Why do I seem to like free synths better ?

[fceramic]

My main concern with freeware is future support, that's especially an issue on Mac. Surge seems to be the perfect freeware, as it's supported by a large community of devs on Discord and Git. Open source projects can get mighty bloated though, and Surge is getting a ridiculous amount of new features in every update.

[dblock]

My main concern with freeware is future support, that's especially an issue on Mac. Surge seems to be the perfect freeware, as it's supported by a large community of devs on Discord and Git. Open source projects can get mighty bloated though, and Surge is getting a ridiculous amount of new features in every update.

Why worry about future support with freeware? You use it as long as you can use it and that's it you move on.

[BONES]

If you farted and I said damn that smells bad you'd argue it smells like a bed of roses for the sake of argument.

No, my farts are epically foul. They can melt plastic.

No professional musician is buying top of the line instruments because they have some insecurity.

Of course they aren't, I'm talking about people in this discussion who are trying to suggest you can't make great music with freeware. A physical, acoustic instrument is a completely different proposition, with a completely different set of motivations for wanting the best instrument you can afford. But it doesn't necessarily transfer to the digital realm, where it is possible to create an instrument that is utterly perfect, make a billion identical copies of it and give it to anyone who wants it for virtually no cost to you, the creator, beyond the time and effort used to create the first one.

A violin isn't worth a million dollars because it's 10,000 times better than a $100 violin, it's worth a million dollars because the supply of them is limited to perhaps a few dozen in the whole world. OTOH, any limits to the supply of a softsynth is artificially created. In theory supply is limitless because it doesn't cost any more, or take any longer, or require any more physical resources, to make a million than it does to make two. Most importantly, of course, is that every copy will be identical to the original. All of which means that you cannot judge the quality of a softsynth by it's price-tag, the way you might with a guitar, a trumpet or a violin.

I don't trust free stuff

That's just plain, f**king stupid on the face of it. Why would you not trust Tyrell N6 or the free tier of NI Komplete? Reaktor Player? Kontakt Player? Even Vital - you'd have to be a complete nut-job to be put off by Vital's price.

[BONES]

My main concern with freeware is future support, that's especially an issue on Mac.

Surely that's a good reason to get rid of your Mac and stop being an Apple stooge, not to avoid perfectly decent software?

Why worry about future support with freeware? You use it as long as you can use it and that's it you move on.

Maybe you might want to revisit an old piece and not have to futz about trying to find replacement instruments for things that no longer work? e.g. Between 32 bit and 64 bit? On a Mac that's an even bigger issue (hence my advice above).

[vurt]

yeah, course you can make good music with freebies.
just making sure anything ive said, could be mistaken for anything like that statement
people make great music with all kinds of things the majority of folk would ignore, but if they heard the tracks they wouldn't know they were listening to that piece of junk they walked past earlier...

peggy sue drums for example

[e-crooner]

A violin isn't worth a million dollars because it's 10,000 times better than a $100 violin, it's worth a million dollars because the supply of them is limited to perhaps a few dozen in the whole world.

I don't trust free stuff

That's just plain, f**king stupid on the face of it. Why would you not trust Tyrell N6 or the free tier of NI Komplete? Reaktor Player? Kontakt Player? Even Vital - you'd have to be a complete nut-job to be put off by Vital's price.

There was a study a few years ago where professional violinists participated in a blind test and most of them actually liked the sound of recently manufactured violins better than that of precious Stradivaris

Thanks for your kind words there
Generally I don't trust free stuff because I never know why someone gives away something for free, if it is worth anything.

With music stuff specifically, much of it is inferior in one way or another, sometimes they are trying to make you buy a commercial product of theirs later on.
Exceptions are developers that don't have any commercial products and develop just for fun so to speak. Like the PG-8X or Charlatan.

[jasonekratz]

There was a study a few years ago where professional violinists participated in a blind test and most of them actually liked the sound of recently manufactured violins better than that of precious Stradivaris

In those videos posted before almost all of the violins sounded fine. But of course sound isn't the only aspect of playing a string instrument.

[TribeOfHǫfuð]

Thanks for bringing my attention to Vital earlier, guys. Did not know about that one. Really stunning for a freebee. On par with Hive and Pigments in sound quality. That and Noisemaker and TyrellN6 could fulfill my synth needs any day if I was on a budget. Amazing gifts to the people.

[BONES]

Yeah, absolutely. There are some very generous people around. We are very lucky.

Generally I don't trust free stuff because I never know why someone gives away something for free, if it is worth anything.

There are many reasons. e.g. I gave my SynthEdit synths away to drive traffic to our website. I imagine things like Tyrell N6 are used as a means of getting people interested in the brand and that won't happen if they aren't good advertisements for what you do. And some people are just good folk who want to give something back to the community.

With music stuff specifically, much of it is inferior in one way or another, sometimes they are trying to make you buy a commercial product of theirs later on.

Which you aren't going to do if you try their freeware and find it's no good, are you?

[Full Bucket]

Generally I don't trust free stuff because I never know why someone gives away something for free, if it is worth anything.

Believe it or not, but noone ever asked me why I give away my stuff for free.

[TribeOfHǫfuð]

Speaking of which, Modul Air is on board my arsenal too. Great freebie , and far from dangerous, imo, but then again, it may be a very very very slow virus.

[donkey tugger]

Generally I don't trust free stuff because I never know why someone gives away something for free, if it is worth anything.

Some people will make things just for the fun of doing it, and aren't really interested in (or don't need..) the money, and are pleased when other people get some use from it.

I'm sure this will have already been mentioned (haven't read all this gubbins, there's only so much sinthesiser a man can deal with..), but surely having top quality free stuff will also raise the bar overall - put pressure on the makers of paid instruments to be even better to keep ahead?

[chk071]

Generally I don't trust free stuff because I never know why someone gives away something for free, if it is worth anything.

Some people will make things just for the fun of doing it, and aren't really interested in (or don't need..) the money, and are pleased when other people get some use from it.

The other much more commonly occuring motive is that it's teasing for payware.

[Full Bucket]

The other much more commonly occuring motive is that it's teasing for payware.

And/or grabbing mail addresses for registration, newletters, advertising...

[chk071]

Yep.