Hardware DSP vs pure software plugins?

[EvilDragon]

They're both incredible instruments!

That goes without saying

[Mr Arkadin]

If you're going to have a big keyboard on stage it might as well make a sound in its own right rather than just be a controller attached to a computer.

Why?

Sorry, I thought you were the one bothered by using the earth's resources? A keyboard that makes a sound = one piece of manufacturing, one lot of cross-world shipping, plus one plug using electricity at the gig versus a controller keyboard plus laptop which is two pieces of manufacturing including two lots of separate cross-world shipping, plus two mains plugs at the gig.

[vurt]

I'm not saying that these synths don't sound good. Perhaps some of them are actually superior to software synths. However, it is quite disgusting that the manufacturers force people in to buying physical hardware that people shouldn't need. With the exception of controllers and analog equipment, we should be moving to a hardware-less future. Even analog is pretty close to being redundant now with VA becoming so good.

Wow - you have a lop-sided view of the world. Do the manufacturers of hardware have a gun to your head forcing you to buy their kit? No. So how is that 'disgusting'. If you don't want their hardware don't buy it. How do you know that people don't need hardware? Are you the government telling me how I should run my life? Why should we be moving to a hardware-less future?

Oh because it's good for the environment? What a laugh. Shame all that software has to run on a computer using three fans, components that are outdated in three years by the software developers who love the planet so much they change the OS every few years to make sure you have to change your hardware to keep up. If you want disgusting that's where the shame lies. Oh, and those computers still need electricity to run on.

I have analogue synths that are over thirty years old - how's that for helping the environment? Are you still using a thirty year old computer? And no, VA is not as good as analogue. Do you actually own any analogue?

Tell me, do you own a car? If so, have you owned the same one for over thirty years?

The best selling synth of all time (M1) managed in the order of 250,000 units - this is when no software solutions existed. Do you think synth manufacturers are selling anything like that many these days? Oh and a lot of those M1's are still being happily used (or recycled would be another way to think of it).

Wow, the synth industry as the evil world-polluter, who'da thunk it? Forget cars, planes, power stations, nuclear tests, mercury dumping in the sea, China's industries etc. It was staring us in the face all the time, the axis of evil was Roland, Moog, Korg, Yamaha etc. Burn down their factories (well dismantle them slowly, because burning would be bad for the envirnoment, m'kay).

who gives a shit about the environment, i wanna make noises.

[mkdr]

And btw my pci-e GPU does 480 GFlops with 30 GB/s memory bandwidth
My laptop 0.45 GFlops, and it has a 30 GB HD... LOL

And I just got a mobile phone that's got a 2000 MIPS ARM processor(same as Iphone4) plus a 8 GFlop DSP and a 2,5 GFlop GPU.