Have Modern VST Instruments Replaced Your Hardware Synths ?

[zerocrossing]

I’m not sure if this means anything, but there was a time when for various reasons, I went 100% ITB. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but open to the possibilities. I found it was excellent. It totally replaced my hardware synths, but at the time, I had no analog synthesizers at all. I went along very happily for a while that way, but I did start hearing demos of hardware instruments that were exciting and something that I wasn’t quite getting from my plugins. I didn’t change my mind about my plugins. They’re still great and only getting better. I just added some hardware synths that I found inspired by. That’s it.

My hardware synths are all analog, or analog/digital hybrid... well, except for the Elektron Digitone.

I've used dozens of software distortion algo's. On the sound character scale they are all clustered fairly close together. Then I do some parameter locking of the analog distortion on the Rytm and these gorgeous crunchy tones effortlessly flow out of it without a hint of digital harshness. No need for subtle tweaking to find a particular sweet spot, you just cannot make it sound bad. And basically it never repeats exactly, like any organic system.

I love my software instruments. I also love the analog hardware synths I have. They got something sonically that software doesn't. Doesn't mean I always want that something, but I don't want to be without it either.

[jancivil]

...a huge part of what I do in the DAW is tell a great lie. Same difference exists between theatre and film.

To me, unless we're dealing with a live, direct-to-2-track recording, then the entire paradigm of recorded music is a series of fabrications. Whether it's the space sounds sit in, or the spatial relationship between them, or the subtleties of details that go into making a "natural" tone sound the way it does on a recording.

That's not even get into passing off consecutive performances (i.e. overdubs) as simultaneous events, and everything beyond that point...

All art is fabrication and lie, though it can be coupled with craft that requires a high degree of physical dexterity.

Well, I guarantee you if you got up on stage with nothing but an acoustic instrument playing virtuoso pieces for a critical audience you would immediately know you can't lie your way through a single moment of it. That's so dismissive and so glib.
I was being rhetorical and figurative. My tracks are far from a live performance but it sure sounds like it is, so that's a kind of lying, just like a recording of a singer using microphones to enhance the voice and capture the room in a certain way, etc... but the performance is another matter.

Music is the one true thing in the universe.

[Tj Shredder]

Music is the one true thing in the universe.

Anybody who is doing that gets my respect. Its completely irrelevant if its done analog (acoustic ocarina) or with pure software or with all of it…
The truth is in the music, not in the tools/gear we use…

[chk071]

There is no doubt for me that analog hardware still has the edge over software, sound wise, but, the big downside are the handling and workflow for me, really. Already wrote that lots of times here, but, the thought of having a few synths which don't even save presets, or having all synths require cables, the need for a mixer at some point, the bouncing down for every sound, or the space restraints... all that make hardware quite a bad deal for me.

I was really short before ordering the Behringer Model D a couple of times now. But, seriously, every time I fancy the thought, I have to think of the lack of being able to save presets, having for place it on my not so big table, having cables lying around, or not being able to use multiple instances.

It's also a testament to Monark being so good, that I think I have a rather good alternative which doesn't require all the things I stated on my harddrive, ready to be played. I guess that kinda cannibalizes my point, as I said that hardware still has the edge, but, software is just so darn comfortable.

If you told me that Behringer would make an Andromeda clone, and it would be released tomorrow for 500 or 600 €. Well... that would be something to consider. But, that's unlikely. And, even then, it would probably be a synth with a big interface, and, it's probably unrealistic to imagine it for that price anyway.

Behringer would be the only brand I'd consider, BTW. I simply don't have the budget set up for a Moog, or a DSI synth. I would have the money, but, I can't justify to spend so much for a hobby I rather rarely pursue.

Two other synths I considered were the Crave and the IK UNO. But, the Crave is just too limited for me, and the UNO obviously has some noise over the USB connection, which already disqualify both for me as well. Nah... think I'm good with software.

[pekbro]

Even the guys at the one music store on Maui have no idea about software based music production.

You live on Maui, you lucky bastard! You can have a Koko Brown whenever you feel like it. They've stopped bottling it so I can't get it here any more.

Yeah, I prefer the Maui Brewing Company anyway, Kona partnered with Anheuser-Busch I guess and
the beers from them that you can buy are not really brewed in Hawaii, if that makes a difference
anyway. The Maui Brewing Company is right up the street from me and I seem to prefer the craft
beers, but I am no connoisseur. It helps a lot that we get them free at work

[BONES]

Maui beer is $140 a carton here in Australia. I tried their coconut brown ale and it wasn't a patch on Koko Brown.

[dellboy]

Yeah but why go for something as lame and limited as that when, for similar money, you could have something like a Uno Synth? The only use I could think of for a Model D would be as a door stop.
.

Are you saying this about the Minimoog or the Model D ? or both ? If so, then that does surprise me.
I would have thought they would both suit your music down to the ground. Especially the Model D which has midi and you can step input some great bass lines.

Anyways, I agree with you about the UNO synth, its a fantastic bargain here in the UK. Andertons sell it new for £105 delivered. I watched one go this morning on ebay for £78 and was tempted to bid but resisted. I have bought three hardware synths in the last couple of months and things are getting cluttered.

[vurt]

with that filter? nooooooooooo!!!!

[BONES]

Dellboy, have you never used one? The Ladder Filter in a MiniMoog is the WORST filter I have ever encountered. I could have had a real one for a few hundred bucks any time in the early 80s - they were always in second-hand shops because nobody wanted them any more - but it never did it for me at all. I only worked out why many, many years later but even back then it left me cold. Great oscillators, absolutely huge, ruined by that filter. I've always been more of an ARP guy.

[dellboy]

with that filter? nooooooooooo!!!!

What's wrong with the Moog filter ?

[dellboy]

Dellboy, have you never used one? The Ladder Filter in a MiniMoog is the WORST filter I have ever encountered. I could have had a real one for a few hundred bucks any time in the early 80s - they were always in second-hand shops because nobody wanted them any more - but it never did it for me at all. I only worked out why many, many years later but even back then it left me cold. Great oscillators, absolutely huge, ruined by that filter. I've always been more of an ARP guy.

Well that does surprise me. You learn something new every day. They seem to have always maintained there legendary status and high price here in the UK.

I remember binging out on the Rick Wakeman LP "Journey To the Centre of the Earth" back in the 80s which has all sorts of Moog lead lines. Mr Wakeman built his career on that machine and still has half a dozen vintage ones. And the bass lines from it were all over the 80s singles of the era.

[TribeOfHǫfuð]

BUT, I can give you some lame examples of the wonder beneath it, my Polivoks, the most aggressive beast I have owned.

I think we have very different ideas of aggressive

I believe you. I was on board with old school EBM, when the distortion was more subtle and came from the synths themselves (e.g. DAF, Nitzer Ebb). I like them more rounded, even when we deal with the -12 db Polivoks filter. The modern turn from late 90s and beyond where you send them through distortion units too gets to my nerves too easily. Well, if we replace "aggressive" with "noisy", it would indeed be fair to the Polivoks.

[pdxindy]

They got something sonically that software doesn't.

No they don't. You only perceive that because of your previous statement. It's a distortion of reality. Maybe it's a nice analogue distortion and not a harsh digital one but it's a distortion nonetheless.

clever

It is not just the distortion... I've got analog filters (eurorack) that when you audio rate modulate them, they make tones nothing in software touches. So crisp and distinct and coherent... Eurorack has astounding sound quality!

Someone posted (in the CS-80 emulation thread) a demo of the CS-60... it sounds so effortlessly gorgeous. The tonality dynamic, loose and flowing.

I have Black Corporations Xerxes... a semi-clone of the Synthex. Xerxes has this lovely shimmery, fizzy high end. It's just there, without having to search for sweet spots. It just sounds beautiful! And that is without even adding FX.

[vurt]

time for sexy led and cable shots

Screenshot_2021-06-22-21-13-11-327~2.jpg

[dellboy]

time for sexy led and cable shots Screenshot_2021-06-22-21-13-11-327~2.jpg

Ooh, I spot something u-he shaped