Diva Vs. Real Analog

[aciddose]

I'm not sure I can agree with the Beatles theory.

I would offer the opinion that a modern day version of the Beatles is Skrillex.

Just think about it.

Look at the years here, 1963 - 1970, this is seven years not ten.

If you want to count years they were wildly popular that is fine, but even seven is quite a stretch.

I don't think you can really include the period during which they release unpopular/unknown albums to a small audience and remained relatively unknown as included in a period during which they were massively popular.

Let's count only the years during which they had top tracks or albums in multiple countries at once (uk/us is fine really). Too much research for me, I'm not a weird obsessed fan but I'd like to see the evidence that this period lasted longer than seven years, if that.

Then you might want to look at their fan base, compare to the fan base for someone like Skrillex for example.

Look at the number of sales during the period immediately after release of their albums, again compare.

I think you might be horrified to find Skrillex topping the Beatles here.

[KingTuck]

Being massively talented isn't enough anymore. Maybe you get lucky and a song goes viral, or gets featured in a movie, or a major label decides to pump all their marketing budget into you. Otherwise, you're mostly invisible.

Sorry but this is bullshit. Jungle about on Bleep.com for a bit and it's clear that many of the artists on some of the well known electronic labels are certainly not massively talented. Just talented enough. We can all play poor victim but it's foolish, great music will push through. There just doesn't happen to be many people capable of making great, great (like really great) music.

[aciddose]

[2ZrgE]

Is it strange that I don't know One Direction, but do know those other guys?

[DJ Warmonger]

I wonder how many Youtube plays did they get over 1969-2005 period

[fmr]

This only proves that this is about sales and marketing, not music. The current product is always the most popular, until a new one comes that makes the now new an old one. Music is not important here.

[lotus2035]

I would offer the opinion that a modern day version of the Beatles is Skrillex.

[fmr]

Maybe it has more to do with the music you chose to listen to. Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, OMD, Human League, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire... there was an alternative to prog rock in the 70's...

OMD, Human League, Cabaret Voltaire... in the 70s...? You definitely must tale a look at the names, and consult the Wikipedia. And even TD and Kraftwerk... TD started as a derivative of Krautrock, which is tself a derivative of Prog Rock. Kraftwerk... well, I never really considered them a great band, and Man Machine, which is the labum the really make them famous worlwide is from 1977, so, they are more a band of the 80s than a band of the 70s. Not at the level of TD or Vangelis, certainly. So, no, in the 70s, Prog Rock was dominant.

Fortunately, it's not dead. It outlived through the 80s and 90s, and it is now alive and vibrant. It's not mainstream, but that is perhaps good, because those who play it, play it for the sake of music, not for the sake of fame and fortune.

[whyterabbyt]

OMD, Human League, Cabaret Voltaire... in the 70s...? You definitely must tale a look at the names, and consult the Wikipedia.

No, you should.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English new wave/synthpop group formed in 1978

The Human League are an English electronic new wave band formed in Sheffield in 1977

Cabaret Voltaire are an English music group formed in Sheffield in 1973.

And even TD and Kraftwerk... TD started as a derivative of Krautrock

Ahem.

Tangerine Dream was a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese.

The word krautrock was originally a humorous one coined in the early 1970s

[Ingonator]

For me the "Diva vs Real Analog" discussion is quite simple. I got both Diva and a real analog Waldorf Pulse 2 and none of those two could fully replace the other one.

Besides some Pulse 2 features not found in Diva the basic sound of the Pulse 2 is simply different (where "different" does not have to be the same as "less analog". Of course it is also possible to get some similar results with both after some tweaking.

Sometimes people seem to forget that real analog synths actually have a different basic sound (which is one reason why there were so many of them...), even if they share a similar architecture. Opposing to many other real analog monosynths (especially vintage ones) the Pulse 2 has a multimode filter (12dB/24dB LPF, 12dB BPF, 12dB HPF) where all modes are resonant until self-oscillation.

As a pure monophonic Minimoog emulationi do still think NI Monark is better but the Moog modules in Diva could be more verstaile and also offers creating a "hybrid" synth when mixing modules of differnt synths.

[Lotuzia]

......
Sometimes people seem to forget that real analog synths actually have a different basic sound (which is one reason why there were so many of them...), even if they share a similar architecture. Opposing to many other real analog monosynths (especially vintage ones) the Pulse 2 has a multimode filter (12dB/24dB LPF, 12dB BPF, 12dB HPF) where all modes are resonant until self-oscillation.

Exactly this. Even implementing the same filter IC but using different configurations lead to a different sound.

[whyterabbyt]

So, no, in the 70s, Prog Rock was dominant.

I think I must have missed that week's Top of the Pops.

[IncarnateX]

For me the "diva vs Real Analog" discussion is quite simple. I got both Diva and a real analog Waldorf Pulse 2 and none of those two could fully replace the other one

Does DIVA got a Waldorf Pulse 2 emulation onboard? Otherwise it kind of goes without saying doesn't it? Analog or digital, the manufacturers will do what they can to make their synths stand out from the crowd and have lots of means to do that. In the 80s none would expect a Polysix to sound exactly like a Juno, a Prophet or even less a minimoog. If someone expected that today, they surely got the wrong idea about analog synths in the first place. Actually I think it is pretty hard to point out a shared timbre of all analogs, a kind a "average" analog sound that could be identified in a blind test. What I can tell for certain is that different synths sound different whether they are analog or digital. But this doesn't matter much for a good deal of classic patches that easily can be reproduced on both analogs and VAs; like an octaved square/saw bass with a -24db filter, a rising juno-like pad or a Vangalis-like blade lead. That is, they sound more or less different all right, but not to an extent where it would have any noticable effect for the joy of a good piece of music.

[wagtunes]

Let's be clear about something. Prog rock was in no way dominant in the 70s. It was neve really mainstream to the point where you saw major big hits out of prog rock bands outside of a few songs and those songs were usually not of the classic prog rock style such as hits like "Dust In The Wind" and "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas.

If you listened to pop radio stations in the 70s, you heard a very well rounded mix of music ranging from The Carpenters to The Who. 1975 started to change things for me drastically when disco became extremely popular thanks to songs like "The Hustle". The Bee Gees transformation from what they were to sounding like mice was the last straw for me and I abandoned mainstream pop music for a very long time.

But prog rock was the stuff you heard on FM rock or even college stations. It was far from mainstream, which was part of the appeal for me. Groups like Genesis never had top 40 hits until they finally "sold out" and started cranking out crap like "Follow You Follow Me" and "Misunderstanding". "Invisible Touch" was another "let's make some money" song. And that's fine. I can't blame these people for wanting to reach a wider audience. But when this happened, it was long after the golden era of prog rock, which again was never mainstream.

No need to take my word for all this. Go look up the Billboard 100 for the 70s and see what dominated the charts. You will not find a lot of songs by the prog rock "giants" of the time.

[Gamma-UT]

So, no, in the 70s, Prog Rock was dominant.

I think I must have missed that week's Top of the Pops.

It was a very long edition. Luckily the miner's strike cut the power halfway through Wakeman's two-hour solo.