Hardware vs. Software aka why do VST sucks?

[D-Fusion]

Well i don't think that vst's sucks but there is some difference, take the best vst instrument you have and create a loop then add a hardware unit to play along and you will see what it's all about

The sound of the hardware is more punchy/Phat and has a richer sound to it (But in the mixing stage most of it gets eq out to fit in a mix)

I myself use vst's more than hardware these days (I find most of the latest vst's to be good enough for professional music production).

[hvaring]

Seen from developers point of view there are only one kind of pure hardware and that is analog; everything else is software run on different processors, so where are the real difference?

Offhand I'd say that any difference -- if difference there is -- is in the quality of the algorithms. Conceptually there's nothing preventing the Lexicon, Virus, UAD or POCO algorithms from running on Intel or AMD processors -- probably in many cases just a recompile and a VST wrapper to add. But the hardware manufacturers ain't telling, they certainly won't publish their proprietary algorithms -- which have been refined and polished for years -- on musicdsp.org.

[Kingston]

take the best vst instrument you have and create a loop then add a hardware unit to play along and you will see what it's all about

I hope the point you're trying to make is 'user skill is where it's at'.

Otherwise I'm going to have to heavily disagree.

[Warmonger]

On topic, I should add that I think the amount of hardware wankerage will decrease with time. It'll never disappear, but will eventually be just like the CD vs. vinyl debate.

[nuffink]

Well i don't think that vst's sucks but there is some difference, take the best vst instrument you have and create a loop then add a hardware unit to play along and you will see what it's all about

The sound of the hardware is more punchy/Phat and has a richer sound to it (But in the mixing stage most of it gets eq out to fit in a mix)

Any hardware?

Give up. Really, don't make music. Become a potter or something.

[funkadil]

Hardware and Vinyl are fun.

[Amberience]

So are cocks.

[galwaypark]

Hmmm, most hardware VAs run on fixed point dsp processors. This is *way* less resolution than ordinary single precision floating point and a gazillion less resolution than double precision. Their latency is Midi + DAC + ADC when recording, thus 5+ milliseconds compared to *no* latency while sample accurate rendering of a VSTi during mixdown, or just Midi + ADC (3+ ms, depending on buffersize) when played live.

Urs

OK, my bad.
But why is it so? Doesn't my theory of no-corners-cut-in-hardware-synth seem logical? I mean, the processor that doesn't need to worry about other periphernalia (like it does in our DAW's) should have more time/power to do a better job of sound processing, dunno, better algorythms and such stuff that I know little about...

[whyterabbyt]

Well i don't think that vst's sucks but there is some difference, take the best vst instrument you have and create a loop then add a hardware unit to play along and you will see what it's all about

Okay, done that. I actually tried it with a couple of different VSTs but they all still sounded better than the Barbie keyboard, so Im not sure what your point was.

[nuffink]

OK, my bad.
But why is it so? Doesn't my theory of no-corners-cut-in-hardware-synth seem logical? I mean, the processor that doesn't need to worry about other periphernalia (like it does in our DAW's) should have more time/power to do a better job of sound processing, dunno, better algorythms and such stuff that I know little about...

You're absolutely right. You know very little. Glad to see it doesn't stop you from posting.

[D-Fusion]

take the best vst instrument you have and create a loop then add a hardware unit to play along and you will see what it's all about

I hope the point you're trying to make is 'user skill is where it's at'.

Otherwise I'm going to have to heavily disagree.

Yep that is what i meant
The trick with hardware is that it just sounds more rich & Phat out of the box.

[galwaypark]

You're absolutely right. You know very little. Glad to see it doesn't stop you from posting.

I'd just like to learn, that's all. Sorry if it came out the wrong way.

[Warmonger]

Yep that is what i meant
The trick with hardware is that it just sounds more rich & Phat out of the box.

/me grabs a bag of popcorn

[Kingston]

The trick with hardware is that it just sounds more rich & Phat out of the box.

Hip hip hooray for sweeping statements!

[Urs]

I mean, the processor that doesn't need to worry about other periphernalia (like it does in our DAW's) should have more time/power to do a better job of sound processing, dunno, better algorythms and such stuff that I know little about...

Well, these dsp processors in the hardware synths run way slower than the ones in your pc. And they're much cheaper. They are just good enough to run 1 instance of the synth, with a limited number of voices, but not more. The only hardware synth I know that uses a comparably fast processor is the Neuron. And you know how expensive that was

Cheers,

Urs