u-he rePro in the works

[PAK]

It'd take a brave company to release a new hardware VA in the current market, considering Korg just released a 4 voice analogue poly for $499, and there will be more affordable polysynths on the way. Behringer (through their ownership of CoolAudio) may even clone classic chips (SSM/CEM etc), allowing for more affordable hardware recreations of classic synths.

As if low cost real analogue competition wasn't enough, there's companies like Roland who can draw on their history as well as their manufacturing power. One would have to assume they're working on an upgraded Aira, since they've completed a Jupiter 8 emulation but don't have a single product which can run all 8 voices There's still room to improve on the sound of Roland's emulations, but not a whole lot, and Roland did an excellent job of making sure the controls keep their code within the range of what the hardware would do which, in turn, lends itself to a better hardware control experience.

Not to say a new digital hardware VA couldn't be a success. But companies would have to be much more careful picking their battles than in past years. The closest equivalent I could think of right now, to what people here are suggesting, is John Bowen's Solaris.

BTW It's notable just how quiet companies like Access (Virus) have been in recent years too..

[beely]

Now, if U-he came out with a hardware synth that had Diva, Zebra, Bazille, ACE and Hive in it...

How well did the Arturia Origin sell again..?

[recursive one]

Hardware Diva?

What's the point of it? To my uderstanding the primary goal of Diva is to provide the sound of analogue gear in combination of all the advantages of software synths. Those who prefer working with harware still have enough HW to choose from.

[nevernamed]

Now, if U-he came out with a hardware synth that had Diva, Zebra, Bazille, ACE and Hive in it...

How well did the Arturia Origin sell again..?

Arturia is a piece of sh!t company though that seems to f*ck up everything they touch. I have no confidence in their ability to implement, well anything at all really.

[nevernamed]

It'd take a brave company to release a new hardware VA in the current market, considering Korg just released a 4 voice analogue poly for $499, and there will be more affordable polysynths on the way.

Analogue isn't always better or what you want even. There are interesting VA synths that smash analogue. The Q for example. I'd take that over anything analogue DSI has released. Including their new collaborative effort with Oberheim. Diva has far more range than the new Korg analogue, or the new DSI stuff for that matter, but the Korg has the advantage of a more immediate interface. With something like Kickstarter all of your points about bravery are moot because you're crowdsourcing the project funding.

[beely]

Hardware Diva?

What's the point of it? To my uderstanding the primary goal of Diva is to provide the sound of analogue gear in combination of all the advantages of software synths. Those who prefer working with harware still have enough HW to choose from.

+1

Two factors - a dedicated, bespoke control surface is a beautiful thing. But this could be done anyway, leaving the engine in software as it is.

The only other point to have the sound being made in a different kind of box to where it is now, is for gigging and using independently of a computer. And well, for that, there are plenty of alternatives out there already...

[beely]

Now, if U-he came out with a hardware synth that had Diva, Zebra, Bazille, ACE and Hive in it...

How well did the Arturia Origin sell again..?

Arturia is a piece of sh!t company though that seems to f*ck up everything they touch. I have no confidence in their ability to implement, well anything at all really.

The point was though, that a software instrument company took all the engines of their products, and built them into a hardware box, and the consumer interest was... well, more or less zero.

If eg u-he did a similar thing, it might be a better sounding product, but it would be expensive (especially if it was a first hardware product, where you have to learn everything and gear up from scratch) and I can't see legions of KVR folks lining up to buy it. It'd be more like "Meh, why spend four grand on this when I have Diva and Zebra already?" or "meh, I have Diva and Zebra already, shouldn't I be able to get this for half price?" and so on.

[PAK]

It'd take a brave company to release a new hardware VA in the current market, considering Korg just released a 4 voice analogue poly for $499, and there will be more affordable polysynths on the way.

Analogue isn't always better or what you want even. There are interesting VA synths that smash analogue. The Q for example. I'd take that over anything analogue DSI has released. Including their new collaborative effort with Oberheim. Diva has far more range than the new Korg analogue, or the new DSI stuff for that matter, but the Korg has the advantage of a more immediate interface. With something like Kickstarter all of your points about bravery are moot because you're crowdsourcing the project funding.

Sure. There's a lot of analogue for the sake of being analogue happening right now. The more precise nature of modern manufacturing frequently leads to products which add questionable value over what can already be achieved by digital means. And that's just purely talking about the sound quality, not features, convenience, or price, which usually side with software.

My point wasn't so much about a particular synth, like the Minilogue, but more the direction the market is heading in and the competition which is already there. Even if crowd-funding might remove some risks, there's still risks involved with physical products which you don't have to think about with software (For example, say the manufacturer screws up a manufacturing batch, and this is only discovered much later, in shipped products.. ) Plus, in the end, if you only sell a small number after huge time investment, was it worth the effort?

[nevernamed]

Oh come on it's a lot more nuanced than that. Also your conclusion doesn't follow (i.e. Arturia released a hardware version of it's software synths and failed therefore that's proof that if U-he did the same thing it would also fail etc etc...). Moreover, that was only one of the suggestions regarding architecture. It wasn't the only one.

As for what's the point? Well, computers aren't instruments. There is something to be said for intangibles. Also the costs aren't so clear cut either. My computer cost a lot of money. By the time you buy a good converter/interface and some software it's not a cheap or straight forward as simply buying/having Zebra like you say.

[nevernamed]

"there's still risks involved with physical products which you don't have to think about with software"

Sure but that's an indemnity problem (i.e. subject to risk transference controls). You won't eliminate the risk completely but you'll manage/mitigate it.

I'm not the one to say what's worthwhile investment of one's time/effort.

[beely]

Oh come on it's a lot more nuanced than that. Also your conclusion doesn't follow (i.e. Arturia released a hardware version of it's software synths and failed therefore that's proof that if U-he did the same thing it would also fail etc etc...). Moreover, that was only one of the suggestions regarding architecture. It wasn't the only one.

Sure. The point was that the concept wasn't something that set the world on fire, so the attraction of sinking all your money into a similar product wouldn't be that high.

As for what's the point? Well, computers aren't instruments. There is something to be said for intangibles. Also the costs aren't so clear cut either. My computer cost a lot of money. By the time you buy a good converter/interface and some software it's not a cheap or straight forward as simply buying/having Zebra like you say.

Of course. A nice instrument is a beautiful thing.

But KVR is full of people that moan that a £80 synth is way too expensive, I can't see many forking over multi-thousands to get (in sound terms) what you can already buy for a few hundred. Lots of factors go into deciding what a product should be - it's certainly not clear cut.

[Numanoid]

Hardware Diva?

What's the point of it?

+1

And what's daydreaming about hardware synths got to do with discussions in a forum that is devoted to software plugs

Seems there are users that are most interested in showcasing their hardware fetish rather than focusing on the OP at hand

[fluffy_little_something]

Turning tabbed and menu-dependent GUI's into hw must be fun

[nevernamed]

But KVR is full of people that moan that a £80 synth is way too expensive, I can't see many forking over multi-thousands to get (in sound terms) what you can already buy for a few hundred. Lots of factors go into deciding what a product should be - it's certainly not clear cut.

But then maybe it wouldn't be multi thousands. I mean if the new Korgs like you point out are only a few hundred quid maybe something from u-he wouldn't be orders of magnitude expensive.

And regarding the point about Arturia I understand what you mean. I just think that's a shitty company and I can't help but wonder how much of their problem with hardware has been due to their bad reputation in software.

[fmr]

And regarding the point about Arturia I understand what you mean. I just think that's a shitty company and I can't help but wonder how much of their problem with hardware has been due to their bad reputation in software.

The Arturia "bad" reputation resides only in your head (and other pinprick heads). They are a good company that makes very good software instruments, that many use.
The hardware "problem" (AFAIK, they only had that "problem" with the Origin, but not with the later "Brute" series - there goes your "shitty" theory) resides in the fact that people who want hardware want the immediacy of the old hardware interfaces, and that doesn't coexist well with the complexities of modern synths. If U-he decided to follow that path, they would probably face the same problem, and would have to build a synth with a large LCD and menus driven by touch, probably. And then they would be facing the exact same problem Arturia faced. Some concepts simply cannot be transposed (or will be quite hard to transpose) from software to hardware.