What determines your choice of synth beyond sound?

[Michael L]

MusicRadar Poll rank!





(the lower the better)

[Aleatoriac]

The fact that I have DIVA.
This settles it.

[patchnerd]

Is the digital vs analog debate still a thing? It used to be for good reason, but these days bit depths and sample rates are beyond the levels of human perception and processing power is cheap enough to get complex/subtle sounds without paying a lot of money.

[ATN69]

The value for Money factor.

[Uncle E]

I definitely agree with the sentiment but not the whole argument. I just got my hands on a Pulse 2, to go with my Rocket. I spent the whole first night I had the Pule 2 just going through it's 500 presets,whereas I spent the first night with my Rocket just twiddling it's knobs and getting to know it far more intimately

The Rocket is an amazing lead and bass synth. As great as the Pulse 2 is, most people could probably get what they're looking for faster with the Rocket.

[Uncle E]

Is the digital vs analog debate still a thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCGsMjx1inM

[BONES]

Is the digital vs analog debate still a thing?

I don't think it has ever been a real thing, just a perception in the minds of some people. As much as I love my Waldorf Rocket and it's amazing analogue filter, I don't think it sounds one whit better than the filter in Wasp, which is a freebie that comes with Orion. In fact, what I love about the Rocket is how close it's able to get to Wasp.

The Rocket is an amazing lead and bass synth. As great as the Pulse 2 is, most people could probably get what they're looking for faster with the Rocket.

The problem, of course, then becomes how to preserve that sound to use next time you perform that song. The more I've used Rocket, and come to rely on it for live performance, the less inclined I am to touch the controls, for fear of losing the sound I have. I just wish one of the librarian/editor applications actually worked or that the devs would get back to me about how to make them work. I'm sure as hell not going to buy a freakin' iPhone or iPad just because Waldorf are so effing stupid that the only app they make for it is an iOS app. I'll sell the damned thing before I'll do that.

[Terrafractyl]

Is the digital vs analog debate still a thing? It used to be for good reason, but these days bit depths and sample rates are beyond the levels of human perception and processing power is cheap enough to get complex/subtle sounds without paying a lot of money.

Its definitely still a thing. Emulating anything from the real world in a computer / with DSP is a little deeper and more complex than having high sample rates and bit depths.
Also Its not just due to a lack of ideas that nearly everyone out there making plugins are still modelling analog circuits.
Even just modelling an analog filters is something that is still pretty constantly getting better and better as people tweak the math involved, and that is something that a LOT of people have been thinking about for quite a long time.

[ghettosynth]

A Jordan Rudess endorsement is absolutely key.

Yes, this is the best answer.

[cron]

Is the digital vs analog debate still a thing?

I suspect a lot of people think that everyone used to have a beautifully maintained Model D rather than a beaten-up Davolisint. Digital vs analogue is so broad as to be meaningless. Diva sounds so much better than most of the low-cost analogues of recent years.

[ZentralmassivSound]

The preset management.

[Jax Pok]

knob per feature and is analogue otherwise might as well use soft synths.

[Mitch I.]

My comments relate to keyboard synths:

(1) I agree with cryophonic that a quality keybed is really important.

(2) From a financial point of view, I think durability is super important. But it's seldom mentioned. I bought a Roland JV-80 when it first came out in 1991, and I'm still using it. It's always been in regular use and never seen a repair shop. In this case, durability has saved me thousands of dollars.

[BONES]

Don't you get bored with it, though? I find that I need new instruments on a fairly regular basis, just to spark my creativity. It is far too easy to get into a rut and working the same way all the time invariably leads to everything getting stale over time.

Last century that meant selling all the old things to pay for new things, so nothing ever lasted me more than a few years. These days, though, I still use the same softsynths I've owned for 10-15 years, mostly because I can add new things into the mix without having to get rid of the old things. I find that mix of old and new very powerful but it just wasn't something I could do before.

[ghettosynth]

Is the digital vs analog debate still a thing?

I suspect a lot of people think that everyone used to have a beautifully maintained Model D rather than a beaten-up Davolisint. Digital vs analogue is so broad as to be meaningless. Diva sounds so much better than most of the low-cost analogues of recent years.

I've made the same argument. It also sounds better than so many of the compromise mass market analogs of the late 80s. I'll take Diva over a Matrix-6/1000, Akai VX/AX series, etc., any day.