Hardware synths vs sofware synhs

[deva]

Encouraging yourself to committ hardware synths to audio tracks as early as possible is favourable for improving robustness of recall. I'm sure in the year 2020, Ableton Live 20 will have no problems opening a projects consisting primarily of audio clips. Your projects are less at the mercy of OS incompatibilities. This is valuable!

I commit my soft synth tracks to audio as soon as possible... one can do that regardless of hardware or software

[deva]

https://controlvoltage.net/

Speaking of hardware. Last weekend I was at my favorite new store in PDX! I love this place.

I stumbled on it walking by one day and was so pleasantly surprised to find such a great place here in PDX!

[revoltcrew]

https://controlvoltage.net/

Speaking of hardware. Last weekend I was at my favorite new store in PDX! I love this place.

I stumbled on it walking by one day and was so pleasantly surprised to find such a great place here in PDX!

Absolutely love control voltage...hey deva.,
do you perform in pdx...?

[deva]

https://controlvoltage.net/

Speaking of hardware. Last weekend I was at my favorite new store in PDX! I love this place.

I stumbled on it walking by one day and was so pleasantly surprised to find such a great place here in PDX!

Absolutely love control voltage...hey deva.,
do you perform in pdx...?

only at night to my own headphones!

You another Portland person?

[DJTIVA]

@deva

Talking about VA synths. Have you ever tried a Virus TI or Clavia Wave, Nord Lead? These
are good examples of VA synths where most parameters are directly tunable. I love both of
these for their sound and the easy access to all parameters.

[deva]

@deva

Talking about VA synths. Have you ever tried a Virus TI or Clavia Wave, Nord Lead? These
are good examples of VA synths where most parameters are directly tunable. I love both of
these for their sound and the easy access to all parameters.

There are some hardware synths where most parameters have a direct knob to control them. But there are plenty that do not. This of course means that hardware does not necessarily have this characteristic. (Yes I have tried a Virus and Nord Lead)

Likewise, there are individuals who have built custom controllers for their favorite softsynth which provides a knob per function capability and the same visual layout as the gui. There are also plenty of midi controllers that people setup to give effectively the same sort of control over the more simple type softsynths.

The sort of hands on tactile 'knob per parameter' control you appreciate (I do too) is not inherent to all hardware, nor is it exclusive to hardware.

I'd love to have a hardware controller for Zebra, but it is just too complex.

[Machinesworking]

^^^^ The old Oberheim Xpander I bought has probably my favorite layout for this, you have 5 knobs, about 40 buttons, 3 LED read outs, and a numeric keypad, they all operate to where the 5 knobs are always visibly controlling the currently called up parameters. It may be possible to do something like that with Zebra, but I don't think they have any way to get around the semi modular design in the same way? If you could assign a button to call up say the various Oscs, then you could assign a knob to dial in the Osc, but I don't think Zebra has that capability built in?

OSC would allow you to if manufacturers would ever adopt it.

[bosonHavoc]

my point is not about better or worse, or analogue vs digital,
it's about the illusion that computers offer some benefit that is centered in cost and convenience.

Prophet 5 rev 2.

their is one major flaw in your analogy,
spending all that money on a DAW set up you get a full featured DAW.
you can record and create all aspects of music,
drums, lots of synths and drum machines, tracking live instruments, arranging, producing...

if you drop on a prophet or the like all you get is one instrument.
If you want to record you have to spend more money, if you want a different sound pallet you have to buy a new synth.
a better comparison would be purchasing a workstation or MPC 5000 which is still limited in comparison to a computer rig.

[DJTIVA]

You are right bosonHavoc. The hardware way is for sure more expensive. Beside needing a DAW you need a serious interface to route your instruments. You may also need a good midi interface and as said before for some special sounds you might have to buy another machine. Going hardware will for sure cost more but the fun grows too.
For the price of a DAW you do not get much hardware options. I would even say the cheapest way to make electronic music is to buy Ableton Suite and just use its tools. Probably there is enough to make serious music with it but as mentioned before the cost factor is an other topic.

[djadonis206]

@deva

Talking about VA synths. Have you ever tried a Virus TI or Clavia Wave, Nord Lead? These
are good examples of VA synths where most parameters are directly tunable. I love both of
these for their sound and the easy access to all parameters.

There are some hardware synths where most parameters have a direct knob to control them. But there are plenty that do not. This of course means that hardware does not necessarily have this characteristic. (Yes I have tried a Virus and Nord Lead)

Likewise, there are individuals who have built custom controllers for their favorite softsynth which provides a knob per function capability and the same visual layout as the gui. There are also plenty of midi controllers that people setup to give effectively the same sort of control over the more simple type softsynths.

The sort of hands on tactile 'knob per parameter' control you appreciate (I do too) is not inherent to all hardware, nor is it exclusive to hardware.

I'd love to have a hardware controller for Zebra, but it is just too complex.

Elektron's Analog 4 is pretty special as it has 8 macro knobs. You can assign multiple parameters to one macro knob. This feature is powerful, unpredictable and totally fun! Now if we could p-lock the macros I'd be over the moon.

http://www.elektron.se/products/analog

[JuanSOLO]

@bosonHavoc
I see you're point,
it seems logical,
yet over time I have grown to disagree that a DAW continues to offer what I had once thought.

Prophet 5 is an extreme example.
I used it because it's a highly revered analogue synth.
You can create enough sounds on it to make an entire record.
The resale value is outstanding.
In my original post I considered add a 4 track to the equation, maybe I should have said iOS app.

Having 1 instrument is not necessarily a bad thing either.
Just like having thousands of options is not always a good thing.
Another way to look at it is, I have thousands of options but one option tends to sound better than all of mine, (sure it's subjective).

To a more OP specific point,
for the price of Laptop+DAW
You could get a couple of Moogerfoogers, a cool hybrid synth, and an MPC 1K, record it on something besides Ableton.

[deva]

^^^^ The old Oberheim Xpander I bought has probably my favorite layout for this, you have 5 knobs, about 40 buttons, 3 LED read outs, and a numeric keypad, they all operate to where the 5 knobs are always visibly controlling the currently called up parameters. It may be possible to do something like that with Zebra, but I don't think they have any way to get around the semi modular design in the same way? If you could assign a button to call up say the various Oscs, then you could assign a knob to dial in the Osc, but I don't think Zebra has that capability built in?

OSC would allow you to if manufacturers would ever adopt it.

Yeah, the semi-modular design and over 60 modules which can be freely ordered by the user does make it problematic...

each single osc has like 30 parameters plus 32 user drawable waveforms plus 2 user drawable gain maps for velocity and key scaling ... with multiple methods for the user drawn waveforms, creating waveforms by morphing between waveforms etc... and that is just the one osc

maybe a 24" multi-touch screen!

[Machinesworking]

Yeah, the semi-modular design and over 60 modules which can be freely ordered by the user does make it problematic...

each single osc has like 30 parameters plus 32 user drawable waveforms plus 2 user drawable gain maps for velocity and key scaling ... with multiple methods for the user drawn waveforms, creating waveforms by morphing between waveforms etc... and that is just the one osc

maybe a 24" multi-touch screen!

Perhaps I didn't explain it well enough, but most things in Zebra could be assigned to a function, IE there are many kinds of oscillators, a single button to select oscillators, same with filters, FX etc. The oddity would come in differentiating between selected instantiated oscs, filters, LFO's etc. and the selection of etc. The main thing that makes it work on the Xpander is the three LED screens, no guess work or menu diving feeling when the main buttons and knobs are all labeled.

[deva]

Yeah, the semi-modular design and over 60 modules which can be freely ordered by the user does make it problematic...

each single osc has like 30 parameters plus 32 user drawable waveforms plus 2 user drawable gain maps for velocity and key scaling ... with multiple methods for the user drawn waveforms, creating waveforms by morphing between waveforms etc... and that is just the one osc

maybe a 24" multi-touch screen!

Perhaps I didn't explain it well enough, but most things in Zebra could be assigned to a function, IE there are many kinds of oscillators, a single button to select oscillators, same with filters, FX etc. The oddity would come in differentiating between selected instantiated oscs, filters, LFO's etc. and the selection of etc. The main thing that makes it work on the Xpander is the three LED screens, no guess work or menu diving feeling when the main buttons and knobs are all labeled.

How would you order the modules? How would you draw waveforms? How would you draw 128 step modmappers and have fine enough control to adjust a single step?

I don't disagree that it could be done. But would it be any advantage over the current gui? Or would it be harder to use with less visual feedback?

[djadonis206]

A crossfader would be cool

Sample chains in the Octatrack along with some MD ctrl-al action!

https://soundcloud.com/djadonis206/artofnoize