So have we gone all soft?

[Improv]

Personally, I think my virHammer VSTi 1.13a has the best hammer sound of any industrial-music VSTi out there!

It's HAMMER TIME!!!

As to physical hammers, they're so last millenium, all the cool carpenters use nailguns now

Obviously you're joking, but nail guns are only used by the grunts for rough work such as framing and subflooring. Finishing carpenters and cabinet makers
need something a bit more subtle.

[Lady J]

As I wrote in another thread, tweaking knobs and sliders with a mouse is just not fun to me. There's just something about programming a real piece of gear. To each his own though, we all have different styles of working.

Then get a freaking Mackie Control! Seriously. You will kiss your hardware goodbye. It has all the knobs, sliders flashing lights and an LCD screen. One control surface to rule all your softsynths, effects, etc. You can see the parameter names and values on the LCD screen. You have no excuses anymore.

[AD80]

As I wrote in another thread, tweaking knobs and sliders with a mouse is just not fun to me. There's just something about programming a real piece of gear. To each his own though, we all have different styles of working.

Then get a freaking Mackie Control! Seriously. You will kiss your hardware goodbye. It has all the knobs, sliders flashing lights and an LCD screen. One control surface to rule all your softsynths, effects, etc. You can see the parameter names and values on the LCD screen. You have no excuses anymore.

Seriously. I liked the feel of my MPC2kxL, so I got a Akai MPD16. It feels the same, but I dont have all the hassle of the MPC.

[AD80]

My 'tip': forget control surfaces, the process of tying up the controls to an onscreen image is counter-productive; just buy a trackball, next best thing to hardware knobs.

.g

That sounds interesting. Which one do you recommend? And can you have a track ball and a regular mouse hooked up at the same time? I dont think I could do graphic work with a trackball.

[Joxer the Mighty]

Then get a freaking Mackie Control! Seriously. You will kiss your hardware goodbye. It has all the knobs, sliders flashing lights and an LCD screen. One control surface to rule all your softsynths, effects, etc. You can see the parameter names and values on the LCD screen. You have no excuses anymore.

It's just not the same. I like being able to fire up my HW and reaching for those labeled knobs or sliders, it seems more immediate than having to reassign a controller everytime you want to use a different soft synth (at least that's how I understand it works). Using a control surface has never appealed much to me. But hey, I'm being nitpicky here. I love all my software too. It's all good!


But damnit...now you've got me thinking. Which Mackie do you use?

[maximilians1]

Has anyone here made one of these things?, http://www.ucapps.de/ the midibox64 , this would get you a tactile feel(if you could ever finish it)

[Landphil]

Mr Ardakin wrote,

I still have my first sytnh (a Roland SH-09, yes i'm that old), my second synth (Moog Rogue), my OSCar, JD-800/990. The only thing i managed to part with was my D-10 cos it didn't sound that great and i needed the space.

I'm that old, too! My first was a Roland SH-3, now taking the top tier of my keyboard rack. I still have my Polymoog, Maxi-Korg, Mini-Korg, Poly 800, Mono/Poly, Baldwin Electropro, EPS, ESQ-1, Mirage, DX-7, Roland System 100 and Moog Liberation. I'm a gear slut and love every minute of it!

I like both sides. I can record and mix with a 32/8, outboard FX and my HDR 24/96, or i can fire up the PC and load Cubase up with VST's and diddle away. I agree with the starter of this post, though... my writing started going downhill as soon as I put a CRT in the studio. I find myself looking at sites like K-v-R to see if anybody's put up another freebie that I just cant live without! Music was addictive enough, but computer music has turned me into a raving VST junkie! I do miss the days when it was just a couple of synths and a 4 track!

If you'll excuse me, I have to go and tear another wall out to make room for all this junk!

Phil

[anopenscroll]

What about this? : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3685791.stm

[VitaminD]

Has anyone here made one of these things?, http://www.ucapps.de/ the midibox64 , this would get you a tactile feel(if you could ever finish it)

nice link.. especially like the looks of MidiBox LC with motorized faders

[koorby]

It's an old guy thing. Remembering the 'good old days'. Please, just use what works.

Old guy? Well, I turn 40 in 10 days, so that makes me an old fart I guess.

I came back to electronic music after a 14 year break. Back "in the goold old days" of 1990 I had a Korg M1, Atari 1040ST and C-Lab Creator. That was it. One workstation synth and a simple sequencer - and I squeezed every ounce of that setup, I can tell you. I don't remember tweaking much, since the M1 had a decent set of patches (for its day). So no knob twiddling back then.

Fast forward to today. I'm sitting in my study checking email and I hear a melody in my head. I fire up Chainer, load up sfz and a few soundfonts, add a touch of FM7 and I came up with this:

http://home.pacific.net.au/~venema/doodle.mp3

Yeah, it's just a crappy sketchpad thingy, but my point is: this is all damn software and I love the immediacy of just putting ideas down quickly. Not to mention that apart from FM7, most of my softsynths and samples were free, off the net. Amazing stuff.

Do I pine for my M1, Atari and midi cables? Nope.

[TVD]

Apart from my keyboard controller, I'm software for life & bedroom studio-bound forever.

[Lady J]

Then get a freaking Mackie Control! Seriously. You will kiss your hardware goodbye. It has all the knobs, sliders flashing lights and an LCD screen. One control surface to rule all your softsynths, effects, etc. You can see the parameter names and values on the LCD screen. You have no excuses anymore.

It's just not the same. I like being able to fire up my HW and reaching for those labeled knobs or sliders, it seems more immediate than having to reassign a controller everytime you want to use a different soft synth (at least that's how I understand it works). Using a control surface has never appealed much to me. But hey, I'm being nitpicky here. I love all my software too. It's all good!


But damnit...now you've got me thinking. Which Mackie do you use?

Um, the Mackie Control Universal effectively LABELS all your control sliders, knobs etc on the LCD. They are already assigned automatically.. there is no remapping. You select a different soft synth (you can do this from the controller by the way) and you are now inside that one and can see all its parameters on the LCD. This is why i DON'T recommend the Behringer crap and other 'dumb control surfaces'. The future is dynamic,


Come on... If I had to do all that re-mapping myself i'd never have bought it. What attracted me to it was the fact that i did not have to remap VSTis.

GO to www.mackie.com and do some research. If your DAW is supported (all the major ones are) then you're set.

[machinesworking]

Definitely will I save money for a Makie Control then!

Hope it supports Live # 's VSTi implementation? Not a deal killer though, I mainly plan on using Live, in live situations!

[kritikon]

The Mackie sounds the way to go, but no, it's still not the same, not as much fun, and not as interactive. It has only one LCD screen? Pfffft! sounds like programming one of those h/w rack units that I mentioned.

It's the same way that a guitarist likes to interact with his guitar - you can make a very good guitar track with a sampler nowadays as long as you use good multisamples, velocity switches, layers etc - it can be done, but it isn't as quick, not as much fun, and its the musician interacting with his/her instrument that is an indefinable but key element. Sounds irrelevant but it's not - for me, to be able to play on a real keyboard is great - but it's greater to have those modulators, knobs, sliders, ribbons or whatever at hand on the actual keys I'm playing - I don't know what it is but playing on an "instrument" gains that little extra for me.

Controllers are definitely getting better, but they've a way to go yet - I don't see why someone hasn't made a controller with a screen for each knob/slider so that each knob's parameter is visible at that knob. In fact why isn't there a keyboard with a midi controller on it in exactly that way. I wouldn't winge if I could get one of those - a decent keyboard with a modwheel, a pitchwheel, a ribbon, a joystick, and a bank of knobs each with their own little screen to light up what parameter is what and their values. It's do-able, and it shouldn't be difficult. And then make it like the Mackie so that it will automatically load the main parameters. But it would need a fair old set of knobs - I for one need A, D, S, R, env amount, env dest, A2, D2, S2, R2, env2 amount, env2 dest, cutoff, res, filter type, LFO dest, LFO speed, LFO delay, LFO type, osc type, osc octave, detune, PWM rate as a bare minimum to make it user friendly - otherwise I may as well be programming one of those crappy 80s/90s black synths that had a 2-line LCD screen for 3,000 parameters and 700 sub-menus.

A true controller should be able to let you control every main parameter without sub-menus. I don't want to bang on about analogue synths all the time, because there are a few top notch VSTi's out now - but control surfaces have done nothing but regress IMO - that still is the beauty of an old synth - every knob, every slider labelled with its own function, right there in front of you for playing with and tweaking. All laid out neatly in sections.

It's like driving an automatic car - they're just no fun - you fall asleep at the wheel because you've got no interaction with it - it sets its own air-con temperature, cruise controls the speed, shit - now they even apply the brakes when you get to within a certain distance of the next car FFS!

I must be just a Troglodite I suppose - I even drive a 70s car. However - other drivers come to me and talk about the car and what it's like - they don't do that if you're driving the latest Mazda XVJ2-series-FiTurbo465-78valve-triplecam 888435XD4WD - even the names are boring. What happened to things like Interceptor, Rapier, Disemboweler etc?

[AD80]

! You sound like a grumpy 95 year old.