Should we ditch VST/AAX instruments altogether?

[Bippo]

Well, since a lot of you seems very curious about who I am and what music I've made, I guess it's only fair to give you something .

This is a production that I've made a long time ago, it was a BIG hit back in the day and I bet some of you have heard it at least once, or maybe just the intro will sound very familiar to you.
I was in charge of production and arrangement, no vsts were used at all.
I've used Yamaha DX7 to produce the basslines, drums were made with Linn 9000 and all strings and brass lines were used with Fairlight CMI.

Again this was made without any vsts at all, only real synths, a drum machine and a top notch singer.

You can give it a listen here, but remember that it's an old song and may not sound as contemporary as some might expect, but I guess it's still stood the test of time in a way.

[Burillo]

every once in a while someone brings up the same tired luddite points.

Do we really NEED virtual instruments, or maybe it does more harm than good?

no one really NEEDS anything. we don't NEED music at all. we only NEED food to survive. everything else is a nice bonus.

Here is obstacle number one:
Latency and quantization.

irrelevant hair splitting, also fixable, so no one cares.

Obstacle number two:
Way too many options.

you can't handle having choice, that's on you. i like being able to choose things I like. even if the choice isn't ultimately meaningful (e.g. pick 1 shitty flavor out of 100 shitty flavors), as long as it's meaningful to me, that's all that matters.

Do we really need Kontakt Komplete, Sampletank MAX, Omnisphere, or any other gigantic vst that includes thousands and thousands of sounds, just to create a song?
How many sounds do we need in a song, anyway?
How many instruments Bach needed to create Toccata and Fugue in D minor?
How many instruments The Beatles needed to create Strawberry Fields Forever?
How many instruments Queen needed to create Bohemian Rhapsody?

completely irrelevant. you could make the same argument against Queen using 100's of vocal tracks. why did they need so many vocal tracks?! all that an old-ass blues records had was one track of guitar and voice! that's all you'll ever need! why multitrack recorders? why hundreds of guitar types and brands? why hundreds of mics, drum sets, strings, guitar picks? why have anything when you can have just one of each in existence?

Lets admit it: modern music is mostly rubbish.

...what you're pointing at has nothing whatsoever to do with choice, and everything to do with how capitalism works. to whatever extent "modern music is rubbish", the reason it is so is due to capitalism, not due to anything having to do with variety of tools being available to musicians.

Maybe one keyboard and one guitar is all we need these days to create a good record?

you literally just mentioned Bohemian Rhapsody, and I jokingly suggested "one guitar is all you need" and here you are, repeating my sarcastic comment almost verbatim, but doing so unironically. you should do some self reflection.

How many brushes Picasso needed?

do you seriously think someone like Picasso didn't go through thousands of brushes before finding ones that fit his working style? have you ever talked to an artist before? they're honestly worse than guitarists.

I know it might seems like an old man yells at cloud type of rant

it doesn't "seem like" it, it is that. your post is an exceptionally ill informed old man yelling at clouds. and honestly the fact that you aren't old makes it even worse.

I think it's time to admit it that some of us became sound collectors instead of music creators.
I know that in some way, I did.

yes, it's true. what's wrong with that? I find enjoyment in "collecting sounds" just as much as I enjoy making music with those sounds. so what?

I hope that I made some of you ponder a little bit about this whole concept in some deeper level, and maybe reach some new conclusions.

it's you who has to "ponder a little bit about this whole concept in some deeper level", because your take is shallow and painfully cliched.

Personally, I decided to walk away from virtual instruments for the time being.

good for you. maybe for you it's for the best, but you have to remember that everyone is different.

[whyterabbyt]

I was in charge of production and arrangement, no vsts were used at all.

The fact that someone thinks it makes sense to say that for a 1987 production gives away the fact that they were born considerably after 1987.

[vurt]

id put waterman and co, at the top of a list of "everything wrong about the state of music of my teens"
churning it out for profit, not caring about artistry in any way. aside from kylie none of their artists had a long career, unless you want to suggest rick getting a boost after a joke, counts as a long career.
plus they gave cowell his start, which ruined the music of my 30s.

[seafire]

id put waterman and co, at the top of a list of "everything wrong about the state of music of my teens"

"I could be so good for you"

[vurt]

id put waterman and co, at the top of a list of "everything wrong about the state of music of my teens"

"I could be so good for you"

that was way before my teens, different waterman, but equally terrible for music as a whole!

[egbert101]

They don't make classic 80s songs like this any more:

[Uncle E]

NGL, those are some pretty next level key changes and chord progressions. If that’s Bippo, much respect.

[stoopicus]

I'm guessing Bippo is Kanye.

[justin3am]

I stopped using virtual instruments but my music is still terrible! Where did I go wrong?

[Uncle E]

There goes Justin fishing for compliments. The fact that I’m constantly stealing your music (and I do mean constantly, my bots never miss) is all the validation you need.

[N__K]

(English is not my first language, fyi)
[...]

[...]
This is a production that I've made a long time ago, it was a BIG hit back in the day and I bet some of you have heard it at least once, or maybe just the intro will sound very familiar to you.
I was in charge of production and arrangement, no vsts were used at all.
I've used Yamaha DX7 to produce the basslines, drums were made with Linn 9000 and all strings and brass lines were used with Fairlight CMI.

Again this was made without any vsts at all, only real synths, a drum machine and a top notch singer.

You can give it a listen here, but remember that it's an old song and may not sound as contemporary as some might expect, but I guess it's still stood the test of time in a way.

English is not your native language, but you worked on Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up"?

https://www.discogs.com/master/96559-Ri ... ive-You-Up
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... a-give-you

As far as I understand, ESL rules out most of those who are known to have worked on that record..?

***

Meanwhile, as a reply to your original post, I'd say that to suggest ditching sample libraries and plugins in 2020s is somewhat like suggesting ditching... well, sample libraries and Fairlight CMI, Linn 9000, DX7 etc. in 1980s.

As for quantization and MIDI resolution: as already noted in this thread, PPQ settings in most current DAWs (excluding FL Studio) vary from 480 to 960 by default, and in some DAWs it can be increased beyond that. For most of anything done with synths in genres known to date, it'll suffice; the larger issue by now are perhaps limitations in per-note expression of MIDI v1, and slow adoption of MIDI 2.0.

All that said, I think that the most important thing - then and now - is knowing why and for who(m) you are making music. When the purposes are clear, "life finds a way". It certainly was the case in the 1980s

[donkey tugger]

English is not your native language, but you worked on Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up"?

https://www.discogs.com/master/96559-Ri ... ive-You-Up
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... a-give-you

As far as I understand, ESL rules out most of those who are known to have worked on that record..?

I rather think it was a mildly amusing way (I guessed it was coming but I still clicked it... ) to deflect attention from the fact that our lad has nowt to offer in terms of empirical validation of his postulations and pontifications.

[El°HYM]

...finally another pro user in here.

[jancivil]

this thread just keeps on giving.