Have Modern VST Instruments Replaced Your Hardware Synths ?

[e-crooner]

Even the simple pad with the open filter is aggressive in terms of frequencies and mixing. It's too dense, too diffuse for my taste.
It sounds nice on its own, but not in a song.

It can't be both dense and diffuse, but I think I see what you are getting at. For me that's the perfect sound - dense and broad. That's why most of our songs only have/need 4 or 5 synth parts - because I can create a wall of sound easily and efficiently without the need to layer anything or use f**king chords. (Have I mentioned how much I hate chords?)

By diffuse I mean all over the place in terms of frequencies.
Your concept of music is so different from mine. Wall of sound Is that a synonym for noise?

I love chords and chord sequences. You probably also use them even if you spread the chords' notes across different instruments. But I prefer the chord be made on the same instrument such as a synth pad or a Rhodes.

[BONES]

Your concept of music is so different from mine. Wall of sound Is that a synonym for noise?

Your grandparents probably thought so - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Sound

I love chords and chord sequences. You probably also use them even if you spread the chords' notes across different instruments.

No, I don't. I don't layer parts at all. Ever. I find the one instrument/sound that can do the job and that's it. I do use chord theory to pitch parts in an arrangement and I occasionally use power chords in guitar parts but that's as far as I ever go with it.

But I prefer the chord be made on the same instrument such as a synth pad or a Rhodes.

If I ever got three wishes from a genie, one of them would be to erase the electric piano from history. It is the saddest of all the instruments. It's what the entertainer at your grandparents' nursing home would play. Horrible, horrible thing.

[wagtunes]

To answer the question, yes, all my hardware is gone. Replaced at a fraction of the cost by over 100 VSTs. I would never go back to hardware unless I had absolutely no choice as the 70s and 80s were anything but fun with the 90s being only slightly better. What I spent for one rack mount (Not even a keyboard) I could buy 15 VSTs of $100 or more today.

Never again.

[THE INTRANCER]

To answer the question, yes, all my hardware is gone. Replaced at a fraction of the cost by over 100 VSTs. I would never go back to hardware unless I had absolutely no choice as the 70s and 80s were anything but fun with the 90s being only slightly better. What I spent for one rack mount (Not even a keyboard) I could buy 15 VSTs of $100 or more today.

Never again.

You create music without any keyboard of any kind ? I mean you don't play a keyboard and instead draw everything in by mouse within your DAW ? I mean if you are editing notes by mouse after recording by hand then fair enough... but the notion of doing everything by hand is an inanely slow method of composing even with programmable VST's.

[lessera]

He didn't say anything close to requiring such a didactic response.

[voidhead23]

I have an Arturia Minibrute 1 that i love. Dearly. So much that this is my second one, having sold the first before moving overseas. I always wanted to get that instrument back, for the character it has, the fun i have using it, and how easy it slides into my mixes. It certainly doesn't sound better than software, but it sounds different, and i like the way it sounds better. Most of the time.

I also recently wiped my laptop and decided to only re-install Zebra and TRK-01 (after having binged on almost every major soft synth in the market). I love those two synths dearly as well, and have made a lot of music with them in the past two years.

I don't have a preference between these tools, but i do prefer limitations. Hardware helps me a lot there.

My typical way of working is to riff with a physical instrument for a day (the Brute or my guitar) and then bounce what i have to my external HD. Hardware is great at inspiring me to keep riffing, exploring and coming up with ideas without getting distracted in minutiae. Then i'll come back a day later, bring the audio into the DAW and start hacking at it until a song starts to emerge. When the arrangement is forming together, i'll layer with software (and certainly process using ONLY software...no outboard here). This is where i find the flexibility of software to be most useful, when i know where i need to take things to finish a piece.

This is purely my approach, obviously, and is entirely subject to how i work and what i find helpful in creating and also finishing music. I don't think it's much more complicated than that.

[dellboy]

If I ever got three wishes from a genie, one of them would be to erase the electric piano from history. It is the saddest of all the instruments. It's what the entertainer at your grandparents' nursing home would play. Horrible, horrible thing.

You jest , The Fender Rhodes is fab instrument, maybe my favorite, second only to a real acoustic piano. Its always one of the first instruments I try in a new hardware keyboard or VST.

My guess is you hate all these songs as well.

supertramp - Breakfast in America
the doors - riders on the storm
Billy Joel - just the way you are
The Beatles Get Back
The Bee Gees - More than a woman
Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the sky
Roy Ayers - Everybody loves the sunshine
Sister Sledge - He's the greatest dancer
Chicago - If you leave me now
Donald Fagen - New frontier
George Benson - Give me the night
Michael Jackson - Baby be mine
Imagination - Just an illusion
Kool & the Gang - Ladies night
Michael McDonald - Minute by minute
Steely Dan - Babylon sisters

[AnX]

pretty much, but not because of that specific instrument

tho I think bones may be talking more about the standard yamaha/casio crappy piano sound....

[revvy]

I wonder if bones, a man who 'hates chords', is being nuanced in his opinion on EPs.

[excuse me please]

Imagination - Just an illusion (1982) is my oldest ref track

[anomandaris1]

You create music without any keyboard of any kind ? I mean you don't play a keyboard and instead draw everything in by mouse within your DAW ? I mean if you are editing notes by mouse after recording by hand then fair enough... but the notion of doing everything by hand is an inanely slow method of composing even with programmable VST's.

There are actually many EDM producers that do this.
Classical composers didn't have "record" function along sequencer, so guess what they did: the equivalent of drawing notes, but this time on a paper.

[EnGee]

My typical way of working is to riff with a physical instrument for a day (the Brute or my guitar) and then bounce what i have to my external HD. Hardware is great at inspiring me to keep riffing, exploring and coming up with ideas without getting distracted in minutiae. Then i'll come back a day later, bring the audio into the DAW and start hacking at it until a song starts to emerge. When the arrangement is forming together, i'll layer with software (and certainly process using ONLY software...no outboard here). This is where i find the flexibility of software to be most useful, when i know where i need to take things to finish a piece.

Nice workflow. I have similar workflow with my MODX. It is as you said, makes me concentrate on the foundation of the track. It is also nice to just turn it on and play without bothering to turn on the PC.

I'm selling my Minibrute 2 not because I don't like it, but because I prefer to have just one external synth even though they are absolutely different ones. Anyway, I might keep the MB2 if I can't sell it this week! I just need to upgrade my audio interface to 4 inputs instead of 2, so I don't bother plugging/unplugging the audio cable!

[dellboy]

pretty much, but not because of that specific instrument

tho I think bones may be talking more about the standard yamaha/casio crappy piano sound....

In that case I sort of understand. Sort of,because not all play along one finger auto accompaniment keyboards are rubbish.

A couple of years ago I was at a country auction which was selling furniture, antiques, bric a brac etc, and on a keyboard stand was a mint condition Technics 6500 keyboard with a very low estimate. I knew that these cost in the thousands when new in 2001 and it had a keybed which was like a Yamaha DX7's or my old Korg M1, so i guessed it would be good as a master keyboard. Anyways, a few bids later and it was in my car boot.

When I got home I plugged it in and was pleased to find it had good working aftertouch. After amusing myself with the rather good accompaniment stuff for a short while I started using it as a controller along with my Nektar P6.

It was only in the last few months that I started delving into the synth side a bit and was surprised to find it was very much like a Roland with 4 sound parts which can be independently switched on or off - volume adjust - with envelopes - LFOs -filter - resonance - detune- octave - etc etc . And the editing is done with a big colour 9 inch LCD screen, and lots of buttons which make it a breeze to work with. A full blown hardware synth in fact. Even the Moog type synth sounds are pretty good. I have made up some pretty good evolving pads with filters opening etc.

But the icing on the cake for me is the round trackball which can be quickly assigned to filter and resonance - FX - envelopes etc. And sometime it also works with VSTs.

All in all a pretty amazing bargain.

[wagtunes]

To answer the question, yes, all my hardware is gone. Replaced at a fraction of the cost by over 100 VSTs. I would never go back to hardware unless I had absolutely no choice as the 70s and 80s were anything but fun with the 90s being only slightly better. What I spent for one rack mount (Not even a keyboard) I could buy 15 VSTs of $100 or more today.

Never again.

You create music without any keyboard of any kind ? I mean you don't play a keyboard and instead draw everything in by mouse within your DAW ? I mean if you are editing notes by mouse after recording by hand then fair enough... but the notion of doing everything by hand is an inanely slow method of composing even with programmable VST's.

Oh the things that people assume. Of course I have a keyboard controller. Had one for my hardware as well. But they're cheap and nowhere near as expensive as a synth. The one I'm using now cost me $260.

They don't count and that's not what I'm talking about.

Sheeesh.

[AnX]

You create music without any keyboard of any kind ? I mean you don't play a keyboard and instead draw everything in by mouse within your DAW ? I mean if you are editing notes by mouse after recording by hand then fair enough... but the notion of doing everything by hand is an inanely slow method of composing even with programmable VST's.

There are actually many EDM producers that do this.
Classical composers didn't have "record" function along sequencer, so guess what they did: the equivalent of drawing notes, but this time on a paper.

sure, but they wrote down what they had already played....