Where has software actually improved on hardware?

[MitchK1989]

I have yet to see a good convolution reverb in hardware.

[D-Fusion]

I prefer software because you can and have:

-Total Recal of preset or tweaked parameters.

-Use all the instances you need in a song without having to buy more hardware or Bounce tracks to free up the hardware for more use.

-Chain different synths together easily.

I also find software more flexible and easier to work with + it also saves alot of space in your studio

The electricity bill is also much lower without all the hardware around, and software is much cheaper for the hobbyist

[brok landers]

Why even buy a Motif or Triton when you can just Buy all their Factory PCM Samples as a SF2 File for like $30 from a Good Old Chinese Friend down by the river.

ehh .... care to be more precise? i'd be interrested!

Me too. I'd like to have all perfect preset copies from Roland, Yamaha and Korg for just $30.

no, i don't want the presets sampled, i'd like to have the raw pcm data only ...

Sampled presets wouldn't be as good real synths obviously. Just raw waveforms wouldn't make originals either.

well, for me the raw waves would make it ... i'm a sounddesigner, i don't need the presets, nor the fx ... just the raw waves ... actually korgs waves are very efficient ... i love that soundstation approach of the 90's, like the romplers from that time ... with 128 meg wavedata i did 1000's of sounds those days, never got tired ... jd990 is still one of my favourites, still have thatone here, along with the jd800, the jv2080+several cards and even the jv880 ...
give me some more features and better filters, and i make that another decade ...

[ouroboros]

Cost.
I'm an amateur, w/ little to spend on a hobby as such. I probably wouldn't bother unless there were an easy cheap on-ramp. I don't make great music, but I have fun and get to learn on the job, so to speak. Hardware is great: I love what I got, but wouldn't have got it w/o the free trackers that sucked me in. People complain about the dilution of talent, but I'm having the time of my life

Flexibility for cost, too. Having laid hands on a DX7 briefly, Sytrus seems much more agreeable to work on (though a analog/knobby jobby/Moog would be a whole 'nother story!)

I also tend to think portability: when I'm on the road, I grab my laptop and go, maybe bring a midi keyboard, but the synth stays home.

[Shy]

I have yet to see a good convolution reverb in hardware.

I guess you don't know Sony DRE-S777.

[deleted]

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[MitchK1989]

I have yet to see a good convolution reverb in hardware.

I guess you don't know Sony DRE-S777.

I tend to avoid almost anything with the name sony on it. It usually means "overpriced garbage". Especially when it comes to computers.

But no, I wasn't aware they made a convolution reverb.

[herodotus]

Software recorder: infinite tracks that are instantly accessible with intuitive graphic representations of the sounds recorded.

Hardware recorder: limited tracks that have no graphic representations.

Pretty obvious win, really.

[Shy]

To get "infinite" tracks you'd need "infinite" hardware inputs. Analog ones, or if you're astronomically rich, ask some company to build you a recorder with many S/PDIF (Mitch: Sony again ) inputs as well as an audio interface to handle them.

[Acid Mitch]

I have yet to see a good convolution reverb in hardware.

I guess you don't know Sony DRE-S777.

I tend to avoid almost anything with the name sony on it. It usually means "overpriced garbage". Especially when it comes to computers.

But no, I wasn't aware they made a convolution reverb.

Their pro audio department seems a bit better than the consumer department.

[markroom]

Melodyne - This is something completely new that happened exclusivly on pc/mac
better then hardware soultions to pitch problems/effects.

Editing audio is a lot easier in a software editor.

Midi sequencing much easier in software than on hardware sequencers.


Personally i think thats about it



Software cant exist with out hardware to back it up but it is still the cutting edge and will only get better------

[zerocrossing]

That's a really good point. I always loved the bits in The Matrix movies where they took a "pill" but since it was a virtual environment what they were taking was software. A "plug in" so to speak. When someone takes LSD or any other drug, are they not running "software" on the hardware platform called the human brain?

I used to joke on the Looper's Delight forum that I was working on a device called the Againinator 2000 which did audio looping via hardware that used a parrot brain as it's CPU. I think it's only a matter of time before something like this becomes real.

Mark

the hardware you're referring to is DSP type of hardware that requires software to run also

I don't see that I mentioned DSP hardware at all. Please point out where I did?

I guess that all hardware requires a form of programming to do something. Even if no software is used a wiring scheme and or electronic components are "programmed" to produce the required output. It's never a magic box you see
I've build a synth a while back (40 years) with opamps and other means. I'm sure you would agree that this is also a form of programming to make it work the way it was designed.

etapper

[zerocrossing]

An Apple iBook does.

Cost effectiveness, sampling capacity and expandability.

Compare a $3000 Motif or Triton with a $1000 laptop loaded up with Forte Ensemble. The workstations give you 128MB samples...with up to THREE whole velocity switches! With a laptop, you get Ivory with 7 velocity levels, and 4GB samples...

Try to install a B3 modeller on your Fantom...or even a decent virtual analog...it takes a $3500 Kurzweil before you even begin to see those features.

Does that thousand dollar laptop include soundcard and software ?

[zerocrossing]

Another aspect of software that I love is that it evolves in a way that hardware usually can't. Sure, there are sometimes updates that can be installed via sysex or something, but that improvement is often minimal at best, and if we're talking analog gear, it's not possible unless you're handy with a soldering iron and know a lot about electronics.

A few months ago a software developer implemented a feature I wanted... FOR FREE. The software was also free, come to speak of it. The software (Mobius) and my Laptop totally replaced a piece of $1500 hardware (The looperlative LP-1) and I had enough left over after returning the Looperlative to buy Absynth as well. Forget the fact that the free software trumps the hardware in terms of audio looping features, there was no way it could ever become a sound generator... yet my laptop does both at the same time.

Another place software trumps hardware is that it's usually hooked up to a display of usable size. I hear a lot of "Oh software doesn't have knobs and I hate mousing around!" Buy a good midi controller and that becomes much less of a point (I recommend the Novation SL series) and now you have a nice LCD display to work with as well. When I got rid of my E-MU Command station I jumped for joy. What a clunky-piece-o-crap. I can sequence 10x quicker and more creatively using software than I ever could with any hardware sequencer. I thought at some point I'd want to replace those sounds (not possible in software) but frankly I don't miss them at all.

Mark

[kritikon]

Another aspect of software that I love is that it evolves in a way that hardware usually can't.

For me, that's downside of s/w. I avoid s/w synths that have a history of constant upgrades like the plague. One of the main complaints with almost all hosts is that constant upgrading means the companies fix bugs only in a limited way, knowing that they can simply get things working roughly, then sell another update with the main bugfixes. Something we all pretty well have to live with at some stage or another.

Personally I won't put up with it for synths as well. There's one popular one I already bought and consequently dumped because it gets upgraded so often nothing ever gets fixed. My last working version was as buggy as hell in certain situations and I'm not going to pay for another upgrade to fix those bugs and then have a synth that's completely different from the one I bought. I bought it for specific reasons, and those reasons haven't changed. I want it to do what it was supposed to do when first bought. If I want a different type synth, I'll buy a different one.

Long live companies that release solid s/w and leave it alone (as long as bugs for, say new OSs are fixed etc...no problem with that). I applaud Gmedia and Kjaerhus for that. I don't want a fancy but buggy v17.8.03 - I want a reliable and solid v1.0 thanks.


For me, the greatest advance in s/w over h/w is;
A) the recording side of things - I wouldn't dream of going back to either tape, running things live or using a horrible standalone digital recorder with all the limitations they have.
B) FX. I can now make modular type FX and facny treatments that I'd have once needed 3 or 4 h/w units for.

As for synths - some s/w synths sound fantastic, but for me they won't be equal to h/w synths until I can get a good enough controller so I can have one knob per function and well-labelled. I just don't like editing synths on a screen. Never will. Mixing isn't that good with a mouse either...in fact it's pants. Give me a h/w mixer any day.

I sure couldn't live happily without s/w now though.