analog vs digital vs...

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LeVzi wrote:
I guess so but if the section of music that has the 303 part sounds good, and it doesn't use a real 303 but something like Phoscyon etc, then that's ok too though. But I know what you are saying, a single osc with lots of resonance "can" sound acid like.
If it sounds good it is good - for sure!!

ABL/Phosycon - yep - really close enough that they could be a 303 and 99% will never know... ABL probably has the edge...

You can get acid sounds from almost anything.. - they just won't be 303 acid sounds...

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fisherKing wrote:all this talk about how analog a plugin sounds (or doesn't). what difference does it really make?
A computer is no more capable of generating analog sound than a CD Player is. And plugins are computer programs, meaning no matter which one you take, at the end of the day you will always get 100% digitally generated sound out of a 100% digital medium. So there goes 'analog'.


fisherKing wrote:isn't the real issue "does this plugin sound good to ME or not?"
It would be foolish to say that there arent qualitative differences when it comes to softsynths. However, once a synth is able to provide a certain level of sound quality i dont think it matters in the least whether you use synth A or synth B or synth C. At this point things such as feature set, modulation capabilities and your melodies/grooves/etc become infinitely more important to the endresult than a 5% sound difference between sound generators. So yes, i think in the end the wise thing to do is to say 'if its good enough for the purpose, its good enough for the purpose' because those couple of % of difference wont make a song any worse or better either...

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KBSoundSmith wrote:
JD Gaffe wrote:The difference is people generally like the sound of analog. Not that hard to understand.

We really don't need another topic on this.
Ever play an old video game system? Those 8-bit sounds were awesome. No seriously, they were. Different sounds for different music.

And honestly, everyone turning Moog filters, etc, into a fetish gets pretty annoying quickly.
I had an Atari SX, an NES, a TG16, a Master System, and I've probably played all of them except for a C64.
They're all 8-bit systems, but do you know if any were 8-bit *sounds*?

The most common ones, from what I understand, are analog.
The Sega and TurboGrafx used FM synths. Dunno if the converters were 8-bit.

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all i care about ultimately is HOW good something sounds. for instance, i LOVE sylenth1, am not stressing whether it's more analog or digital sounding.

funny, tho, listened to some music from my old roland XP60 (some old recordings), and that thing sounded REALLY good...
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fisherKing wrote:all i care about ultimately is HOW good something sounds. for instance, i LOVE sylenth1, am not stressing whether it's more analog or digital sounding.

funny, tho, listened to some music from my old roland XP60 (some old recordings), and that thing sounded REALLY good...
Yea I feel the same way, although I never owned Sylenth.
Most of my time was used with Zebra.
There's something good to be found in every synth really.
I also have old 4 track cassette tapes with my roland d20 on it that sounded great imo.
Most people have strong bias toward one thing or another, but I'd rather keep an open ear, towards what's out there, instead of closing it.

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RunBeerRun wrote:President Gerald R. Hoover used a Microkorg, he was a hell of a man.
His brother, L.Ron Hoover, totally ruled when it came to Appliantology.

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Dean Aka Nekro wrote:
vurt wrote:im a dyson man myself, f**k hoover.
I heard Merzbow switched over to dyson also and thats why all his newish stuff sounds digital.
:lol: This is funny because Dyson uses digital stepper motors. The key to the sound of the AC motors is the brushes. Inefficient as hell but a very warm natural tone.
SadPuppyBlues wrote:The most common ones, from what I understand, are analog.
The Sega and TurboGrafx used FM synths. Dunno if the converters were 8-bit.
The Mos technology SID chips were kinda analog. I've never been clear on the details but I think the basic sound generation was digital but it had some kind of semi-analog filters. Maybe like a switched capacitor filter? I'm not sure.

While the TG16s were based on an 8-bit CPU, they are generally considered to be part of the 16-bit generation of consoles (Sega Genesis, SNES). It had primitive sample playback as well as FM capabilities. I think it used 8-bit D/A but I could be wrong.
The SMS' sound was based on a Yamaha FM synthesis chip, if I'm not mistaken.

I have a huge collection of old game consoles. I was playing Castlevania on one of my TG16s earlier this year.

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Doug1978(tempID) wrote:analog vs digital vs my arse.
Ive been using my arse to do biological synthesis. So far it's only monophonic, but very, very warm. Better than analog or digital.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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zerocrossing wrote:
Doug1978(tempID) wrote:analog vs digital vs my arse.
Ive been using my arse to do biological synthesis. So far it's only monophonic, but very, very warm. Better than analog or digital.
If you want to do chords you are going to need to cozy up with a fifth and squeeze out a major turd.

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I'm lost. Which way to the mens room?????

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You can Analog something analog for long periods of time. It's not really about sound A vs B anymore because in a finite amount of time digital can do it. It's about the inspiration you get from knowing "It's Alive!"

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hibidy wrote:I'm lost. Which way to the mens room?????
Just follow the yellow brick road. It's worth the journey, there's no other place on earth where you can find so many factory fresh analogs.
Last edited by ghettosynth on Sat May 26, 2012 4:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

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I await the day when attention tires of VA (been there done that) and embraces digital synthesis. There are so many sweet digital hardware synths out there to "emulate"

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1-2-Many wrote:I await the day when attention tires of VA (been there done that) and embraces digital synthesis. There are so many sweet digital hardware synths out there to "emulate"
I tried saying that on another thread but all I got were funny looks... :hihi:
Barry
If a billion people believe a stupid thing it is still a stupid thing

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I've moved on to hardware that emulates software synthesis methods. Hardware hasn't quite nailed that software vibe yet... but in a few years, who knows?

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