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

[HAL76]

Here's an example of a bonkers plugin that no hardware maker would likely make... maybe in Eurorack

Yeah, Eurorack is where hardware matches software for the wide range of "hey what if we did this" ideas implemented

I’d love for a developer to make a new standard of modular. No cables. A rack system that would plug into a central brain that came in various sizes. All mod connections would be made and stored in the brain via a mod matrix, everything done at very high refresh rates. Touch a button, then touch a source control, then a destination and adjust to taste, sort of how the Prophet 12 works, including being able to modulate modulation amounts in the matrix.

We just went through a long phase in which plugin developers brought all sorts of brainchilds into the world that could do all sorts of things. Today, it's not uncommon for people to voluntarily pay €2,000 for a Juno 6, even though the Juno's capabilities are so limited. This reminds me a lot of the KISS principle.

I would agree that a juno 6 is limited, but so is a violin. The 1715 'Baron Knoop' violin by Antonio Stradivari sold for $23 million in March 2025.

It may sound strange, but I like the 6 better than a Stradivari I had one here for some months to deepsample it. I ended up with >50 GB - just because it´s so much more versatile than anything I´ve touched before. My MKS-80 is way more powerful. But it lacks this simplissity that lies close between 1 2 3 fader positions.

I can really understzand people who pay for something they love

[HAL76]

We just went through a long phase in which plugin developers brought all sorts of brainchilds into the world that could do all sorts of things. Today, it's not uncommon for people to voluntarily pay €2,000 for a Juno 6, even though the Juno's capabilities are so limited. This reminds me a lot of the KISS principle.

One of most interesting things with software synths that follow a subtractive synthesis methodology is that pretty much all of them can be turned into a Juno 6 rather easily, made even more fun by the different flavors of filters, and chorus that most of them have

Brings the KISS principle down to a whole nother level

Have you ever tried a real Juno? Tried the Chous? The OSC switches? You might discover something in ot that no softsynth can do

I´m completely biased by the 90s. Even an Alpha Juno sounds better to me than any softsynth around. No matter what you can do with them. You can do something else with a Juno instead and be just as fine with the result (imho).

[djanthonyw]

Have you tried the plugins from Roland? They're pretty spot on with the hardware.

[IvyBirds]

We just went through a long phase in which plugin developers brought all sorts of brainchilds into the world that could do all sorts of things. Today, it's not uncommon for people to voluntarily pay €2,000 for a Juno 6, even though the Juno's capabilities are so limited. This reminds me a lot of the KISS principle.

One of most interesting things with software synths that follow a subtractive synthesis methodology is that pretty much all of them can be turned into a Juno 6 rather easily, made even more fun by the different flavors of filters, and chorus that most of them have

Brings the KISS principle down to a whole nother level

Have you ever tried a real Juno? Tried the Chous? The OSC switches? You might discover something in ot that no softsynth can do

I´m completely biased by the 90s. Even an Alpha Juno sounds better to me than any softsynth around. No matter what you can do with them. You can do something else with a Juno instead and be just as fine with the result (imho).

I used to own one, until it developed issues with a voice chip and the chorus grew increasingly noisy

I find the role a hardware Juno would play sufficiently filled by the excellent Juno plugins I have of both the synth itself and the chorus

beyond that I find that having a single oscillator poly synth with basic modulation and a chorus to be just the right thing some times, so besides having that in a Juno flavor, I have that in a Prophet 5 flavor, a Jupiter 8 flavor, a CS80 Flavor, a Minimoog Flavor, an Oberheim Flavor, a MS20 flavor, a Diva Flavor, a Falcon Flavor, a HALion7 Flavor, etc

The beauty of it is they all are mapped to my controller in the exact same way as my Juno plugins are, I don't even need to look at the screen, just launch the preset for whatever flavor I need

[zerocrossing]

I´m completely biased by the 90s.

Clearly.

Even an Alpha Juno sounds better to me than any softsynth around.

[zerocrossing]

I think everyone bonds to something that we used or heard at a time when our refractory period was under 10 minutes. For me, that was a guitar. I could probably go for an Ibanez TS9 and AC30, but my situation makes real amps unusable. I still have that guitar, and another from the early 90s that became my main guitar, but I’ll never get rid of the first one. I don’t believe in magic, but my attachment to that guitar is as close as it gets for me in an inanimate object. Does it make sense? No, and it doesn’t have to. Maybe for you, that’s an Alpha Juno, or even a Virus. Whatever it is, you should keep it, regardless of what else can emulate it.

[HAL76]

We just went through a long phase in which plugin developers brought all sorts of brainchilds into the world that could do all sorts of things. Today, it's not uncommon for people to voluntarily pay €2,000 for a Juno 6, even though the Juno's capabilities are so limited. This reminds me a lot of the KISS principle.

One of most interesting things with software synths that follow a subtractive synthesis methodology is that pretty much all of them can be turned into a Juno 6 rather easily, made even more fun by the different flavors of filters, and chorus that most of them have

Brings the KISS principle down to a whole nother level

Have you ever tried a real Juno? Tried the Chous? The OSC switches? You might discover something in ot that no softsynth can do

I´m completely biased by the 90s. Even an Alpha Juno sounds better to me than any softsynth around. No matter what you can do with them. You can do something else with a Juno instead and be just as fine with the result (imho).

I used to own one, until it developed issues with a voice chip and the chorus grew increasingly noisy

I find the role a hardware Juno would play sufficiently filled by the excellent Juno plugins I have of both the synth itself and the chorus

beyond that I find that having a single oscillator poly synth with basic modulation and a chorus to be just the right thing some times, so besides having that in a Juno flavor, I have that in a Prophet 5 flavor, a Jupiter 8 flavor, a CS80 Flavor, a Minimoog Flavor, an Oberheim Flavor, a MS20 flavor, a Diva Flavor, a Falcon Flavor, a HALion7 Flavor, etc

The beauty of it is they all are mapped to my controller in the exact same way as my Juno plugins are, I don't even need to look at the screen, just launch the preset for whatever flavor I need

Noise is a problem really. I often used +12 dB Noise Canceling while recording it. But now I think that exatly this Lofi-Style-Noisy-blurred character is what makes some sounds so interesting and unique. But when I think of noise that just reminds me of the MonoPoly I had before. It was baerly usable when you turned the filter down below 3/4.

I also have the Softube and the Cherry Audio Junos and me personally I think that both don´t even come close. Especially not when it´s about damped pads and punchy, solid persussions. That´s where they absoluterly fail in my opinion. But it´s more the overall "sound". Softwares can generate similar sounds today. But they don´t sound like the hardwares. Not for my ears.

And I can remember very well when the "total MIDI control" flooded the market (>96). We jumped on the Virus back then, bought a PC and enjoyed "totalö control". We had so much time

[HAL76]

I´m completely biased by the 90s.

Clearly.

Even an Alpha Juno sounds better to me than any softsynth around.

My test lasted about 10 Minutes.

[IvyBirds]

I also have the Softube and the Cherry Audio Junos and me personally I think that both don´t even come close.

I own the Softube Version, and the Arturia Version

I have to question anyone who claims the Softube Model 84 "doesn't come close".



But maybe you mean 99% exactly the same means doesn't come close. It sounds exactly like my Juno used to, but like all 40 year old analog synths with voice chips in various states of decay no two will sound the same, and if you replaced your voice chips with modern ones well that's not going to sound like an original either

[DrGonzo]

It sounds exactly like my Juno used to, but like all 40 year old analog synths with voice chips in various states of decay no two will sound the same, and if you replaced your voice chips with modern ones well that's not going to sound like an original either

Would be cool if some developer would create an accurate simulation of decaying voice chips and circuits from pristine to absolutely broken. I would love that.

[IvyBirds]

It sounds exactly like my Juno used to, but like all 40 year old analog synths with voice chips in various states of decay no two will sound the same, and if you replaced your voice chips with modern ones well that's not going to sound like an original either

Would be cool if some developer would create an accurate simulation of decaying voice chips and circuits from pristine to absolutely broken. I would love that.

That would be cool

I do wonder if we had a time machine and could back in time and get a Jupiter 8 and/or a Juno 106 brand new in the box fresh off the factory floor and brought them back to 2025 and played them at NAMM and people thought they were a brand new reissue, or made a demo video of them claiming they were software, how many people would complain and say they sound nothing like the original hardware and it's not even close

[DrGonzo]

I do wonder if we had a time machine and could back in time and get a Jupiter 8 and/or a Juno 106 brand new in the box fresh off the factory floor and brought them back to 2025 and played them at NAMM and people thought they were a brand new reissue, or made a demo video of them claiming they were software, how many people would complain and say they sound nothing like the original hardware and it's not even close

Haha... I would guess, like 90%
But I think they are not entirely wrong though. I also get that hardware is better vibe when comparing stuff. But when diving deeper into it I've found out that that has more to do with gain staging, converters and mixers than the actual sound. Just my observations.

[seafire]

My HT3000 sounds better than a Juno

[wikter]

Switching is what a transistor basically does. The challenge would be, that for m + n connections (output and input) you would need like m x n matrix elements of switching points, if you want full connectivity. You'd need to develop a dedicated analog IC for that. Interesting idea, but who would invest for building that and primarily who would pay for that? I guess it wouldn't come cheap.

FM, AM or multiplexors did the job for years.

[vurt]

thats how we got the bass, some ham fisted chippy, tried to knock up a viola, and voila, the bass was born!

10 points for using voila and viola in the same sentence!

you too!