I think those who criticize modern synths for being "too accurate" never knew what is a really "inaccurate" synth. The moment they experience how "good" it was in the "old days", I'm sure they would change their opinion.AnX wrote:By who? Not musicians, thats for sure.v1o wrote: Many modern analogue synths are criticised for sounding too digital because they are too accurate and don’t have enough slop.
I think the need for service is the biggest issue of old hardware by far. Tuning problems can usually be fixed in a heartbeat by turning a single knob, but a broken voice is not easily repaired. Furthermore keys, switches and pots usually cause problems after some time, as well as old batteries for certain units.Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote:It's more likely that people's expectations have changed. They want some of the quirks of the slop without any of the hassle, like outright tuning or voice instability. So some slight tuning drift is ok, or even some slight variation in the voices in terms of filters and envelopes can add to the sound in a generally pleasing way. But no one wants oscillators that will lose tuning as the unit heats up or due to humidity. And no one likes having to get the damn things serviced regularly.
Agreed. Synthesizers and transister organs in particular are the worst offenders in my experience. A 40 year old Wurlitzer EP may run and sound great with minimal maintenance costs, even less so on a passive Rhodes. Electric guitars? Very low cost of ownership. Amps? More costly, but still not unreasonable. Vintage analog synths (and at least Farfisa organs), in particular, just seem horrible in terms of reliability, maintenance, and costs.Richard_Synapse wrote:I think the need for service is the biggest issue of old hardware by far. Tuning problems can usually be fixed in a heartbeat by turning a single knob, but a broken voice is not easily repaired. Furthermore keys, switches and pots usually cause problems after some time, as well as old batteries for certain units.
Richard
And what about chips failing (Roland JX-3P, Juno-106, etc.)? And the displays, floppy disk drivers, etc.? Synthesizers have lots of components that age badly.Richard_Synapse wrote:I think the need for service is the biggest issue of old hardware by far. Tuning problems can usually be fixed in a heartbeat by turning a single knob, but a broken voice is not easily repaired. Furthermore keys, switches and pots usually cause problems after some time, as well as old batteries for certain units.Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote:It's more likely that people's expectations have changed. They want some of the quirks of the slop without any of the hassle, like outright tuning or voice instability. So some slight tuning drift is ok, or even some slight variation in the voices in terms of filters and envelopes can add to the sound in a generally pleasing way. But no one wants oscillators that will lose tuning as the unit heats up or due to humidity. And no one likes having to get the damn things serviced regularly.
Richard
Don't get me started on floppy drivesfmr wrote:And what about chips failing (Roland JX-3P, Juno-106, etc.)? And the displays, floppy disk drivers, etc.? Synthesizers have lots of components that age badly.
I bought a DSM-1 with a floppy drive once, will never do it again. First of all disks that are like 30 years old obviously won't work anymore, but even if you write new disks this seems to fail like half the time for some reason (maybe because the new disks are actually NOS and thus not that reliable, dunno). If I ever get something with a floppy drive again it would have to be with a Gotek drive or similar. The floppy drive on my SY99 died. Fortunately, I had backed up all the floppies into SoundDiver, but communications aren't reliable with Windows, since my amt8s had to be put aside for lack of driversRichard_Synapse wrote: Don't get me started on floppy drives
Richard
Yes and your VSTi becomes NFR.EnGee wrote:If I have a license for VSTi, is the RE license for Reason is free? (I know it is true for the other round)
Great! Thank youthejonsolo wrote:Yes and your VSTi becomes NFR.EnGee wrote:If I have a license for VSTi, is the RE license for Reason is free? (I know it is true for the other round)
Ages ago i bought an external Floppy drive with an USB connection (USB powered) but did not use it for a very long time. Currently i do not have synths with a floppy drive here.Richard_Synapse wrote:Yeah some time ago I picked up a stoneage PC for such purposes as well. Even has a floppy drive
Richard
Yes you can still get USB floppy drives, but my understanding is that writing arbitrary raw data does not work with them, or at least not with the available tools (some of which date back to Win 95/98/ME/XP). So if you try to write e.g. Korg or Ensoniq disks which are proprietary, non-PC formats, you may be out of luck with USB floppy drives.Ingonator wrote:Ages ago i bought an external Floppy drive with an USB connection (USB powered) but did not use it for a very long time. Currently i do not have synths with a floppy drive here.
Not sure if it is the same model but the USB floppy drive still seems to be available:
http://www.freecom.de/product/usb-flopp ... ive-22767/
Personally, I like a little drift.v1o wrote:Many modern analogue synths are criticised for sounding too digital because they are too accurate and don’t have enough slop.fmr wrote:Me too. I think that only those that never used analog synths think that was what makes them sound "analog". It isn't, and it doesn't. It makes them sound bad (awfully bad). Fortunately, my MKS-80 (which sometimes drifts really bad) has a button that says AUTO TUNEAnX wrote: Well, im of an age where i was brought up on these. Let me tell you, playing live with some stuff that drifted alot, was no fun at all. I prefer to be in tune (sterile...) than sound like im playing the wrong notes
A very slight amount of "drifting" may be desirable, but you easily achieve the same effect by slightly detune one oscillagtor against the other.
© KVR Audio, Inc. 2000-2024
Submit: News, Plugins, Hosts & Apps | Advertise @ KVR | Developer Account | About KVR / Contact Us | Privacy Statement
