Sylenth1 teaser on Facebook

[fluffy_little_something]

Any difference should be visible on a high-resolution scope

[pdxindy]

In addition to an infinite sample rate, analogue (actual existence) is arbitrarily complex.

Then again, doesn't the "infinite sampling rate advantage" disappear as soon as you record and playback an analog synth via some digital device like computer and DAW?

Fluffy, you're quite right. Using the words "sampling rate" for anything that isn't a digital signal is literally meaningless.
If the intention was to say that analog hardware is not band-limited then that's also incorrect too. What we call sound is just energy vibrations within a certain frequency range on the electro magnetic spectrum. Every conceivable sound is a thin sliver in the audio section of the below graph:


And even if we disregard that, our ears are, by definition, a band-limited system. No matter what we hear, what source it comes from (digital, analog, a bird, radio waves from stars, etc) they fall within a band of 20Hz to 20kHz, for most people.

Saying analog synths are better than digital is really no different than saying coke is better than pepsi because it is older, more established, tastes "crisper" and "lighter" and on and on. It's nothing more than a personal preference.

Analogue does not alias... that is not a preference, it is a fact.

Stop with the better than crap... nobody in this thread has said analogue is better than digital. There are demonstrable advantages to analogue... the preference comes into play when deciding whether the advantages are worth the disadvantages... cause digital has advantages too. Personally, I am very happy using both.

[pdxindy]

No, those are different things... with a digital synth, you are calculating in realtime and bumping up against sample rate boundaries. With recording you are only dealing with a straight signal.

What I mean is, whatever we hear is the final thing, and whatever the origin, if played back through a digital device it has been subjected to sampling and conversion.

Recording the output of a mic is trivial...

Calculating in realtime a complex instrument (whether an analogue synth or a guitar) is a very different thing.

[fluffy_little_something]

Recording the output of a mic is trivial...

Calculating in realtime a complex instrument (whether an analogue synth or a guitar) is a very different thing.

Much more complex with a guitar than with a synth, which is itself based on standardized components and formulas.

[Kain]

FINALLY. THE EFFECTS ARE IN ITALICS.

Damn, that means the loud parts will be out of sync with the quiet parts. Does anyone know a good de-italiciser? Or maybe a diagonal compressor?

This made me snort coffee.

[Kain]

mod edit

[pdxindy]

Any difference should be visible on a high-resolution scope

aliasing is easy to see on the scope

some differences cannot be seen on a scope... for example, a sample of a trumpet will sounds just like a trumpet, but it is only a static snapshot of a trumpet. Even with a bunch of velocity layers and articulations, you will still only have a tiny subset of all the possible sounds the trumpet can make.

The inherent complexity of a physical system far exceeds what is possible to emulate digitally (currently).

It is the same thing with analogue synthesis. Set up a complex modulating patch and start tweaking as it plays and there will be all sorts of unexpected timbres and variations. Record any little moment, and it can be duplicated digitally, but that complex interplay is too costly to model.

[fluffy_little_something]

It only makes sense to compare the very same sound. So comparing a static trumpet sample to a live trumpet is not fair unless the trumpeter plays exactly the same as the sample.
Nor are we talking about samplers, but synths, which are also dynamic - the more parameters, the more dynamic and thus potentially realistic.

Regarding what you have added to your post, those unexpected timbres etc. are also systematic, the results of physics.
I am not sure what role random plays in all this. There are random generators for the computer as well. But frankly, I don't believe in the existence of random at all, it is just the result of complex interaction that can't be understood, yet.

[bmrzycki]

Analogue does not alias... that is not a preference, it is a fact.

That's true today due to the algorithms and implementations of today's digital synthesizers. But that's not necessarily true in the near future. The only reason aliasing exists in digitally-generated signals is because of the trade-off between compute power and the real-time demands of audio signals. Technologies like Intel's AVX-512 will give developers even more power implement algorithms that can further reduce or eliminate aliasing with time-domain demands.

Stop with the better than crap... nobody in this thread has said analogue is better than digital.

Yikes. This thread seems (to me at least) have become a VA vs A thread starting around page 7. In any comparison there is an implied argument of better/worse tradeoffs. I seemed to have touched a nerve which wasn't my intention. I only meant to say that selecting digital synthesizers or analog synthesizers is a matter of personal preference and nothing more.

There are demonstrable advantages to analogue...

A set of so-called advantages to you may be disadvantages to someone else. It is personal preference. You mentioned aliasing: some people actually seek sounds with aliasing. You also mentioned your love of real analog filters. That's fine, but that's just a personal preference.

I completely disagree there are objective demonstrable advantages to analog that 100% of humanity will agree with. I do think that in your mind there are demonstrable advantages which is just another term for (yet again) personal preference.

[fluffy_little_something]

Indeed, once every grandma has her own quantum computer on the kitchen table, she can emulate every f**king electron passing through her favorite Moog

[pdxindy]

There are demonstrable advantages to analogue...

A set of so-called advantages to you may be disadvantages to someone else. It is personal preference. You mentioned aliasing: some people actually seek sounds with aliasing. You also mentioned your love of real analog filters. That's fine, but that's just a personal preference.

I completely disagree there are objective demonstrable advantages to analog that 100% of humanity will agree with. I do think that in your mind there are demonstrable advantages which is just another term for (yet again) personal preference.

Okay... demonstrable differences... and that is not a preference

[pdxindy]

Stop with the better than crap... nobody in this thread has said analogue is better than digital.

Yikes. This thread seems (to me at least) have become a VA vs A thread starting around page 7. In any comparison there is an implied argument of better/worse tradeoffs. I seemed to have touched a nerve which wasn't my intention. I only meant to say that selecting digital synthesizers or analog synthesizers is a matter of personal preference and nothing more.

There are demonstrable differences... that there are differences is a fact and not a preference... how one values those differences and what one chooses to use is a preference (both of which I have already said in this thread)

That I appreciate real analogue filters is a preference. That they have sonic characteristics that digital filters don't isn't. If someone says they prefer a digital filter, that is up to them. When someone says there is no difference, that is something I might argue with because it is not true.

I got annoyed with your post because it is yet another post focused on the preferences and muddies the water in regards the discussion of whether there are differences and what those differences are.

[fluffy_little_something]

Just discovered by accident (I have never really used those knobs) that the two knobs on my midi keyboard (Roland A 49) are by default assigned to S1's global filter frequency and resonance controls Was just playing around and it feels very much like a hardware synth somehow Manual filter sweeps...

[pmczar]

Stop arguing! Sylenth please!

[fluffy_little_something]

Stop arguing! Sylenth please!

Yeah, the sound of Sylenth