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

[AdamJay]

Oh, and BTW, check out the poll now, Adam.

poll's mean nothing to me. just look at our president.
if anything i'd say this poll is much like the presidential poll... it shows how many people are still stuck in the 80's

[boomklik]

I think there should be a 3rd option:

-exploits fully analog or digital resprective to availability


I use both...and saying that overal "one sounds better" is ridiculous.
They are 2 different beasts, each with their own benefits. Maybe its time
for some of you to grow up a bit and make music instead of
complaining/arguing.

Then again, this is just my perspective.

[sweetjesus]

It's really easy to fall into an extremis point of view with this topic since many people are fall into one of the following 2 camps:

Cannot afford the high end gear which sounds great thus shooting down the tall poppy.

or

Have high end expensive equipment of which the cost needs to be justified.

I come from the view that hardware is better than software as for sounds and UI aspect and in the hardware world Analogue is better than VA emulations. I started on softsynths, moved to outboard VA's and am now using only analogue outboard stuff... and everytime i've moved through this chain, everything i've made has sounded better.

[mikemc]

I have not worked with a vast array of hw synths. However, I like the variety I can get from SW synths, most of the HW synths I really like are sample based, which is basically wrapping around a computer anyway.

Here's the thing about synths-- they make a lot of sounds that are useless. So, what do you want, hardware that does that, or software? I say software, you just erase the presets you don't want. I have an old Casio CZ5000, based on DCOs, there are some really nice sounds you can get out of it, some sort of nice sounds that if you add effects they are nice, and some just pure, utterly too-cheezoid-for-even-joking-around utter crap sounds.

Also, the self contained-ness of the SW synths is a plus. Sometimes if I want to set up a keyboard working on the dining room table, it takes up space, outlets and cables dangle so my wife starts to complain: therefore, any HW synth sounds I do are accompanied by that audio artifact as well

It is the case there is nothing quite like setting up the ADSR, and also being able to mix together patches that were once only available on monophonic synths.