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-- V-Station sounds nearly EXACTLY the same as A/K Station!

V-Station sounds nearly EXACTLY the same as A/K Station!

So I buy my A-Station about a week ago and I get it and my first impression is that it sounds GREAT. I tinker around and come up with some really nice sounds.

Soon I realized that V-Station has the same presets as my A-Station.. so I thought I would do a little comparasin

Here are my findings: V-Station sounds nearly EXACTLY the same 90% of the time.. and there is only a small differnce on the other 10% (sometimes, that difference makes V-Station sound better than A-Station!)

here is an rar of my findings

In all the mp3s, v-station plays first and is followed by the a-station. The biggest difference is in Sound 2.mp3 (very small difference)

What does this mean? I don't know.. but I did find it very interesting and suprising..

NOTE: V-Station is the (supposedly lesser) software equivalent of the a/k-station

the A-Station is the rackmount version of the K-Station, they are sonically the same

Ive got the V-station too. You can download other presets from the net.

So if the A and V sound equivalent, dont you feel ripped off?

quote:

Originally posted by Dmatrox So if the A and V sound equivalent, dont you feel ripped off?

haha.. sort of.. but that's the beauty of hardware.. you can resell it on eBay

But for the $150 price difference ($250 for k-station) the VERY SMALL difference in sound quality is completly not worth it..

Depends a lot on your monitors ? What are you using ?

I used to think tracks / effects / synths / .MP3vsWAV didn't sound that different until I listened to them on good monitors.

I am using Event TR6 monitors.. they sound exactly the same on mine and other peoples as well

I agree with you, the difference is largest in 2, but still significant in 1 and 3. I must confess my ears struggled to pick a significant difference in 4 and 5.

The A station samples definately sound 'cleaner' and 'crisper'.

But then, it's hard to know what sort of loss you get with MP3 (I don't care about the encode rate, it's a loss format) and how slightly different variations in the settings of each synth effect the final sound quality.

I'm not saying hardware always sounds better, but I'd be using the A station until I sold it if I was you.

Regards

(Using 824's)

EDIT : And of course, if you intend to get your music published, even though the V station can sound as good as the A, don't you want every advantage you can get over the next guy ?

Sound 1

i hear a difference, the A has a phatter sound when the filtercut off is max.

Sound 2
I hear a big difference. A sounds better

Sound 3
Wow this one has almost no difference, though A sounds a bit warmer, but not that much either.


Sound 4
can'r hear any difference here.

Sound 5
Ya i hear a huge difference here, though i find the A soundind more ugly.

quote:

Originally posted by Swing And of course, if you intend to get your music published, even though the V station can sound as good as the A, don't you want every advantage you can get over the next guy ?

yeh.. that's why I'll sell it and use the $$ to get a virus or nord :P

what's the point in having this $400 box when I can have V-Station for nearly half the price..

personally i find the filter on the v-station absolutely minging and very software, would love to have a play with the k to compare

quote:

Originally posted by Luke Terry personally i find the filter on the v-station absolutely minging and very software, would love to have a play with the k to compare

that was about the only difference between the two.. the lowpass filter is a bit better..

It's cool that you did this test between the two corresponding synths. Let's see what I think about them. I'm using my Sennheiser HD 497 to listen.

Sound 1. Massive was right. The A's sound is definitely fatter on the filter. It sounds nicer like that.

Sound 2. I hear a big difference on this too. A seems to be much crisper, while V seems more "rounded." I guess it depends what you want.

Sound 3. Indeed, A is warmer, but I think I hear more of a difference between them. Again I think it comes down to taste, but it just shows that hardware can achieve different sounds then software. I'm not saying that either of them is "better" because really, it comes down to taste.

Sound 4. Yeah, not much difference at all here...

Sound 5. That 303 sound. The A sound is certainly "dirtier." If you want to get more of a vintage sound you'll definitely want that instead of the V, because, of course, it's hardware. But then again, they both work.

Props to you for posting these samples up. It's very interesting to actually hear differences.

Yes brother, you are better off getting a Nord or Virus. Nord racks are very cheap if you shop around.

I'd keep the hw unit.
Saves cpu and when you ever plan to gig your songs you'll be glad you kept it.

the difference is at a minimum. Wow.


I would never buy an A-Station after that. Never. I would save money for a hardware synth which REALLY sounds like hardware

Trancevision

it's interesting.. but i think the difference between software and hardware is very minimal. i've a virus and its sound is better than all soft synths BUT the difference isn't such big like some years ago!

it's absolute possible to produce top quality trance with software only!

quote:

Originally posted by Luke Terry personally i find the filter on the v-station absolutely minging and very software, would love to have a play with the k to compare

should checkout the powercore versions then
filters have been imporved greatly!!

quote:

Originally posted by TranceMasterUk should checkout the powercore versions then filters have been imporved greatly!!

Could you post some samples?

es

quote:

Originally posted by Vert Could you post some samples? es

sure thing
as soon as i haveall my new system up and running.

in case anyone was wondering.. I sold the A-Station and bought a Virus Rack Classic

/me patiently waits for it to come in on Thursday

Hi Alanzo,

Great comparison test. I listened to all your sound examples and in my opinion, based on your comparison tests, the A-Station sounds much more vivid and "pro-sounding" then the V-Station. Listen to "sound 1" again for example, with the V-Station when the filter starts to open the sound is kinda dull, sounds weak, while with the A-Station it sounds much more vivid, crips, powerful, much more like you hear it on pro releases, don't you agree?!

Aren't there ANY VSTi's out there that can sound as good as hardware??!! Any recommendations?

By the way Alanzo, which soundcard did you use?!

quote:

Originally posted by Dance123 Aren't there ANY VSTi's out there that can sound as good as hardware??!! Any recommendations?

The new Virus VSTi that runs on the powercore.

quote:

Originally posted by Dance123 Hi Alanzo, Great comparison test. I listened to all your sound examples and in my opinion, based on your comparison tests, the A-Station sounds much more vivid and "pro-sounding" then the V-Station. Listen to "sound 1" again for example, with the V-Station when the filter starts to open the sound is kinda dull, sounds weak, while with the A-Station it sounds much more vivid, crips, powerful, much more like you hear it on pro releases, don't you agree?! Aren't there ANY VSTi's out there that can sound as good as hardware??!! Any recommendations? By the way Alanzo, which soundcard did you use?!

I'm using an Audiophile 2496..

And yes, the Powercore|Virus sounds exactly like the Virus B... but you can't get it warezed (sorry).. the cheapest you can get it is about $725 USD with the Powercore PCI Card (comes with MasterX3). (about the price of a Virus B anyway)


check this out to see what the Virus|Powercore can do... or more what I can do with IT

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