Have Modern VST Instruments Replaced Your Hardware Synths ?

[Tj Shredder]

Q: Have Modern VST Instruments Replaced Your Hardware Synths ?
A: Yes and no

I was 100% ITB from 1990 - 2018 (I wasn't making music that whole time - long breaks).

How can you be 100% in the box in the early 90's ???
You could only run midi sequencers back then

Oh, you could sell your house and get a Synclavier or Fairlight. These computer based systems couldn't do anything else though - you might call it hardware, but in reality it was software more or less...

[e-crooner]

It’s in storage at the moment, but my favorite keyboard controller of all time for a the Kawai K5000s. It’s a Fatar keybed, semi-weighted with aftertouch, and a dream to play. I’m not sure what other instruments used that same keybed, but there must be a few.

Kawai must have fine keybeds themselves, being a manufacturer of quality pianos...

Anyway, an interesting video on keybeds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EES6R0pMZaA

And this, similar, though, from the same guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEVBEp-m5w4

[EnGee]

It’s in storage at the moment, but my favorite keyboard controller of all time for a the Kawai K5000s. It’s a Fatar keybed, semi-weighted with aftertouch, and a dream to play. I’m not sure what other instruments used that same keybed, but there must be a few.

Kawai must have fine keybeds themselves, being a manufacturer of quality pianos...

Anyway, an interesting video on keybeds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EES6R0pMZaA

And this, similar, though, from the same guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEVBEp-m5w4

They have great stage pianos (MP 11 and 7), but they are costy. As a midi keyboard, VPC 1 is a great choice but still expensive.

Anyway, for not so expensive, Arturia keylab mk ii seems great. I think it's fatar keybed and it's the softest in modern keyboards, so you can even play piano as it has very good sensitivity. It reminds me of the old good keyboards of the 80's and 90's. But I have no idea how durable is it!

[THE INTRANCER]

I can say one thing for sure...it's more fun being able to re-skin / re-design a software based synth than a hardware based one... As for hardware, I'm still waiting for a manufacture to integrate a qwerty keyboard into a hardware synthesizer, and with a proper computer screen. A hybrid of an Amiga in a synthesizer could have been a possibility given what the Amiga is capable of with a 16Bit soundcard.

My own Amiga 1200 set up across from me, which I occasionally play Ruff & Tumble and Super Stardust AGA on. I should really make a few videos of the many music programs I still have on floppy for it... I tried to find an image of Amiga TB 303 emulator program I used in the mid 1990's, it's called ' 303 Emu v2.3z ' I think. It wasn't pretty but it was fun to play with... it's up in the loft in a box with about 250 other floppies I have.

Here's Amigas two in combo... someone posted some years back... It was a bit of a wtf, moment when I had first seen the A600 in Comet (a now deceased UK electronics store chain), back in 1992, I have to say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK5N-7ganUY

[vurt]

I can say one thing for sure...it's more fun being able to re-skin / re-design a software based synth than a hardware based one...

no its not. its just easier to flip between previous designs.
its not impossible to repaint a synths case. just a little more work.

but...
its not really something ive ever thought about, ive seen other people who had their whole collection done in white. or some who have more psychedelic paint jobs on individual synths. and so on...
i personally buy mine (both soft and hard) to make noise with.
if i want to doodle, i gots me a colouring book and some crayons

[BONES]

Repainting your hardware can be expensive. I got my Axis-1 controller repainted black at a smash repair place and it cost me $400 in 1990. It would be twice that now.

(From what I have seen and I have read) there are simply NO good midi controllers on the market that are not 88 keys (and even these 88 keys that exist are with too heavy action or inferior velocity mechanics, compared to digital pianos - or organs, but I don't want to play on "authentic" clicky organ keys). (And I have no space for 88 keys piano)

That's absolute bullshit. Like I said, my KeyStep is just about the best keyboard I have ever used and it's build quality is better than most of my hardware synths, too. No, it's not a piano, it's not meant to be (and I couldn't play a piano to save my life anyway). It's a synth controller and, as such, is bloody brilliant.

I guess manufacturers know that most modern producers can't play and are focused on making cheap, plastic garbage with lots of faders and buttons and built-in arpeggiator...

What, and you're some kind of virtuoso, are you? If you can't adapt to any kind of keybed, you're not much of a player in my book. And what do you think Korg, Roland and Yamaha do, go to the trouble of designing and engineering shit keyboards on purpose for their controllers when they could just use the same keyboards they are already manufacturing for their synths? Does that seem likely to you?

[anomandaris1]

Dude, your Arturia Keystep is not better than other cheap controllers, if you are after good velocity control. If you think it's fine, OK. Everyone has his own opinion. Having correctly implemented aftertouch doesn't mean much when it's assumed that other keyboards should also have such, shame on big companies that release keyboards with crappy (or broken - like in the last big Roland workstation) aftertouch.

[BONES]

Every synth I have ever owned with aftertouch is worse than KeyStep. Velocity is a function of an instrument's response so you should be able to make it work the way you want it to.

[THE INTRANCER]

The Keystep.. isn't a patch on the old Casio SK1... , which is incidently my first personal keyboard back in 1985/6..

Jamming along to the Petshop Boys on Top of The Pops and Jean Michel Jarre was fun....humm what's this video I've found, you might be wondering...

https://youtu.be/HFlyxQLwicQ

[chk071]

Dude, your Arturia Keystep is not better than other cheap controllers, if you are after good velocity control. If you think it's fine, OK. Everyone has his own opinion. Having correctly implemented aftertouch doesn't mean much when it's assumed that other keyboards should also have such, shame on big companies that release keyboards with crappy (or broken - like in the last big Roland workstation) aftertouch.

Actually, the Keystep has some really great keys for that size, and for that price. Aftertouch is also not a given in that price range, actually, the opposite is the case. Most controllers for that price don't have Aftertouch (I couldn't name a single one which does actually).

[vurt]

Repainting your hardware can be expensive. I got my Axis-1 controller repainted black at a smash repair place and it cost me $400 in 1990. It would be twice that now.

yeah if youre paying that much mebbe.
but weve come a long way since then, lazer printing and such.
even overlays for example.

if skinning is why you buy musical instruments.
i mean if thats the reason you* choose soft over hard, then far be it from me to argue.


*- not you as in bones, as in the general you!

[machinesworking]

Yes for the most part. I still have a few hardware synths. It's a weird conundrum in a 'bigger picture' way though, in the end computers and software doesn't last, at least none of us truly make it last. What I mean is eventually everything we did in 2002 on the computer has to be carefully preserved on a dated machine, nobody really does that, we just move on.
My two hardware poly analog synths, Oberheim Xpander and Linntronics Memorymoog are classics now, worth more than the rest of my studio put together, and that makes me think about selling them all the time. The thing is though, the moog has outlasted dozens of plug ins, hell NI and Apple in conjunction with my urge to move on hardware wise, have shitcanned a few old songs. Compared, the moog is still capable of reproducing sounds I came up with in 1987.. I'm not sure if it's worth it though, especially seeing the prices people get for the dammed thing?

In contrast software completely annihilates hardware. Yes, I think some soft synths suffer from digital artifacts and poor quality, sort of like 90's synths, but that's not half the story: Falcon, Pigments, Diva, Lion, Cypher2, Zebra2, Hive2, Kontakt etc. etc. all blow away hardware. Listening back to my analogs solo, they do seem to have a deeper sound, but in the songwriting process I tend to realize I'm having to EQ them more to create space, they tend to take up a lot of the spectrum. In short, they mostly are fun to play in the studio, at least in my experience. So I keep them for now, but it's possible that they get sold in the next couple years.

Except the Metasonix Wretch, no one is dumb enough to replicate that in software.

[Tendou]

I used to have a Subsequent 37 and I sold it because to be honest I didnt use it. You have to fire up the analog stuff, some need warmup and then you have to go through the drag to record, compensate delay, cant change anything on the fly anymore and that I say with a hardware synth which could save presets. Still - on software every thing of that you can do in a blink of the eye. Yes hardware got a tactile feel to it which is great but I learned to produce without that bc I started like 5 years ago and software was omnipresent at that time, so I don't miss having a tactile, dedicated knob. If I want a Knob I route it to my Push2 and I have a tactile feel which is plenty enough for me. and lets face it: The legend sounds as great as a moog does so 50$ vs 1400$ - that was an easy choice for me bc on the price I see A LOT of advantages in using software vs a hardware synth and maybe I'm just not experienced enough yet but to me modern software in the right hands doesnt sound worse than hardware nowadays.

[vurt]

every thing of that you can do in a blink of the eye.

everyone is always in such a hurry these days

[AnX]

indeed

https://youtu.be/vMFgiQGguWU