Will we be praising Retro VSTi's in 15 years?

[Foxglove]

So 15 - 20 years from now, when VSTi's have evolved to the likes that we cannot even possibly imagine today, will we be looking back at Oddity, ImpOSCar, Massive, (insert fave VSTi here) in the same way that we look at the Minimoog, Oberheim OB's, Roland Jupiter 8, (insert fave vintage synth here)?

(let's see how far this thread goes before someone sets a church on fire)

[Kingston]

it's quite certain that the best of them of them will tag along for decades, especially taking into account the fact we'll be able to use extreme sample rates with the future CPUs. I won't get into a fiery debate naming the ones I think will stay.

The only problem I can think of, and it will surely reap it's heavy toll, is support for whatever future operating systems and host changes that will come along.

[digitalmessiah]

I think VSTi's come and go. The older VSTi's popularity is really not on par with the retro h/w synths you mentioned. I mean, even today I don't see a lot who praises and remembers Mercury VSTi from TC Electronics, much less 15-20 from now. But Steinberg Neon gets my praise though.

[projectdan]

I dont think any will be looked back on like some hardware synths are. People will judge certain software synths to have been seminal and liked them. But whatever they liked about them will be so easily replicated and no doubt improved further in future softsynths that there shouldnt be any craving over them.

[Sam@Megablastic]

Non tangible goods will never hold there price as well as hardware, I think hardware virtual synths will become collector items as they won't need old computer technology to work.

[LBN]

I think there are softsynths that may stand the test of time but value, no. This is a good thing overall. The decommoditization of the tools to produce music on par with the professionals levels the playing field. It used to be that entry into this kind of production was prohibitively expensive. Now it's inexpensive. In the future it may be nothing. This means there will be only one thing to determine what produces good music: Talent.

[The_Whips]

I can't wait. The last couple of years have seen a change in the forces driving not only production but music sales. The potential available to musicians is the greatest it has ever been, as is a greater degree of creative freedom.

[HunterKiller]

I just set a church on fire!

*********

Personally, I think that they will be remembered but not a single person will be using one in 15 to 20 years time!

Resons: all obvious!

There might be a version 22 of something or "X" this, "X" that - but no, the hard reality is that if it is virtual - in other words non-tangible than there is no way it'll still be there so far in the future!
It wasn't here in your hands to begin with!

And if they do finally start making analog synth emulations sound like the real thing on say Pentium 9's or 10's then why would you want to use these current-day emulations!

Only Samplers/ROMplers can survive this evolution! That's why Emulator, Fairlight... samples are still popular today!

The story of a synth is a never ending story of search for the "SOUND" - and hence the evolution!
The synth is like our best companion, it is a creation of man that for now and probably forever will be stuck in the evolution chamber along with us!

[Rangtangtang]

virtual world might become real in the future cause that might be the only world that is....

[Marduchk]

captivating thought.

[ohm]

Interesting question. Software can definately become retro. Lots of people like "retro computer games" for instance. The old argument "they don't make them like they used to" definately does apply there.

In the world of music software, consider trackers. Trackers are definately retro in the good old sense of the word. You use them because you like "how they just work", "how they feel", and how they remind you of how simple music making used to be in the good old days etc. A good example is a modern tracker like ReNoise that makes a great effort to copy the look'n'feel of the old time faves.

In the VST world i do have a feeling though that software need regular updates to stay alive - that applies to larger timepans too. [insert fav. synth here] will probably allow 512 notes of polyphony on the Pentium 15, like HunterKiller pints out: wouldn't you rather buy version 8 with the new 256 bit six dimensional filters and support for 64 core multithreading?

just some thoughts.

[Radek]

So 15 - 20 years from now, when VSTi's have evolved to the likes that we cannot even possibly imagine today,

The whole VST "revolution" is nothing more than redoing what companies like Roland, Korg, Yamaha (and others) had been doing since start of electronics instruments. The form just changed (to software plugins using a protocol like VST) and the rest is more or less the same.

From strictly synthesis standpoint there is very little to improve. We will see some physical modelling synths of piano, strings, perhaps even drums. But it will not change much because excellent results are attainable using current methods.

One thing what will be probably interesting to a degree will be ability to run simulation of electronic circuits of a synthesiser in realtime (or some are doing it already?). But except of convenience factors how it will be different than those old real analogs?

will we be looking back at Oddity, ImpOSCar, Massive, (insert fave VSTi here) in the same way that we look at the Minimoog, Oberheim OB's, Roland Jupiter 8, (insert fave vintage synth here)?

Frankly no because these are functional copies of things what were done before.

(let's see how far this thread goes before someone sets a church on fire)

To set a fire there must be something what could burn in the first place. There isn't anything like that. Sure there will next versions of everything with more sophistication but realistically how much of it someone will be able to comprehend?

See the aliasing issues - they are practically no existant in current synthesisers. Going over 96KHz/24 format will not bring any better results because after there is only so much of "fidelity" at source to record.
(like usual places where people listen to music would allow to hear any differences anyway)

[Rangtangtang]

(like usual places where people listen to music would allow to hear any differences anyway)

They only would meet as holigrams Neil is the one, he will save us...

[Foxglove]

Interesting question. Software can definately become retro. Lots of people like "retro computer games" for instance. The old argument "they don't make them like they used to" definately does apply there.

That's exactly how I see it. Altough it's fair to say that the mass majority are looking for the ultimate "quality" of sounds, in relation to the top of the line graphics of todays games, there are others, such as myself, who prefer the aliased low samplerate "dirty sounds", just like the VGA pixelated games of yesteryears.

[c_huelsbeck]

If you compare it for example to classic video and computer games, we can assume there will be emulators that run XP + all your favourite classics in a window (or whatever we will use by then). However, I believe that there just will be even better emulations of classic hardware synths, so that you probably won't see a reason to fire up the old VSTs other than nostalgia. In fact, if you talk about physical modeling I can envision full simulation of a slice of the real world, like for example a 90 piece symphonic orchestra playing / interpreting your composition just like real musicians would do (though simulating musical "soul" might be still tricky)... that would be really neat.