss them in that same sense of sentimentality.

[Yudaidhun]

I start music with software but felt same with V0RT3X.
Now I'm satisfied having both.

[deastman]

I'm very happy to surround myself with a wide variety of tools. I can be inspired by a different approach and workflow every time I sit down to make music. This includes both hardware and software.

Also, the sound of the Voyager is widely considered to be vastly inferior to that of the original Minimoog. I wouldn't use that as an example of how much better analog sounds. And besides, you aren't likely to hear much of a difference between raw sawtooth waveforms, assuming the software was competently modeled. The difference usually manifests itself during high resonance filter sweeps, audio rate modulation, multiple oscillator instability, and distortion.

[kmonkey]

I start music with software but felt same with V0RT3X.
Now I'm satisfied having both.

same here

[Mushy Mushy]

No, on the contrary, I'm happy I don't have to touch my hardware synths any more, they just look good in the studio.

This. They look fantastic and I doubt I'll ever sell them.
Very seldom use them though.
I've used my MS20 twice (at a stretch) in the last year.

[ghettosynth]

And besides, you aren't likely to hear much of a difference between raw sawtooth waveforms, assuming the software was competently modeled. The difference usually manifests itself during high resonance filter sweeps, audio rate modulation, multiple oscillator instability, and distortion.

This can't be emphasized enough. If you further consider that the vast majority of so called "analogue" synths actually have hybrid DCOs, the differences between hardware and software narrow further.

I just assembled a rack of some old DCO based synths to do some critical listening and sampling. It doesn't matter how many DCOs you add to the mix, it just goes from sterile to sterile wall of sterile. If you want hardware, focus on a small set of high quality components that have the character that you think is missing from plugins.

[Sampleconstruct]

No, on the contrary, I'm happy I don't have to touch my hardware synths any more, they just look good in the studio.

This. They look fantastic and I doubt I'll ever sell them.
Very seldom use them though.
I've used my MS20 twice (at a stretch) in the last year.

I dust them off every few weeks, polish to taste and keep them wired up for nostalgic moments. I mean hardware synths without cables look kind of silly.

[stimresp]

This can't be emphasized enough. If you further consider that the vast majority of so called "analogue" synths actually have hybrid DCOs, the differences between hardware and software narrow further.

[Axis1~SL61]

it's the immediacy of a dedicated hardware front panel lay-out that I miss in the software (+controller). Every time I change softsynths, the position of the functions change for the same knobs in my controller and that makes me lose time searching for example for where is the cuttoff knob, that in the previous softsynth was in the 1st knob of the 1st page of the map and in the next softsynth is in a totally different page and knob -- confusing, nearly impossible to memorize all the maps and lay outs if you use more than 5 or 6 softsynths. This never happens with analog hardware, of course, and one can find one's way around and change parameters much quicker...

[deastman]

it's the immediacy of a dedicated hardware front panel lay-out that I miss in the software (+controller). Every time I change softsynths, the position of the functions change for the same knobs in my controller and that makes me lose time searching for example for where is the cuttoff knob, that in the previous softsynth was in the 1st knob of the 1st page of the map and in the next softsynth is in a totally different page and knob -- confusing, nearly impossible to memorize all the maps and lay outs if you use more than 5 or 6 softsynths. This never happens with analog hardware, of course, and one can find one's way around and change parameters much quicker...

Yeah, well, I can sometimes spend a good 20 seconds trying to remember where I put a particular module in my eurorack.

[do_androids_dream]

I hear ya VORT3X. Sometimes I might knock a track together with a softsynth and be pleased with the result... but then I start to replace all the parts with my analogues and boy does it sound much better. Could be taste as well though and the fact that I grew up with the sound of Kraftwerk, Jarre , T dream, John Foxx et al.

[do_androids_dream]

I've used my MS20 twice (at a stretch) in the last year.

You have an MS20 and you don't use it !?! Madness I tell ya...

[damoog]

I've used my MS20 twice (at a stretch) in the last year.

not having a dig really but i would sell your MS20 if you only used it twice AT A PUSH!!!

its a great sounding analog