I love them, they are great boon to me, i couldn't afford much hardware but can build out a full studio in soft synths. Many of the classics I adored as a teen are available in emulations of varying quality but they are all interesting, and there are many cool free plugins around as well. But does anyone NOT like them and only use hardware? I guess this is a stupid place to ask this but well, I'm just posting this for the sake of posting something! Anyhow, state your case but be nice!

for me soft synth's are to soft.

As hardware is to hard.

Don't you mean 'toooo'?

Your two picky.

I hate 'em. I blew all my cash on soft synths, fast women, and slow horses.

I too love soft'ies, but need to get away from the computer for at least a few hours a day.
I work as a programmer, my hobby is programming (& music), I'm an internet addict... (Almost) Everything I do is in front of the computer. I just bought an Electribe EMX to get away from the computer and to introduce myself to another workflow. So far I'm loving it and I may very well get more hardware. And since the Electribe doesn't support plugins I ain't looking for any either.. what a relief.. although I reckon I need a new soundcard for mixdown, and definitely a mixer if I get more hardware.. like an ESX and a Minitaur. A second hand Virus is pretty cheap these days too. Oh crap
Last edited by kae on Sun May 20, 2012 11:33 pm; edited 1 time in total

The only softsynth I like

I work 8 hours a day in front of a computer, and spend most of my free time in front of one.

However, while I do have some hardware, I mostly use soft synths for the sheer convenience and superior workflow.

Every synth IS a soft synth. It doesn't matter if you use 80bit(x86), 16bit(Korg Radias) or continuous(analog synths) math to do it. It's all the same.

Good point

I use soft synths (for convenience) and hardware, but when I fire up my Mopho and SY85, I think ahh... I must get more hardware

I'll never afford (or have room for) a B3 and a Tron, so from that point of view, yeah, VSTi's are great.

However, for actual synths I haven't touched a softsynth since I got my Axxe and Mopho keyboard. Then I just had to buy a Little Phatty and a Dark Energy. Then I ended up buying a Logan and a Solina and Doepfer modules (and the DE) to process them (so bye-bye to the VSM )

I've done way more on synths since getting hardware than I ever did with software, programming was just too much of a hassle. I had to have three presets on my controller keyboard to have enough knobs and sliders mapped and I could never remember what was where. Then the controller started playing up.

Whilst waiting for my Odyssey to arrive (it came this morning - can't wait to get home tonight!), I fired up the Oddity to deal with the cravings Fantastic synth, but what a pain softsynths are to programme with the mouse, I don't miss that at all. And whilst the Oddity sounds good, it sounded a bit lacklustre in comparison to my hardware synths.

So, I'm all about the hardware - if I won the lottery I'd buy a Hammond and a Mellotron like a shot (plus a bigger house ).

I would think it is established on this board that many hardware synthesizers run software, and that a softsynth is a digital synth that runs on a general purpose computer, like your home PC...it's the most common definition I've seen. Having some things established make comments easier to write.

That's soo cute!!.