Software vs Hardware

[El°HYM]

What´s the message with this video please ?

Exactly.

[El°HYM]

And another random video, showing Jean-Michel André Jarre what real talent is and putting Hanz Simmer into shame.

[Uncle E]

What´s the message with this video please ?

It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me rhyme
As were climbing up the speed, we’re finding what we need in the jungle
MC's stumble over their words and mumble over their verbs
Suddenly it occured: KRS-One, word!

[El°HYM]

A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smilin' on you but he's frownin' too
Because only God knows what you'll go through

[seafire]

Cult nonsense

[vurt]

Cult nonsense

[seafire]

[El°HYM]

Cult nonsense

Not to forget Bernard Herrmann.

[seafire]

Hrrmrran Brrrmrran

[_leras]

At some point chips and certain components become obsolete and equipment becomes harder to repair.

Yeah, better not buy anything electronic at all...

[sin night]

If one of my computer breaks, I have to repair it. [...] but definitely more work.

If one of your hardware synths you are always talking about breaks, you have to repair it. Using something like Audio Gridder may allow you to finish a session and then fix that hardware synth (which is a good thing), but ultimately you have to repair that hardware synth. More hardware synths equals more chances of maintenance / repair work, which you eventually have to do (instead of doing something else more enjoyable to me). No showstoppers, but definitely more work for you

The reality is every argument you keep throwing out about using multiple computers as DSP servers also applies to your hardware synths equally if not more so

I know (most of) my considerations about multiple computers are applicable to hardware as well. I thought I made it clear that, when it comes to the risk of a showstopper vs some "minor" faults, it's the same for hardware and computers. More things equals to more work.

I specified "most of" because there's a fundamental difference on how tight things are integrated when it comes to computers/software. Hardware is just audio and midi (and maybe a software editor), it's more decoupled. The tight integration, together with the fact that computers and software are a "moving target" (they are always evolving), may require some specific considerations...

Anyway, my arguments were more about "single vs multiple computers" and the "downsides" of a setup with multiple computers. In some cases more than one computer makes sense, in other situations it makes less sense... each solution has advantages and disadvantages, there's no free lunch (and that applies to hardware as well!).

In the end it all comes down to sound. For me the sounds I get with my software instruments equals it exceeds that of which I could get with hardware instruments, even if that difference is just more polyphony or the ability to have more timbres going at the same time, but I really enjoy deep complex software instruments that don't really have hardware equivalents, and those that come close don't have the level of customizable physical controls I want

My only challenges in 2025 is that a lot of the software instruments I like, in the way I like to use them also take up quite a bit of CPU and RAM so I use tools that give me more CPU and RAM and at far less cost than using hardware synths

For your use case, Audio Gridder looks like the right solution.
By the way, I have no issues with it or with software in general. Tools are a personal preference.

For you, you enjoy hardware synths, that's awesome, I have no issues with that, but let's not pretend you do so because you are worried about repairs and maintenance if you were you wouldn't use hardware synths at all either

My day job is performing maintenance (= bug fix) on some custom corporate software (and sometimes I also have to fix the wrong data caused by those bugs). I'm definitely not afraid of maintenance, whenever it's hardware or software, otherwise I would be doing something else in my life! At the same time, I don't want to fix computers in my free time, so I choose accordingly in order to keep that at minimum.


Thinking about the way things could fail (they all do fail at some point, that's a given!), the possible consequences and what it takes to fix them is part of my mindset... there are things that would bother me, so I try to choose accordingly to try to minimise/avoid them. Those may not be the absolute worst things in the world, but they bother me...
Maybe it's just a matter of personal preferences (and past experiences as well, for example using some tech that wrapped vst plugins in order to offer a very good integration with some controllers...)


Speaking of my hardware, I know for a fact that I will have to do maintenance / repairs at a certain point and it will be neither easy nor cheap. I'm honest, I'm not thrilled about it. So far I had to remove a lot of rubber from knobs and it wasn't fun at all...


Anyway, it's about finding something that works well for ourselves, not to please someone else. It's a personal choice, there's no right or wrong choice nor completely perfect solution...

In my opinion, being aware of the weak points helps handling things when they go wrong.


Just my two cents, of course.

[DrGonzo]

This is a fantastic example of when the two worlds meet. This is the most exciting new instrument I've seen in a long time.

[zerocrossing]

This is a fantastic example of when the two worlds meet. This is the most exciting new instrument I've seen in a long time.

Yeah, I saw some of those videos. Looks really interesting to me as well, though I'm very happy with the Microwave 1 emulation plugin. I actually like it more than the 3rd Wave and the M, but that thing looks very interesting. I'd definitely consider it if the price is decent.

[DrGonzo]

This is a fantastic example of when the two worlds meet. This is the most exciting new instrument I've seen in a long time.

Yeah, I saw some of those videos. Looks really interesting to me as well, though I'm very happy with the Microwave 1 emulation plugin. I actually like it more than the 3rd Wave and the M, but that thing looks very interesting. I'd definitely consider it if the price is decent.

Sadly, I doubt the price will be comfortable at all. It's seemingly developed in Stockholm, Sweden, so even if it is a passion project of a lone developer, the costs of doing anything there is pretty damn high.

So you like the MW plugin better than the 3rd Wave? Wow. That was unexpected. I mean I really like the MW1 - but the 3rd Wave seems so damn perfect.

[zerocrossing]

The superior AI will make you feel ashamed of this comment not too far in the future and adequately adjust your social scoring.

Anyone believing in "superior AI not too far in the future" is an idiot

In my experience, AI needs to be taken with several grains of salt.

AI isn't all it's cracked up to be. I recently was tasked with putting a pitch together for a game. Frankly, we should have passed, because the deadline of one week to come up with an idea for a game, and examples of how it would look, was far too short to do anything really good. The "Art Director" (no idea how this guy failed up to that position) started using Midjourney and something else to generate stuff that he was compositing in Photoshop. It looked like the most generic crap ever. Meanwhile, we had a great concept artist sitting around doing nothing.

Of course, we were not awarded the job, nor do I think we deserved it. I think AI image generation can do some cool stuff, if you don't really have something specific in mind. It can give you ideas for something, but as far as generating something that can be used, it's not anywhere close to an actual artist.