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

[SoftSynthLover99]

Bit of a Silly thread. But I'll play,
About 10 years ago I made a conscious decision to stop saving / collecting and caring about presets AT ALL.
Was a seriously good decision.
There are a handful of synths I now know backwards and upside down and can recreate many presets in like 2 minutes.
Often when collaborating other artists cannot believe I don't have ANY synth
presets saved but I honestly don't feel like it loses me much time when producing and I make all my sounds from scratch whilst writing music... it works for me!

I also have a decently sized hardware modular, I love it. Both for the hands on approach and the way it forces me to do certain things with what I have available...but also anyone with anyh
where near half decent ears has always agreed with me that certain things (mostly audio rate fm type things) still sound way better than anything that comes of of a soft synth. I stand by that in 2025. Not everybody uses these sounds on the regular, but If you do want sounds that sound like this imo there is no reason to not want to have some hardware.
(My first experience getting my hands on a modular: as soon as I set a tiptop z2040 to self oscillate and fm'ed it with an osc - it sounded like pure electrical current pouring out of my speakers no matter what i did .... I was sold)

The entire premise of Synths without recall being faster is bizarre

Not really. If you know how to program and achieve the synth sounds you want to use and know what you are doing with the synth you have, preset surfing becomes way slower than just programming a synth patch yourself from scratch. Software synths have really dumbed down most peoples understanding of synthesis (including myself for a while) and made people rely too much on presets.

Once you've learned how to make all your favorite synth sounds from scratch and you really become skilled in getting the sounds you want, it really is faster than searching through 1000s of presets drenched in reverb/delay and all kinds of weird FX and automation you don't need.

[IvyBirds]

Bit of a Silly thread. But I'll play,
About 10 years ago I made a conscious decision to stop saving / collecting and caring about presets AT ALL.
Was a seriously good decision.
There are a handful of synths I now know backwards and upside down and can recreate many presets in like 2 minutes.
Often when collaborating other artists cannot believe I don't have ANY synth
presets saved but I honestly don't feel like it loses me much time when producing and I make all my sounds from scratch whilst writing music... it works for me!

I also have a decently sized hardware modular, I love it. Both for the hands on approach and the way it forces me to do certain things with what I have available...but also anyone with anyh
where near half decent ears has always agreed with me that certain things (mostly audio rate fm type things) still sound way better than anything that comes of of a soft synth. I stand by that in 2025. Not everybody uses these sounds on the regular, but If you do want sounds that sound like this imo there is no reason to not want to have some hardware.
(My first experience getting my hands on a modular: as soon as I set a tiptop z2040 to self oscillate and fm'ed it with an osc - it sounded like pure electrical current pouring out of my speakers no matter what i did .... I was sold)

The entire premise of Synths without recall being faster is bizarre

Not really. If you know how to program and achieve the synth sounds you want to use and know what you are doing with the synth you have, preset surfing becomes way slower than just programming a synth patch yourself from scratch. Software synths have really dumbed down most peoples understanding of synthesis (including myself for a while) and made people rely too much on presets.

Once you've learned how to make all your favorite synth sounds from scratch and you really become skilled in getting the sounds you want, it really is faster than searching through 1000s of presets drenched in reverb/delay and all kinds of weird FX and automation you don't need.

I do know how to roll my own synth patches have been doing it since the 1980s.

Now if I create a patch I like from scratch, and want to use that again. Would it be faster to start over from scratch? Or just instantly recall the patch?

Why do you think having recall in a synth makes it slower? If there anything preventing you from rolling your own patches on a synth with patch memory and recall if you want?

[enCiphered]

Just a few random thoughts:

1.Some sw is very much easier to program than hw - my most glaring examples are Wavestate sand Opsix. I have both in hw and sw and the native ones are so much easier to program than either hw version
2. Most analogue synths however are far easier to program. Give me simple knob-per-parameter analkogues any day. I can run up a patch from scratch way quicker than pages of tedious esoteric details in sw synths.
2. Sw still sounds very thin, brittle and nasty in many cases. I recently did a whole track in sw, none of my analogues in it. TBH it sounded thin, lifeless and glaringly worse than other tracks I do. Example also - Serum, it's added whole gazillions of extra stuff that still sounds thin, metallic, nasty and brittle.
3. Pricewise it's not such a difference nowadays. When you see the price of some of the Behringer stuff and compare to the big sw synths - not so different.
4. Computing power - still very much a limitation. That Steinberg spectral thingy can only [play one note on my laptop. pretty well impossible to play chords, let alone have it run live in a track.
5. FX - sw all the way. I wouldn't go back to hw for either sound or ease of setup. Hw Fx are no easier to program than sw either.
6. FX and computing power - again a huge limitation. A clipper I use kills the laptop when I go to high power oversampling. I have no choice but to render if i want decent oversampling.
7. As mentioned, digital still has sonic limitations. Sync is getting better but still often grating in sw, audio rate mod is just downright awful in sw, ringmod is patchy in a lot of cases. Distortion - hmmmmm nothing sw wows me yet, especially simple things like filter drive - usually lifeless in sw
8. Expense. Yep hw costs more. Having said that, I have a studio full of gear that cost thousands. When I see lists of sw that people have, I strongly doubt they spent any less than I did on my hw. It seems hundreds of plugins is very much the norm. HW collectors get called out for being collectors - sw collectors seem way worse, whereas I get called elitist because I have a few expensive hw items
9. Controllers - don't get me started on those awful things. They're still useless.


10. The one that negates all of the above. I have painless fun using my analogues. Diddling with a mouse for hours in sw synth is both painful AND JOYLESS. That's where it ends for me. No joy in sw, I doubt there ever will be. I do music for fun, my own pleasure. Why would I battle against a pleasureless medium?

That's a solid list, and I get where you're coming from. If the medium kills your motivation, then yeah, it makes no sense to stick with it.

But I think the idea that software is inherently joyless says more about how someone chooses to interact with it than about the tool itself. Expression isn’t limited to knobs and keys. In software, it can come from generative modulation, automation-driven dynamics, or shaping envelopes that evolve unpredictably. That’s not less creative, just less romantic.

[SoftSynthLover99]

Bit of a Silly thread. But I'll play,
About 10 years ago I made a conscious decision to stop saving / collecting and caring about presets AT ALL.
Was a seriously good decision.
There are a handful of synths I now know backwards and upside down and can recreate many presets in like 2 minutes.
Often when collaborating other artists cannot believe I don't have ANY synth
presets saved but I honestly don't feel like it loses me much time when producing and I make all my sounds from scratch whilst writing music... it works for me!

I also have a decently sized hardware modular, I love it. Both for the hands on approach and the way it forces me to do certain things with what I have available...but also anyone with anyh
where near half decent ears has always agreed with me that certain things (mostly audio rate fm type things) still sound way better than anything that comes of of a soft synth. I stand by that in 2025. Not everybody uses these sounds on the regular, but If you do want sounds that sound like this imo there is no reason to not want to have some hardware.
(My first experience getting my hands on a modular: as soon as I set a tiptop z2040 to self oscillate and fm'ed it with an osc - it sounded like pure electrical current pouring out of my speakers no matter what i did .... I was sold)

The entire premise of Synths without recall being faster is bizarre

Not really. If you know how to program and achieve the synth sounds you want to use and know what you are doing with the synth you have, preset surfing becomes way slower than just programming a synth patch yourself from scratch. Software synths have really dumbed down most peoples understanding of synthesis (including myself for a while) and made people rely too much on presets.

Once you've learned how to make all your favorite synth sounds from scratch and you really become skilled in getting the sounds you want, it really is faster than searching through 1000s of presets drenched in reverb/delay and all kinds of weird FX and automation you don't need.

I do know how to roll my own synth patches have been doing it since the 1980s.

Now if I create a patch I like from scratch, and want to use that again. Would it be faster to start over from scratch? Or just instantly recall the patch?

Why do you think having recall in a synth makes it slower? If there anything preventing you from rolling your own patches on a synth with patch memory and recall if you want?

Oh no I’m with you there. I definitely save my sort of “go to” patches on my hardware synths. Especially when they are on a record that may go somewhere.

Most hardware synths these days have a lot of room for user presets so it’s like a best of both worlds approach. You can start from scratch, you can start from a patch you’ve already created for yourself, or factory presets if you must, just infinite possibilities really.

Just not a fan of using random peoples presets as that takes away the unique nature of how everyone programs synths differently IMO. That’s why most musicians don’t develop a sound of their own anymore. They just sound like whatever Omnisphere or Serum preset pack they purchased lol.

[BONES]

Patch memory has never been important in any hw synth I ever bought. It's useful every now and then, but not very often. Probably half of my synths have no memory and they tend to be better than the ones with memory. I love that there is a great choice of gear without the added expense of memory nowadays, keeps it cheap.

So you've never wanted to play the same piece twice? Never felt like you finally nailed it and don't want to lose the special vibe you got going? I care far too much about the music I make to be like that.

So you are at the gig and finish one song and need to start another one using a different patch, sorry not having recall is not faster that's just silly

You're making a number of poor assumptions here yourself. He doesn't gig. But I do and it's easy enough with a sufficiently simple synth. Last time we played in Germany, I used my Waldorf Rocket on most of the songs and it was no more effort to patch live than a guitarist trying to keep his guitar in tune through a set.

(that being said - having a wall of outboard gear and synthesizers and blinking lights and cables with big complicated connectors gives the illusion of "this-guy-knows-what-he-does". it's like a totem / armour of protection that works wonders for clients, impressing girls, keeping the singer pampered - but most of all it can make you feel like you are a playa for real. it's like a sales person wearing a proper suit. it brings security and calmness into both the wearer and the client. it's all bunk of course, but then again. who cares? if it works - it works. )

Don't you think the best advertisement for what you do is your work? To me all that gear has the opposite effect because that's where I started from 40-odd years ago, as a clueless idiot. So now I see people with all that impressive gear and assume they are as clueless as I once was, unless/until I hear proof to the contrary.

[zerocrossing]

On the stage or in the studio or on your couch,or sitting on the toilet, no matter where you are patch recall is always faster as it instantaneous. Not having that and building every patch by hand will always take more time

It's just a question of where you put the time. Saving patches, naming them, organizing them, remembering where they are all takes time and mental energy. And of course one doesn't always know what patch one wants, so hunting through long lists of presets can also take considerable time.

Oh, and most synths, patch recall isn't actually instantaneous. My Elektron boxes are pretty damn close though.

Don't you just have a set list with the presets in order? When I was doing laptop centric live-looping shows, it was the easiest I ever had it. I'd just open a project in between tracks and there it all was, quick and easy. Sometimes a project could contain as many as three tracks that blended into each other.

[IvyBirds]

So you are at the gig and finish one song and need to start another one using a different patch, sorry not having recall is not faster that's just silly

You're making a number of poor assumptions here yourself. He doesn't gig. But I do and it's easy enough with a sufficiently simple synth. Last time we played in Germany, I used my Waldorf Rocket on most of the songs and it was no more effort to patch live than a guitarist trying to keep his guitar in tune through a set.

No I am not. You are the one making incorrect assumptions. It was stated as fact that "Analog without recall is faster than Synths with recall", you are making the assumption that only meant specific locations and circumstances that were not shared

There were no qualifiers given, so I simply provided an example of how that statement about no recall being faster was incorrect

I can also point out that recall in the studio is faster. I can also point out that recall in your living room is faster, I can also point out that patch recall on a rocket ship heading to another galaxy would be faster

As far as your experience with a mono synth with very limited controls, that is so basic that it makes just two waveforms and doesn't even have ADSR envelopes, awesome have fun with that.

[pekbro]

Imo, a patch (modular in particular) is just like any other piece of music once you learn it. Personally, I can't forget stuff so easy, so it's not really much of an issue.

[pdxindy]

Don't you just have a set list with the presets in order? When I was doing laptop centric live-looping shows, it was the easiest I ever had it. I'd just open a project in between tracks and there it all was, quick and easy. Sometimes a project could contain as many as three tracks that blended into each other.

Not when I am exploring in my studio.

[Uncle E]

Don't you just have a set list with the presets in order? When I was doing laptop centric live-looping shows, it was the easiest I ever had it. I'd just open a project in between tracks and there it all was, quick and easy. Sometimes a project could contain as many as three tracks that blended into each other.

Or even just mix parts together. It's like a live DJ set when you do that. Calling back parts later in the set is cool, too.

[legendCNCD]

Balance shifted way back in 2000's for me already...

[DrGonzo]

Don't you think the best advertisement for what you do is your work? To me all that gear has the opposite effect because that's where I started from 40-odd years ago, as a clueless idiot. So now I see people with all that impressive gear and assume they are as clueless as I once was, unless/until I hear proof to the contrary.

Without a doubt. But as much as I was a clueless idiot back then, I also did some incredible work back then. The kind of ideas only a clueless idiot could make. Many embarrassing misses but also many damn interesting ideas.

The only thing I truly despise is the snobbism in gear, and that was one of the things that kept me from buying the original OP1 in the longest. I didn't want to be part of the pipe-smoking-wearing-plaid-shirts-crowd. But the OP1 is effing fun and you do stuff you would never do on a computer. You could but no one would ever. The same with Elektrons. Technically speaking they are not even a fart compared with even a lowend budget computer. And yet they are incredibly inspirational and fun to work with.

I don't know Bones. The older I get the more pragmatic I become. What works works.

[D-Fusion]

So you are at the gig and finish one song and need to start another one using a different patch, sorry not having recall is not faster that's just silly

You're making a number of poor assumptions here yourself. He doesn't gig. But I do and it's easy enough with a sufficiently simple synth. Last time we played in Germany, I used my Waldorf Rocket on most of the songs and it was no more effort to patch live than a guitarist trying to keep his guitar in tune through a set.

No I am not. You are the one making incorrect assumptions. It was stated as fact that "Analog without recall is faster than Synths with recall", you are making the assumption that only meant specific locations and circumstances that were not shared

There were no qualifiers given, so I simply provided an example of how that statement about no recall being faster was incorrect

I can also point out that recall in the studio is faster. I can also point out that recall in your living room is faster, I can also point out that patch recall on a rocket ship heading to another galaxy would be faster

As far as your experience with a mono synth with very limited controls, that is so basic that it makes just two waveforms and doesn't even have ADSR envelopes, awesome have fun with that.

Most synths are not rocket science.
They usually have the Layout of a SH-101 or a Juno or have 2 oscillators with a Saw, Square and a triangle waveform, 1 filter, 1 Lfo and 1-2 Adsr envelopes and even the Model D with 3 oscillators is so simple to use that Presets are not needed.

[IvyBirds]

So you are at the gig and finish one song and need to start another one using a different patch, sorry not having recall is not faster that's just silly

You're making a number of poor assumptions here yourself. He doesn't gig. But I do and it's easy enough with a sufficiently simple synth. Last time we played in Germany, I used my Waldorf Rocket on most of the songs and it was no more effort to patch live than a guitarist trying to keep his guitar in tune through a set.

No I am not. You are the one making incorrect assumptions. It was stated as fact that "Analog without recall is faster than Synths with recall", you are making the assumption that only meant specific locations and circumstances that were not shared

There were no qualifiers given, so I simply provided an example of how that statement about no recall being faster was incorrect

I can also point out that recall in the studio is faster. I can also point out that recall in your living room is faster, I can also point out that patch recall on a rocket ship heading to another galaxy would be faster

As far as your experience with a mono synth with very limited controls, that is so basic that it makes just two waveforms and doesn't even have ADSR envelopes, awesome have fun with that.

Most synths are not rocket science.
They usually have the Layout of a SH-101 or a Juno or have 2 oscillators with a Saw, Square and a triangle waveform, 1 filter, 1 Lfo and 1-2 Adsr envelopes and even the Model D with 3 oscillators is so simple to use that Presets are not needed.

Maybe but having patch recall would still be faster would it not?

Again the statement was made that Synths without recall is faster. That is simply not true is it?

Why is that so hard to grasp? Why are you moving the goal posts to something else entirely away from the original statement?

[D-Fusion]

So you are at the gig and finish one song and need to start another one using a different patch, sorry not having recall is not faster that's just silly

You're making a number of poor assumptions here yourself. He doesn't gig. But I do and it's easy enough with a sufficiently simple synth. Last time we played in Germany, I used my Waldorf Rocket on most of the songs and it was no more effort to patch live than a guitarist trying to keep his guitar in tune through a set.

No I am not. You are the one making incorrect assumptions. It was stated as fact that "Analog without recall is faster than Synths with recall", you are making the assumption that only meant specific locations and circumstances that were not shared

There were no qualifiers given, so I simply provided an example of how that statement about no recall being faster was incorrect

I can also point out that recall in the studio is faster. I can also point out that recall in your living room is faster, I can also point out that patch recall on a rocket ship heading to another galaxy would be faster

As far as your experience with a mono synth with very limited controls, that is so basic that it makes just two waveforms and doesn't even have ADSR envelopes, awesome have fun with that.

Most synths are not rocket science.
They usually have the Layout of a SH-101 or a Juno or have 2 oscillators with a Saw, Square and a triangle waveform, 1 filter, 1 Lfo and 1-2 Adsr envelopes and even the Model D with 3 oscillators is so simple to use that Presets are not needed.

Maybe but having patch recall would still be faster would it not?

Again the statement was made that Synths without recall is faster. That is simply not true is it?

Why is that so hard to grasp? Why are you moving the goal posts to something else entirely away from the original statement?

If you know your synths well enough it takes less time to create the sound you want compared to browsing thru 100s of presets in hope that you will find the perfect one and then you realize that that synth doesn't have the sound you are after and then you have to try another one until you find the sound you want.