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

[Gamma-UT]

What we have learnt from this thread is that people who own hardware are quite happy to use software as well. The opposite does not seem to apply to those who use software. They prefer to stay entirely in the digital domain and entirely reject the use of hardware.

Not only is that a complete logic fail - just read it back to yourself - it doesn’t even reflect what people have said.

Your answer is unclear, it would be helpful if you explained what I have misread in this thread. I do not remember a single person in this entire thread who is entirely hardware based. Several have said that they are entirely in the box. Is this not correct?

I've highlighted the logic fail in bold for you: for some reason people who use hardware use software but people who use software can't use hardware. But those hardware people are using soft...I'm sorry. I can't even.

You then go on to this idea: "entirely reject the use of hardware". Like you need to embrace some catechism to go ITB. I've not sure I've seen anyone do that unless you're equating "hardware" with "oldskool analogue". The most extreme position appears to be "do not believe using hardware would provide an advantage for what I do", with perhaps one exception – who might just be on a wind-up.

Basically, that strawman is mostly confined to your head.

[IvyBirds]

What we have learnt from this thread is that people who own hardware are quite happy to use software as well. The opposite does not seem to apply to those who use software. They prefer to stay entirely in the digital domain and entirely reject the use of hardware. Without a poll there is no way to determine if the balance has shifted one way or the other in 2025.

I can't find anyone in this thread who has entirely rejected the use of hardware, can you point me to what you are referring to

Thanks in advance

[El°HYM]

The Atari 520ST had MIDI ports and could directly connect to analog & digital synths. That was the last time in history when there was a direct connection between ITB and real Hardware. Since then most people went pure digital, because of the supreme sound quality and dynamic range. They never looked back; I guess this is called evolution.

[dellboy]

unless you're equating "hardware" with "oldskool analogue".

Yes.

Its in the thread title ....."Software vs. Analog".

A great deal of this thread has been arguing that old analogue gear is now equalled by software emulations. I do not wish to enter that discussion other than reminding that analogue is voltage, software is ones and zero's. Analogue by definition has to be hardware. Analogue exists in the material world. Software digits blow away in the wind.

[dellboy]

What we have learnt from this thread is that people who own hardware are quite happy to use software as well. The opposite does not seem to apply to those who use software. They prefer to stay entirely in the digital domain and entirely reject the use of hardware. Without a poll there is no way to determine if the balance has shifted one way or the other in 2025.

I can't find anyone in this thread who has entirely rejected the use of hardware, can you point me to what you are referring to

Thanks in advance

Its rude to point.

[pdxindy]

I posted a thought a while ago but it should be repeated. Imagine you could take your existing ITB setup back in time to 1985. Imagine showing them that one person in their bedroom could produce, mix and master a complete album.

I imagine it would be less appealing than you think. Back then people still liked to be out in the world and collaborate with other humans. Everyone hadn't yet started hiding out in their bedroom living vicariously through the internet.

[whassup]

I posted a thought a while ago but it should be repeated. Imagine you could take your existing ITB setup back in time to 1985. Imagine showing them that one person in their bedroom could produce, mix and master a complete album.

I imagine it would be less appealing than you think. Back then people still liked to be out in the world and collaborate with other humans. Everyone hadn't yet started hiding out in their bedroom living vicariously through the internet.

I would have LOVED to own back then what I own now and take for granted.
And I'm not even the most introvert person on this planet. En contrair.
Back then I had access to (all not my own) JX8P, some 8 track reel to reel, SPX90. A poor little mixer. Rockman. Drumulator.
That was high tech back then.
Today I wouldn't even want all of this to eat up space if I was offered all this for free.

[Gamma-UT]

I imagine it would be less appealing than you think. Back then people still liked to be out in the world and collaborate with other humans. Everyone hadn't yet started hiding out in their bedroom living vicariously through the internet.

The main advantage for me with the Synclavier is that I can imagine rhythms that human beings have difficulty contemplating, let alone executing. When I'm writing for a live band, I'm constantly limited by the physical liabilities of the people who are going to play the parts. On the one hand, you can say, "You just keep practicing, be insistent, and you'll eventually get the rhythm." The truth of the matter is, the more you practice, the more the musician hates it; you're never really going to get it spot on if the person is suffering to play the rhythm. Why subject the musician to that punishment and torture when you can just type it in and get the thing mathematically exact? I'd say that a musical ideal would be a combination of the things live musicians do best and the things the machine does best blended into a type of composition that lets each element shine.

Famous bedroom musician notorious for never playing live in a band, checks notes, Frank Zappa. 1986.

[El°HYM]

Please send JX8P, SPX 90, little mixer color box & Fostex R8 now.

Me wants to run Vital through the SPX and then print to Tape, because I need to hear how that sounds.

Call me nostalgic, if you like.

[dellboy]

Please send JX8P, SPX 90, little mixer color box & Fostex R8 now.

Me wants to run Vital through the SPX and then print to Tape, because I need to hear how that sounds.

Call me nostalgic, if you like.

I had a friend who first bought an 8 track cassette recorder, and then dumped it for a Fostex R8, and it was an upgrade sound wise. Wiring up the loom to the mixer and the extra space it took up recording a band in his bedroom was another matter.

[vurt]

Today I wouldn't even want all of this to eat up space if I was offered all this for free.

why? what are you doing with the space thats so important?

[Gamma-UT]

Today I wouldn't even want all of this to eat up space if I was offered all this for free.

why? what are you doing with the space thats so important?

I don't want to come across all princess and the pea, but the knobs on a Prophet 5 really dig into your back if you try sleeping on it.

[Ah_Dziz]

I own a good bit of hardware. I am also happy to do my projects 100 percent in the box to the extent that it's possible. I mostly only use hardware for playing with. Integration is always a headache.

[vurt]

Today I wouldn't even want all of this to eat up space if I was offered all this for free.

why? what are you doing with the space thats so important?

I don't want to come across all princess and the pea, but the knobs on a Prophet 5 really dig into your back if you try sleeping on it.

hey princess, suffer for your art! do it long enough, you'll slot together like lego, no falling out of bed.

[ROTMetro]

I think ITB would me much better if people played in notes instead of always drawing them in. But once latency get's above a certain level it becomes tricky to do that. That's my biggest complaint. Sometimes I'll bounce then open a new project and record in but since my music is just for me normally I can't be bothered and end up just quantizing what I play in. Crazy how lazy I get with ITB. Maybe that's part of the weakness of working that way.