Edit: Let's revive the analog vs. digital debate once and for all

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I'll just tell 'em what my daddy told me: "Analog Schmanalog!"...That, and, "You ain't never gonna amount to nothin'"

[deastman]

I'll just tell 'em what my daddy told me: "Analog Schmanalog!"...That, and, "You ain't never gonna amount to nothin'"

Schmanalog synths are what I prefer to use when I make schmambient music.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I'll just tell 'em what my daddy told me: "Analog Schmanalog!"...That, and, "You ain't never gonna amount to nothin'"

Schmanalog synths are what I prefer to use when I make schmambient music.

[jancivil]

I just find a focus on analog in 2017 tiresome, uninteresting.
Liking things is one thing, acting like what you like is what you like because that is superior to everything that it's not, and of course you go with this because you know better than the chumps who don't, is dull.
Worse still is saying 'hardware'. Hardware started being a housing for software 30 some yrs ago and a lot of it is not that rich-sounding really. So you like the tactile, you need some knob in your life, otherwise you can't be properly inspired. Ok, not judging, but who cares.

Totally new approaches to synthesizing sound came into being because of what software makes viable to even do. But we still see all this fetishing of our past. No problem, I wouldn't criticize that itself but dozens of pages of debate? Dullsville, daddio.

[zerocrossing]

I just find a focus on analog in 2017 tiresome, uninteresting.
Liking things is one thing, acting like what you like is what you like because that is superior to everything that it's not, and of course you go with this because you know better than the chumps who don't, is dull.
Worse still is saying 'hardware'. Hardware started being a housing for software 30 some yrs ago and a lot of it is not that rich-sounding really. So you like the tactile, you need some knob in your life, otherwise you can't be properly inspired. Ok, not judging, but who cares.

Totally new approaches to synthesizing sound came into being because of what software makes viable to even do. But we still see all this fetishing of our past. No problem, I wouldn't criticize that itself but dozens of pages of debate? Dullsville, daddio.

Far up!

While I agree with a lot of that, I think it would be unfair to say that digging, and even fetishizing, the analog classics isn't just some pure nostalgia wank-fest. I personally have none of that. I was totally focused on traditional instruments during the 70s and much of the 80s, to the point where I thought a lot of synth use seemed cheesy. I still find an analog horn part to sound cheer-o-rama most of the time. Much better when a synth isn't imitating a real instrument, though I do like a string machine.

I think the issue is when people pit the old against the new. Why can't a Minimoog be equally as cool as Falcon? It is to me. One just happens to be more affordable, but maybe Behringer will surprise us.

The only thing that really irks me, is when someone comes out with a clone, or reissue, and they try to keep it 1:1, as if Robert Moog wouldn't have included things like velocity and aftertouch if they were viable at the time (and keep the cost the same). It was clear he thought they were important enough to put in the Voyager. I'm glad they're in Legend.

Anyway, the whole argument is moot now that nearly anyone who wants an analog can get one. I thought the Mother 32 sounded very vintage, as do budget models from Vermona. Even some of the Monologue demos sound pretty vintage to me.

Even though I have a bunch of modern analogs, I still pre-ordered Syntronik. Demos sound awesome, it's cheap, and there's plenty of vintage vibe in it for me, that never has to be serviced. It'll serve me happily, along side my Prophet 6, Deepmind, RePro-1/5, and MPowersynth. The more, the merrier.

[IncarnateX]

acting like what you like is what you like because that is superior to everything that it's not

The fuel of many analog debates, which has often striked me as pointless from the outset as far as music making goes. Take an electronic piece of music made with VAs that you don't like. Replace all instruments with Vintage analog gear, will you like it for that reason? Or take a piece of music you like made with analog synths and replace them with VAs, will you like it lesser? Take one you like made with VAs and replace them with analogs? Will you like it better? I am sure there are people around who would answer affirmatively, not only regarding their preferences but everyone's because analog sound inherits some kind of universal magic that can take all attention away from the music as a whole and please us even more than the music in itself. Yes, maybe this is true to the sound designer in so far as all he cares about is listening to single patches in non-musical contexts. And yes, it may even be true to some composers in so far as vintage analog sounds simply inspire them more than modern synth sounds. But it is hardly true to a listener who cares for the music only and wouldn't give a flying fvck how it was made in the first place. Actually if the listener got used to a VA made tune first, he may even find a replacement with analogs inauthentic or fake due to this priming. Should be common sense, imo.

[jancivil]

I just find a focus on analog in 2017 tiresome, uninteresting.
Liking things is one thing, acting like what you like is what you like because that is superior to everything that it's not, and of course you go with this because you know better than the chumps who don't, is dull.
Worse still is saying 'hardware'. Hardware started being a housing for software 30 some yrs ago and a lot of it is not that rich-sounding really. So you like the tactile, you need some knob in your life, otherwise you can't be properly inspired. Ok, not judging, but who cares.

Totally new approaches to synthesizing sound came into being because of what software makes viable to even do. But we still see all this fetishing of our past. No problem, I wouldn't criticize that itself but dozens of pages of debate? Dullsville, daddio.

Far up!

While I agree with a lot of that, I think it would be unfair to say that digging, and even fetishizing, the analog classics isn't just some pure nostalgia wank-fest. I personally have none of that. I was totally focused on traditional instruments during the 70s and much of the 80s, to the point where I thought a lot of synth use seemed cheesy. I still find an analog horn part to sound cheer-o-rama most of the time. Much better when a synth isn't imitating a real instrument, though I do like a string machine.

I think the issue is when people pit the old against the new. Why can't a Minimoog be equally as cool as Falcon? It is to me.

It doesn't have to be pure nostalgia, but the new IK thing with all of that, it's necromancing the musical past, it isn't the sounds in and of themselves that will be competitive market-wise I don't think.

I bought Monark, I find it sounds good AND I know what to do with it. Minimoog Vs. Falcon? apples vs. watermelons.

[jancivil]

acting like what you like is what you like because that is superior to everything that it's not

Yes, maybe this is true to the sound designer in so far as all he cares about is listening to single patches in non-musical contexts. And yes, it may even be true to some composers in so far as vintage analog sounds simply inspire them more than modern synth sounds. But it is hardly true to a listener who cares for the music only and wouldn't give a flying fvck how it was made in the first place. Actually if the listener got used to a VA made tune first, he may even find a replacement with analogs inauthentic or fake due to this priming. Should be common sense, imo.

Yeah, that's what goes on for 40 or 100 pages, discussion of an isolated patch vs another.

I'm inspired by sound, I don't work abstractly but in and of sound, so if that's it there's nothing to argue about.

But as I present music on Facebook, no Muso there asks about what I used, let alone civilians. I'm ruined by KVR, I'll ask. But if it's Reason, I'm not buying Reason, you know.

[foosnark]

I'm finding that I really love modular synthesis. But not because I think hardware is "warmer" or analog has magical quantum fairy dust that VAs don't, nor because of nostalgia. I like it for the experimental possibilities, freedom of patching things together, different workflow, and the feel of it.

I also have minimal interest in East Coast style subtractive synths, whether analog or VA. I don't care if your sawtooth wave through a resonant LPF controlled by an ADSR is made with transistors, vacuum tubes, frozen beef patties or software, it's still the same old thing. There's so much more out there. A lot of that "more" is digital, but some isn't.

I'm still perfectly happy to use a DAW for sequencing, software effects, and some software synths along with the hardware. I don't feel a need to run software synths through analog gear to impart some kind of mysterious essence to it.

[stonestreet]

I hope you don't mind me asking this question "have you stopped taking your med regimin. It can really mess with your normal cognitive functions. We recommend..."

I'm finding that I really love modular synthesis. But not because I think hardware is "warmer" or analog has magical quantum fairy dust that VAs don't, nor because of nostalgia. I like it for the experimental possibilities, freedom of patching things together, different workflow, and the feel of it.

I also have minimal interest in East Coast style subtractive synths, whether analog or VA. I don't care if your sawtooth wave through a resonant LPF controlled by an ADSR is made with transistors, vacuum tubes, frozen beef patties or software, it's still the same old thing. There's so much more out there. A lot of that "more" is digital, but some isn't.

I'm still perfectly happy to use a DAW for sequencing, software effects, and some software synths along with the hardware. I don't feel a need to run software synths through analog gear to impart some kind of mysterious essence to it.

[foosnark]

I'm on another plane of existence now.

[incubus]

I'm going to be enigmatic to be evasive.

There are some things that cannot be left out of pop culture discussions.

Though some people will think I'm talking about something in particular, I am not.