well tell me ppl. do i actually need a hardware synth. ive heard ppl say that they are the best investment. or are they overated

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Originally posted by catalystG5 well tell me ppl. do i actually need a hardware synth. ive heard ppl say that they are the best investment. or are they overated

if you expect that hardware will improve your sound a lot then you're wrong. hardware is really nice and the feeling with turning knobs is very nice. BUT if you don't get the sound you're after with VSTs you won't get it from hardware either.
so go the hardware way if you prefer the different workflow and not for the sounds.

Well, yes obviously that's an important question for you - whether you need a hardware synth or not. We can't answer that for you. Do you need one to produce awesome sounding music? Absolutely not.

They're nice in terms of saving CPU, you'll have all these sounds happening and the CPU usage won't budge, so they're good for that.

It really depends whether you like the sound of one of them particularly, or not. Every synth, hardware and software, has it's own sound character. You can't get one of them to sound exactly like another one. It totally depends - if you love the sonic character of the Nord Lead 3, grab yourself a Nord Lead 3. If you love the sonic character of Vanguard, get Vanguard.

You absolutely don't NEED a hardware synth to make great music. But there are great companies out there making them who have been in the business of creating quality sound sources for years, so some of them can create quality sounds.

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Originally posted by catalystG5 well tell me ppl. do i actually need a hardware synth. ive heard ppl say that they are the best investment. or are they overated

yes u need 1 ...... srsly!!!!!

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You absolutely don't NEED a hardware synth to make great music.

But you DO need one to make great sounds... lol! amirite guyz?

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https://soundcloud.com/ghostea stuff

A lot of them make it really easy to get great sounds. (I don't have ...16? synths because I'm anti-hardware!)

I don't like the word NEED. But I'd be very surprised if anyone who loves trance wouldn't absolutely love the sound and feel of a virus.

A major difference for me (apart from the ease of quickly getting brilliant sounds which fit perfectly) is the way it feels. I can't really explain it, producing feels completely different these days. I've changed a lot of other things too (I moved over to Cubase). Maybe it is just the access to great sounds, these days when I do a remix, the whole thing's wrapped up in two days. I get the synths going, record the main loop, do some engineering to get the sound pretty much where it'll be at when it's finished, then lay out the overall structure, work out the synth automation etc, then re-record the whole track. Maybe it's just the recording process? I have a bit of fun with effects separate from that, but I commit to sounds pretty quick these days and "lock them down" rather than fiddling with a sound for hours. As I said, these days if I spend more than 2 days on the production/ engineering side of things, I feel like I'm losing my objectivity/ clear vision.

Composition's different though. With remixes you already know roughly where you'll go (though some of them get changed quite a bit).

I do try to keep composition separate from production where I can. Easier said than done. But I find great songs still sound great as blippy MIDI files, even when you take all the production and great sound away.

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Originally posted by catalystG5 what synth are you head over heels with?

Novation SuperNova II & Waldorf Q = ménage a trois

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Originally posted by thecYrus if you expect that hardware will improve your sound a lot then you're wrong. hardware is really nice and the feeling with turning knobs is very nice. BUT if you don't get the sound you're after with VSTs you won't get it from hardware either. so go the hardware way if you prefer the different workflow and not for the sounds.

then tell me... why do all the major producers have hardware. i was always under the impression that hardware is more for the pros. and tell me do you actually have/had any hardware. are you telling me this from your experience.

i guess this thread is aimed more to the ppl that have hardware and can tell me the difference

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Originally posted by catalystG5 then tell me... why do all the major producers have hardware. i was always under the impression that hardware is more for the pros. and tell me do you actually have/had any hardware. are you telling me this from your experience. i guess this thread is aimed more to the ppl that have hardware and can tell me the difference

Who says they all use hardware? Pendulum use Zeta+ on a tonne of tracks. Robert Nickson wrote Spiral in Reason.

As for the reason why you seem to feel loads of producers have hardware because its inherantly 'better' I can't answer that. If you started producing music before software synthesizers became popular then that kind of workflow (where you build signal chains with cables and modules) is just more intuitive. Personally, I started producing after the software synthesizer became popular and to me doing everything in software is just more intuitive. I read an interview with Babou a while back and he still uses an ASR-10. He uses it because hes familiar with it and knows how to get from A to B. Other guys? They use different gear they are familiar with. And now people use stuff like Kontakt.

Some people like the sound of certain hardware synths which don't have a software counterpart and thats why the use them. But the opposite could also be said to be true. There is no hardware equivilant to Absynth for instance. Not that I have found anyway.

At the end of the day all of these things - soft synths, digital hardware synths, analogue synths - they are just tone generators with some standardized sound shaping tools. If you dont know the basics of this system of sound design then you aint going anywhere. And if you have to excuse the fact that you can't get something done because you don't have the right gear, then you are definitely in the hole.

I've got a Virus B and yeah, its a nice peice of kit. The people who built it obviously cared about what they were making and its a joy to program. Alot of thought went into its design. But its not some magic ticket that once acquired turns you into a 'pro'. If you think that then you need to snap out of it and stop wasting your own time.

Of course, I had to find out the hard way and actually buy this hardware synth, only to find its just like any other sound shaping tool. Ive designed plenty of horribly cheap sounding crap using this synth. MAybe there just needs to be a disclaimer at the top of the forum: a suggestion to buy a hardware synth that doesnt depreciate much in value. Spend 6 months with it and get the 'omg hardware!' shit out of your system. Then sell it on if you don't like it and get down to making some music instead of making excuses for why you cant.

Last edited by Derivative on Sep-03-2007 at 09:21

Catalyst, grab the Virus C. If it's a good price, grab it and try it out. I find it hard to imagine that any trance producer wouldn't be able to get extremely usable sounds out of it. You'll still need to learn how to produce and engineer, how to fit the sounds into your tracks, the virus won't do the work for you. But it has a great sound coming out of it. If you don't like it, sell it in a few months and you probably won't lose any money on the deal. That way you'll know about hardware from first-hand experience.

well see here is the thing, basically ive mastered drums, automation, basslines, well thats what ive been told from a verry popular producer, but he says that i need to work on my lead and hook sounds thats why im interested in the virus

You should go and audition one then. I wouldn't listen to anyone's advice with regards to whether to buy it or not. Including mine.

I use my Virus B mainly for soft sounds and pads. I don't think its a particularly good lead instrument because the oscillators are really weak and the filter is...weird.

so what in your opinion is a good soft or hardware for a lead sound.
by the way have you had any success with any of your productions?