Analog synth Vs. Software synth flame war areana of doom!!!

[john gordon]

I have to say here that OPERATOR is probably one of the best sounding synths i have heard. Analogue or "vanalogue"(just came up with that one hehe). It has such great oscillators that squeak with quality. you put some reverb and effect on it and it blows anything out of the water, including absynth (which i also have,) ok it cant do the more complex things that absynth can do, but if were talking about raw oscillating power, i dont think anything comes close to operator. I spent half an our yesterday just playing extreme bass with that thing and watching the furniture in my room vibrate. Analogue synths are DEAD!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH ANAL LOG Heads are weird little scum bags with tiny teeth and big bowl haircuts with little eyes and flabby thighs hahahaha

operator does sound sick man.ok,guys speaking of hardware synths im sellin my access virus indigo ver.b now,as we speak.i will tell you why .by the time everything is mixed down,compressed .eqed blahblahblah nobody will be ablet to tell if its analog,digital or your old granny fartin in her undees.
the only thing i miss with the virus is all the knobs.

[basetwo]

your old granny fartin in her undees.
the only thing i miss with the virus is all the knobs.

:lol
On granny farting... I'd be cool to capture the "oopsie" too!

You've got a point having real knobs available. That's why I love my bcr2000!

[leisuremuffin]

BLLLEEECCHHH! I hate the virus. WTF is the deal with all the stupid little menus and shit. I like analog synths because they are easy and fun to program. i don't ever want to look at a little screen and have to dig to find out where parameters are. that sucks. of course the virus isn't true analog anyway, which for this thread's purposes means it's utter crap. =P

it sounds OK though. not great, IMO.


-lm

(40 mins to the start of my one day "weekend!" huzzah!)

[leisuremuffin]

Ok, one more post...

hey Adam,

Just wanted to point out that the odyssey is monophonic, so not sure how axe is different.

wellll, actually, the odyssey can play two notes at a time, cause the 2 osc. are tracked individually by the KB. My favorite kind of patch with the odyssey (and you can recreate with the oddity) is a patch where 1 is synched to 2 and you play one note with your left hand and change the timbre by twiddleing notes on the 2nd osc with your right hand. Good times!


-lm

[AdamJay]

exactly, the axxe was a single VCO monophonic oddyssey

IN YO FACE SUCKA!!!

haha this flame war deathmatch shit is funny.

[buzzcock]

I like analog synths because they are easy and fun to program.

Say hello to my Oberheim Matrix-12.

Doesn't bother me, but I know people who won't be in the same room with it.

[Gravity]

Especially weirdo digital.

[12micsn1]

Theres not enough people outhere who can generally identify the authenticity of a sound an where it came from. Most people listening to music who hear a Imposcar or Oddity will not question what there hearing as analog or virtual. Im not about to go out an buy the original hardware becuase of this. Hardware might be the real thing but if I been using software since day one it would be easy to question the sound of hardware the same way. The one thing about software it can almost always be improved an is virtually limitless to how it can sound. If it doesnt sound impressive enough today something better always seems in development. Theres still alot of hardware out there that hasnt been created an sounds impressive an a must have for any studio. Software seems to offer more takes how on does sounds should sound.

[LiveLong]

Better or not, they are different.
This industry goes fucking backwards... The digital, and plug in synth's place is to create sounds and options that the "real" ones can not. What we get is stupid pictures of old keyboards on the screen, and no, they do not sound like the real ones. no way. Another reason is that they all sound the same, have the flavor of your audio software/ setup. Stand alone units have different character from each other, and make your mix sound rich.

Forget the better or not, it is different, and thats how the sounds should be used. Sometimes a digital sound is much better for your music, and sometimes not.
If the question is which sound better, answer is what you need.
If the question is emulations sound better or original, original is original, and clone is a clone, a fake Rolex.

Some synths I had/have; SH 101, MC 202, TB 303, JUNO 60/106, Jupiter 6, Oberheim 4 VOICE (SEM modules) Moog Rouge, GTR Moog, I forgot the name, 909, 808, Matrix 6, MS-10, MS 50, JD 800, Emulator 4, Akai s- 3200, SE-1, Nord lead, Supernova 2, EX-8000...

[SimonPHC]

my two cents is:

nothing beats an 808 kickdrum, if you hear it on a live PA pounding your kidneys out.

having said that, its pretty lame to claim an 808 kickdrum will have the same impact when recording it 16bit/41.blahKhrz, dithering, mastering etc. included, compared to the real deal.

so, yes, true analogue sounds much better when heard 'from the source' ... but who gets THAT sound on vinyl these days? (lets not metion cds here, cause thats a realy hopeless cause) Without any digital side steps what so ever? none I think.

So deal with it. and use software.

btw, computers have options I'm so used to, like browsers for samples, FM synthesis (wich sound so good digitally), storage for everything you do (.wav, .als, .mp3, .doc) and stuff like MIDI-OX ...

[detroitechno]

I have a mass amount of hardware... and it really doesn't involve any of the reasons so far...
when i enter my living room with my laptop and my headphones, I'm very bored and will probably just surf the net, or do email or something... maybe a little audio work here and there, but nothing is inspiring about a computer... when I see my laptop, i don't go "WOW, this is f_cking sick!!! I can't wait to write a track!" I get bored stiff and want to go to bed.
now.....
when I go into my studio with about 2000 blinking lights, 1000's of knobs and buttons, inspiration flys through the roof! I instantly want to dive into a synth or 16 step drum machine sequence and start 'playing'. I have tons of software in both the laptop, and studio computer. And I think it's amazing what is possible now with just a computer. but coming from a musically background (drummer for 10+ years) the fact I'm actually playing with things helps my creative flow 100 times over!

both have major advantages and dissadvatages which I'm not going to get into. I love them both, but as everything goes computerized on the entire planet I think it's important to realize that a computer can't emulate a feeling (yet at least)

that's my 2 cents.... flame away!

[smutek]

The software synth is the peoples tool.

The software synth does not hang majestic in some music shop, impossibly expensive and forever out of reach of the common man, waiting for its bourgeois patrons to approach - no comrades, the software synth speaks to the people and thus is the choice of the people.



(if I could afford them I would have an entire room full of them though...)

[geralds]

I think the main difference between hardware and software synths (or was this an analog vs. digital debate?) is the interface and the options / lack of options this offers.

The evolution of my studio sound has been based on the equipment I use to get sounds and the individuality of pieces of equipment. A 303 only has about 6 knobs on it, can only get a limited variety of sounds but always sounds like a 303. I had the 303 modded in my studio to make it semi modular and had to work hard to get it to not sound like a 303 (how many acid tracks can you make and not get bored with the sound.)
When I tried a sequence out on it it was always still set to the last sound - no presets, and I had to work to change the sound. I learned how to program it. The same with my EMS Synthi, programming it led to unique sounds nobody else used and my programming of it evolved as new tricks were learnt. I sold the Synthi so I could buy a Super Jupiter and then presets were flicked through until an interesting sound was found for the part needed, a that-will-do attitude to sound creation.

Now times change, my room, once full of analog synths connected together with CV and gate cables and sync 24 leads has a few choice modules (mostly digital,) a nice G4 and a digital desk with a few pieces of outboard. I've bought and sold a lot of synths and ended up keeping a handful because I really like them. Most of the analogs have been sold - for top dollar and I don't miss them. What I would miss is picking a DX7 for bass or silliness (though operator is good!) Soundart Chameleon for bass & leads, Virus for nastiness, proteus/mo phat for a few bread and butter sounds and then looking around to see whats left to use. Evolver for some pad nonsense, but now I'm scraping the barrel. I'm left with Micro Q, JD990, CS6R and the logic softsynths (sculpture and ES2 I like a lot) and a few VST synths. Now its time to bring on the presets.

Hardware synths come out to play first in my studio because :

they have (my) presets in them.
I know them inside out and what each is good at due to character.
One person can program sounds whilst another programs sequences.
I can tweak them easily and comfortably.
They look great and are fun to use.

Also one important factor that's been overlooked is the rest of the recording chain. A Mini Moog bassline recorded through a cheap noisy desk into cheap converters will sound smaller than a bounced VST emulation of a Mini Moog. If its recorded nicely the opposite is true.

[john gordon]

I have a mass amount of hardware... and it really doesn't involve any of the reasons so far...
when i enter my living room with my laptop and my headphones, I'm very bored and will probably just surf the net, or do email or something... maybe a little audio work here and there, but nothing is inspiring about a computer... when I see my laptop, i don't go "WOW, this is f_cking sick!!! I can't wait to write a track!" I get bored stiff and want to go to bed.
now.....
when I go into my studio with about 2000 blinking lights, 1000's of knobs and buttons, inspiration flys through the roof! I instantly want to dive into a synth or 16 step drum machine sequence and start 'playing'. I have tons of software in both the laptop, and studio computer. And I think it's amazing what is possible now with just a computer. but coming from a musically background (drummer for 10+ years) the fact I'm actually playing with things helps my creative flow 100 times over!

both have major advantages and dissadvatages which I'm not going to get into. I love them both, but as everything goes computerized on the entire planet I think it's important to realize that a computer can't emulate a feeling (yet at least)

that's my 2 cents.... flame away!

sounds like you have a bad case off a.d.d. my friend,sell all of your hardware and get a prescription.

[12micsn1]

my two cents is:

nothing beats an 808 kickdrum, if you hear it on a live PA pounding your kidneys out.

having said that, its pretty lame to claim an 808 kickdrum will have the same impact when recording it 16bit/41.blahKhrz, dithering, mastering etc. included, compared to the real deal.

so, yes, true analogue sounds much better when heard 'from the source' ... but who gets THAT sound on vinyl these days? (lets not metion cds here, cause thats a realy hopeless cause) Without any digital side steps what so ever? none I think.

So deal with it. and use software.

btw, computers have options I'm so used to, like browsers for samples, FM synthesis (wich sound so good digitally), storage for everything you do (.wav, .als, .mp3, .doc) and stuff like MIDI-OX ...

You just summed it up best here even if you use original equipment for authenticity. The original sound will recieve some sort of digital conversion so it wont sound original as the end result. This is very unavoidable an I think software musicians embraced the digital sound with less annoyance.