Software vs. Analog in 2025 – Has the Balance Shifted?

[pekbro]

*though the neighbor cat, knocked over my outside chair the other day. That’s kinda like
having a cat.

[vurt]

theory I have about people being attracted to noise.

err yup.

[ghettosynth]

*though the neighbor cat, knocked over my outside chair the other day. That’s kinda like
having a cat.

So, the reason that you think that you don't have a cat is that you don't quite have the right perspective. You put a chair in the cat's house without checking first with the cat to see if that was alright. Generally, when the question is "Can I put more stuff in your way inside your home?", the answer will be no. There are exceptions, of course, you may put more food in their way and sometimes it's ok to put out boxes.

We have secured permission to share their house with one full time resident indoor cat and about six+ other part time outdoor residents, who do require food and water. TBH, I'm not sure how many of the other homes in the neighborhood the part timers also own. I'm sure that it's more than one.

The indoor cat definitely does not like JMJ or digital synthesizers. Although, that is a subset of her dislikes, she doesn't like how I walk up the stairs either. She does like cat-TV, especially that one show with the birds feeding on a rock.

[pekbro]

*though the neighbor cat, knocked over my outside chair the other day. That’s kinda like
having a cat.

So, the reason that you think that you don't have a cat is that you don't quite have the right perspective. You put a chair in the cat's house without checking first with the cat to see if that was alright. Generally, when the question is "Can I put more stuff in your way inside your home?", the answer will be no. There are exceptions, of course, you may put more food in their way and sometimes it's ok to put out boxes.

We have secured permission to share their house with one full time resident indoor cat and about six+ other part time outdoor residents, who do require food and water. TBH, I'm not sure how many of the other homes in the neighborhood the part timers also own. I'm sure that it's more than one.

The indoor cat definitely does not like JMJ or digital synthesizers. Although, that is a subset of her dislikes, she doesn't like how I walk up the stairs either. She does like cat-TV, especially that one show with the birds feeding on a rock.

Yeah I can see that, I was worried for the cat, since I found his collar on the ground near the chair, he had to have got caught up on it and nearly strangled himself. Though, I'm sure he
felt it was worth it, since the collar houses a bell. IMO that's one of the worst things you
can do to a cat as it screws with the whole stealthy thing. His owner seems to prefer to
hear the cat coming.

[_leras]

When I posted that I knew that a hardware enthusiast would jump in and say how much it sucked, which I why I left out all the analog hardware and just listed the software

They did not disappoint

Perhaps it just sucks a bit.

If you compare the first track off each:
Part 1. This track is actually mind blowingly well crafted. The track ebbs and flows like some gentle waves, and all the background sounds at some point are brought into focus as the main sound, and every little sound and melody interacts as it goes along. Everything sounds good.

Part 14 (ox3 pt1), there no interaction between the parts, there just a plodding chord base, with things over the top. None of the background sounds are that compelling and are just drab compared to the background sounds in pt1. The lead sound is fine when it comes in, but the melodies and general detail are just not very good, and the arrangement is just stuff plonked on top...

I feel like he tried to bring a trance element to this track and not only didn't do trance well, but lost what made the earlier versions well. When sounds or themes are reused on O3 they don't have as much life, and it's just sounds like a pastiche.

But you definitely can never take away the craft in the earlier albums like Equinox, Oxygene and Magnetic Fields.

[Papuzzo]

musicians aren't always the best mix engineers.
especially older ones who played a lot of loud gigs...

but if we are saying as a group, digital recording and it's inherent processes, have done this to audio, why are some of ok with this?
it sounds shit. (this recording, not digitally mixed albums in general )

It just shows that artistic decisions beat gear every time.

I didn't think it was that bad but I did get the sense that JMJ did phone it in a bit to hit a deadline for the trilogy box set issue.

Way too often people equate expensive gear with serious musicians. It's a logical fallacy. Moreover, most well known musicians get paid to endorse that expensive gear so that aspiring musicians will think that's what they must use too. And just to piss off the snobs and put things in better perspective, Mozart played very early fortepianos which were essentially shit quality in today's standards and were also only 5 octaves. Yet his music is adored almost 250 years later. Great music comes from great musicians, not great gear.

[zerocrossing]

*though the neighbor cat, knocked over my outside chair the other day. That’s kinda like
having a cat.

So, the reason that you think that you don't have a cat is that you don't quite have the right perspective. You put a chair in the cat's house without checking first with the cat to see if that was alright. Generally, when the question is "Can I put more stuff in your way inside your home?", the answer will be no. There are exceptions, of course, you may put more food in their way and sometimes it's ok to put out boxes.

We have secured permission to share their house with one full time resident indoor cat and about six+ other part time outdoor residents, who do require food and water. TBH, I'm not sure how many of the other homes in the neighborhood the part timers also own. I'm sure that it's more than one.

The indoor cat definitely does not like JMJ or digital synthesizers. Although, that is a subset of her dislikes, she doesn't like how I walk up the stairs either. She does like cat-TV, especially that one show with the birds feeding on a rock.

Cats are not a monolith, that's for sure. Mewberta used to snuggle up on my keyboard amp and snooze though it all. Steve, he just wants to go back and bite cables. I've chased him out of there so many times, he doesn't bother coming into my studio, which is actually fine by me. He's just a floof monster anyway. Peanut Hamper? She is also not a synth cat, and for some reason is terrified of me when I'm on the stairs, but no where else. She was on her way to being feral when we got her, but now she's super sweet. I don't think the people who owned her mom spent much quality time with the kittens in her litter.

[zerocrossing]

*though the neighbor cat, knocked over my outside chair the other day. That’s kinda like
having a cat.

So, the reason that you think that you don't have a cat is that you don't quite have the right perspective. You put a chair in the cat's house without checking first with the cat to see if that was alright. Generally, when the question is "Can I put more stuff in your way inside your home?", the answer will be no. There are exceptions, of course, you may put more food in their way and sometimes it's ok to put out boxes.

We have secured permission to share their house with one full time resident indoor cat and about six+ other part time outdoor residents, who do require food and water. TBH, I'm not sure how many of the other homes in the neighborhood the part timers also own. I'm sure that it's more than one.

The indoor cat definitely does not like JMJ or digital synthesizers. Although, that is a subset of her dislikes, she doesn't like how I walk up the stairs either. She does like cat-TV, especially that one show with the birds feeding on a rock.

Yeah I can see that, I was worried for the cat, since I found his collar on the ground near the chair, he had to have got caught up on it and nearly strangled himself. Though, I'm sure he
felt it was worth it, since the collar houses a bell. IMO that's one of the worst things you
can do to a cat as it screws with the whole stealthy thing. His owner seems to prefer to
hear the cat coming.

They make all cat collars break-away, so if they get caught on something, they'll pop off before they choke the cat. We got Steve a little bow tie collar, because he's a fancy lad, but he figured out how to get his murder mittens under it and he'd pop it right off. Hilarious.

The bell isn't for the owner, it's for birds.

[ghettosynth]

Cats are not a monolith, that's for sure. Mewberta used to snuggle up on my keyboard amp and snooze though it all. Steve, he just wants to go back and bite cables. I've chased him out of there so many times, he doesn't bother coming into my studio, which is actually fine by me. He's just a floof monster anyway. Peanut Hamper? She is also not a synth cat, and for some reason is terrified of me when I'm on the stairs, but no where else. She was on her way to being feral when we got her, but now she's super sweet. I don't think the people who owned her mom spent much quality time with the kittens in her litter.

100%, but they do mostly seem to have a mind of their own, which I appreciate. My girl is just a princess and she doesn't like sound and she doesn't like fast movement and she doesn't like different.

My previous cat was a bit more indifferent to the music as long as there was enough couch time.

[DrGonzo]

The bell isn't for the owner, it's for birds.

Only for musical birds though.

[Geomystery]

As for ying-yang theory I prefer digital as it has ones and zereoes. And I also prefer analog as it has plus and minus. But I never ever mix them together cause that would be a mess.

[zerocrossing]

musicians aren't always the best mix engineers.
especially older ones who played a lot of loud gigs...

but if we are saying as a group, digital recording and it's inherent processes, have done this to audio, why are some of ok with this?
it sounds shit. (this recording, not digitally mixed albums in general )

It just shows that artistic decisions beat gear every time.

I didn't think it was that bad but I did get the sense that JMJ did phone it in a bit to hit a deadline for the trilogy box set issue.

Way too often people equate expensive gear with serious musicians. It's a logical fallacy. Moreover, most well known musicians get paid to endorse that expensive gear so that aspiring musicians will think that's what they must use too. And just to piss off the snobs and put things in better perspective, Mozart played very early fortepianos which were essentially shit quality in today's standards and were also only 5 octaves. Yet his music is adored almost 250 years later.

I've come across a ton of musicians with great gear who sucked ass in my day. Moby just uses samples of great music instead of really making his own great music, and he's got a wall of all the best cool old drum machines that he probably never uses, or maybe even never used. Lot's of great musicians use junk because it evokes a certain vibe. That's not really the point of this topic, though.

Great music comes from great musicians, not great gear.

I think we're all in agreement on that, aren't we?

[Gamma-UT]

Lot's of great musicians use junk because it evokes a certain vibe. That's not really the point of this topic, though.

It is though. The point of using that gear is: "this gets the sound I want with the least fuss".

No-one at the time bothered to find the recipe on a quality compressor to emulate what they got accidentally off a talkback-mic compressor for that 80s snare sound. Yet the recipe isn't much of a secret.

For Boards of Canada it turned out the most effective way to get the wobbly sound of those old adverts was to loop the video through the same kind of video recorder. With some work you can do it in software but it takes a bit of work to set up.

Using an analogue synth for some pitch and voltage instability is in the same ballpark.

Adding cross-modulation into filter FM at high resonance with mic-input feedback and it gets tougher to pull off in software, not least because different analogue circuits will crap out in different ways under those conditions once you go past the "slightly overdriven" point.

[seafire]

Not really. You don't have to be a 'great' musician to create great music.

[whassup]

Way too often people equate expensive gear with serious musicians. It's a logical fallacy. Moreover, most well known musicians get paid to endorse that expensive gear so that aspiring musicians will think that's what they must use too. And just to piss off the snobs and put things in better perspective, Mozart played very early fortepianos which were essentially shit quality in today's standards and were also only 5 octaves. Yet his music is adored almost 250 years later. Great music comes from great musicians, not great gear.

Maybe by todays standards. But Moz used the Fairclavier Synlight of his time. Grandma had to put lotsa socks together for these ones!
And sure you either have a 96 channel SSL in yo basement or you better are reaaaaally good. Then you can call yourself PWMpusher and every body will marvel that you say you put tis together by slicin and dicin stuff on your Toshiba Walkman.