I must be some sort of special wizard then, because I have a room full of hardware (11 at last count) and I mostly interact with them via software editors. Expecto Patronum!pixel85 wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 6:41 am Hardware is more fun to use than software*. It's a fact. It's written in Bible and every other "saint book". Anyone who disagrees is simply unworthy and should be burned together with witches
*Even writing this makes people angry, which just proves that it's fun
I fall for synths. Sometimes they are software, sometimes hardware. Not all software sound that great to me, as not all hardware sounds that great to me. I listened to an a-b demo of Mercury 4 vs. Jupiter 4, and it’s a bit of a joke. The Jupiter just sounds amazing all the time and the Mercury sounds decent sometimes, OK most of the time, and often just downright weak. Now, I’m not going to pay the lottery-winnings size price for a Jupiter 4, but I’m not going to buy the Cherry Audio version either. I’ll wait until another developer takes a crack at it, or Cherry Audio ups its game. I do love the sound of that synth. If you also love that sound, you have to buy the original hardware. (No, the Roland Cloud Promars doesn’t do it either.)
So it always comes down to that. If you don’t ever hear a hardware synth that excites you to the point of distraction, then you’re going to say they’re unnecessary, unless you’re the type that hates using a mouse. If I were interested in Trance, Dubstep and the like, I’d probably stick with software, because I think modern software sounds better than the classic VA used in Trance, and of course Dubstep was the place where Massive and FM8 were king.
Where most modern software falls down is in the dirty side of things, which is a characteristic that I really like. Even the exalted RePro sounds a bit tame and aliases at the top registers. Audio rate stuff also sounds a bit weak in software. Lastly, all my hardware does stuff that you don’t find in fixed architecture synths. I’ve yet to hear a convincing analog emulation that’s got a third envelope, for Flying Spaghetti Monster’s sake. All of my analogs have at least 3. The first thing I do when I buy a hardware synth is put it up against software and see what’s what. If I don’t find something that’s awesome about the hardware that isn’t well represented in software, it goes back.
But older Trance music doesn't have this problem. Super/Hypersaws from Viruses and Nord Leads are more pleasant in high frequency range than from eg. Spire. 
