davepermen wrote:nathannn wrote:
he might be talking about the "sound engine"
if thats the case the answer would be no.
new analog synths are still built with analog oscillators, filters, ect ect.
the only thing that is digital on a newer analog synth are the functions that dont effect sound, like storing of presets.
it also sounds like he is in the beginner phase of synthesis when they all sound the same.
this can be a very frustrating phase later on especially when you are using any synth and going for an analog sound.
after a while of mixing you might find yourself saying "why dont this synth fit well" why does it sound so cheap?
it happens often when you are using something that is not very convincing at producing analog sounds.
try something like this:
use any software synth ( im thinking reasons subtractor)
start of with an empty patch
now program the famous dual saws with one slightly detuned from the other.
use a 12db lp filter leave it 100 percent open and set the res at 0
program the filters attack time to 0 the decay around 5 sustain around 90 and release around 80
do the exact same with the asdr envelope's
now dl a demo of sylenth1, u-he's ace or something like arturia's pro-5 emu.
(i suggest just dl'ing sylenth one because it will be the easiest for this example)
program sylenth1 with the exact same settings as the cheapo synths..
now do an a/b test using live..
play a single high note over and over (maybe ten time's very quickly in a row)
almost every one should be able to tell the difference in the sound quality between el cheapo subtractor and sylenth1 (or u-he's ace, i actually prefer ace over sylenth1 but i figure sylenth might be easier to program)
.
what you should be hearing is wierd sounding overtones played on the hight notes.. almost like a comb filter effect is going on or notes being played on top of other notes.. its really not a pleasent sound when you are trying to get a classic synth sound going.. its actually very annoying and can completely mess up your mix. it kinda sounds like a bad mp3.
if you are going for purely new sounds than the aliasing effect really is not that big of a deal and can be what your after.
btw dont get sylenth1 confused with the el cheapo "synth1"
synth1 sounds and behaves a lot like subtractor.
the reason for aliasing happening usually has to do with sampled wave forms, or the wave form not being generated at a high sample rate.
it's somehow fun how all you explain is just a comparison of completely digital software synths. i get your idea, but your example does not have any hw synth in to show that difference. "if you're going for that analogue sound", and have a softsynth, then you're just getting some digital sound that sounds a bit different.
but if a softsynth (or effect, like a compressor) doesn't have "vintage analogue emulation" by now, then it's defined to be crap. even while none of these makes sense. no e-reader will ever be 'just like a book', even if you can virtually turn pages and such. it's still just software, doing a nice show for you.
in short, those awesome software synths are mostly marketing bla to make you buy them. each one does sound different, some sounds more like some real synth, some more like something on their own. but all that "it's vintage analogue style, so it's better" is crap to me.
the reason i am comparing digital against digital is because we were talking about soft synths.
if you are going for an analog sound and are using a soft synth, of course its still digital in the end. the difference between two soft synths is, one synth may generate the oscillators and the others oscillators may be sampled (or the oscillators are generated at a lower sample rate than the other).
like i already said, and so did leedsquiteman, a lot of soft synths produce a very audible aliasing effect. this can be very damaging to music production (especially with a new producer ) when you are going for a classic analog sound. it is nearly impossible to get a convincing analog sound with a soft synth that is aliasing all over the place. also a soft synth such as operator may have an anti aliasinng button but still the oscillators are sampled rather than generated, YOU STILL GET A HIGHLY DIGITAL SOUND. also the filter may not be an accurate representation of analog.
copmaring an e reader to soft synths is really not the same thing at all unless the e reader is showing words in a heavily aliased mode. it would be kind of hard to read a ebook properly when the fonts are distorted.
its not just marketing hype..
i had no idea why the synth patches i was using sounded like a shity comb filter was on every preset until i started researching it. i can hear the difference, almost everyone can hear the difference.
its not like comparing lives sound engine to pro tools where it takes intensive listening to hear a minuscule difference
that might have been nothing more than the placebo effect.
if you try the example i gave you YOU WILL HEAR A DIFFERENCE!
you can hear aliasing on even the worst set of monitors. you can hear sampled wave forms cycle at a slower rate at low frequency levels than that of generated oscillators being produced at a high sample rate.
there are very few people that are experienced with analog and digital/soft synths that would argue that there is no aliasing effect happening with a lot of software/digital synths..
the difference is like am radio compared to cd.
maybe you haven't discovered it yet. one of the reasons a person would not notice it would be because they are not going for a classic analog type of sound.
if you are making minimal, dub techno, glitch, most idm, then its highly likely you wont need a classic analog sound and you may never notice aliasing.
on another note, a lot of people keep saying "i can get the same sound with operator because of the anti alising button"
to me the anti aliasing button on operator is almost a marketing gimmick. i love operator but for purely digital sounds nothing more. no matter how many layers of operator you have its going to really hard to get a CONVINCING classic analog sound out of it. as far as i know, operators wave forms are sampled!
im not saying its a crap synth, im saying operator does what it was originally intended to do, that is to be an fm synth.
