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Software vs Hardware
Hi there!
I am not going to argue if software sounds better than hardware. People who own both hardware and software synths know the answer to this question.
I am going to talk about spending money on hardware vs software, and You are all welcome to throw in your oppinion. I will be using some quotes from the latest article by Mark Cooper, who writes for FUTURE MUSIC magazine. His opinion is quite close to my, and if you have been long enough in this music making hobby, you know this is the reality.
I personally have been making music using a computer and hardware synth since 91'. Way before you could eaven use your PC for such a task as sequencing or hard disk recording. I do it for a hobby still, I guess I am stuck for life with it! but that's a good thing...
back to the topic...
| quote: | | Gear has come and gone, but there was invariably around 50 per cent of cost to be garnered from selling it providing you did not trash the thing first: it's value sustained by the fact that it would work tommorow, and ever-after, barring a crunching catastrophe. One didn't even fret over the manufacturer imploding, never to be seen again. |
| quote: | | Not so in the virtuall world, of course. Resale is at best tricky, if possible at all. An OS update might someday soon render an item unusable should the manufacturer ceses to support your preffared flavour.Or prehaps ther's the ubiquitous "upgrade path" that has you paying for the same pice of virtuall gear aver and over again. Or perchance the manufacturer has imploded along with their challenge/response server. Bye-Bye Cash |
Take a look at LOGIC. It was made for both the pc and apple, and now they are apple strictly. You guys should see how many frustrated pc users they gained, Spending close to one grand for software that they can no longer get updates for, and no support of any kind.. Thease people were just left behind. Does the company care? Well ya send them another chunk of cash for an upgrade, and throw in another fiew grand for a new mac.. As soon as windows operation system changes again, it might be rendered useless.
And this happens with a lot of stuff. Maybe we don't think about it when we buy a new $500 soft synth.. " People who use H2O releases no need to apply here" We know that most amateur and some pro users as well,"Personaly know fiew of them" Use cracked software, And the only thing they ever spend money on are computer upgrades, some pro monitors, a keyboard controller and of course a sound card. Yet they still argue with you how software is so good vs hardware. Well I will only add this: Anything that's free is good, don't you think? I wonder what their opinion would be if they had to take the $500 they never spend on their latest vst, and accually go and buy it, or spend the $500 on a second hand Hardware unit " fill in the blanks here a synth of your choice" Hello EBAY hehe.. What would they really choose? A hardware synth that's a hands on experiance, something that they will be able to sell once they get bored of or decide to take up another hobby? That is something You have to think about when going to "all software studio" when you accually buy the software and don't use cracked stuff.. Software synths are not that cheap. My friend was once in a situation that he wanted to get some new sounds, He was looking into some software synths. They came up to a price of a used Access Virus c, can you guess what he got? Well he was thankfull he got the virus c because: it was hands on experiance "loves to tweak knobs", great sound libary, recently sold to get Virus Ti, would he get any money back from the software? maybe a small portion but far avay from the money he got back from the hardware unit.
Do you know that when you buy some of the software synths you don't own them at all? You just have a right to use it. You can't give it to a friend, that's a violation of the end user agreement. Basically it's illegal. Now who's gonna stop me from giving my virus c to a friend for a week? No one.
Last quote 
| quote: | | Consequently, we are left with two options: To either accept that what you buy today will be valueless in five years time and require a replacement at cost. |
I wonder how many sotware synths will be running for me down the road, let's say after windows switches from xp to another 64 bit version, and than after 2-3 years to another version? Or prahaps will it run using the lastes version of cubase 4-5? or Fruity loops pro 6-7 or 8?
How many companies will provide support for a 3-5 year old soft synth?
Will my TC powercore run with the new motherboards? It already dropped down in value like crazy. Hmm I wonder?
Anyways this is the price we pay for new technology, and that's what the manufacturers will tell you. But one thing I can be certain, I could still be using that virus c down the road, and maybe sell it for some nice chunk of cash once it reaches "classic status" down the road. Hey look at some of the analogs, 909, 303, have you seen the prices on those units? Some of them were cheaper when they came out brand new..
I always loved hardware, I am alvays leaning more toward hardware. I guess I like the thought that if anything ever happens I could get some of the hard earned cash back, not eaven mentioning thre other adventages. I do have software synths, but sometimes I just regret buying some of them, "but that's some of them not all" It's not nice to see you just spent $400 bucks on a soft synth and all of your music buddies got it for a price of 5 minute of their time downloading for free.. makes you wonder if it's really worth it. But piracy is another topic
Well so basically it's up to the user if he like's software synths more than hardware, or both. Both is the best combination I say. It also depends how much money you are willing to spend on your hobby.
Good day, and keep on producing!
Last edited by DJDIRTY on Jan-28-2005 at 21:40
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what do u think?
