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I really hate the hardware vs software debates because: (1) those threads are always full of more misinformation than truth (the "other" thread here is a perfect example), (2) it's totally subjective, and (3) who the hell cares what someone else uses?!
That said, I've been collecting and using hardware synths for almost 30 years (yeah, I'm old) and I still love having hardware synths around me for a bunch of reasons, including:
- I hate being tethered to a computer and would rather have a real synth with keys and knobs in front of me. I find it much more stimulating to my creativity. I sometimes spend 8-10 hours/day staring at a computer for my job, and I find that it sucks the creative juices right out of me.
- when I'm composing, I want simplicity and as few distractions as possible. It's much easier to just fire up a "real" synth and start playing than it is to have to turn on my computer, sound card, MIDI controller, fire up my DAW, load a synth, etc.
- higher resale value = better investment.
- dedicated controls.
Does that mean that I think hardware is better than software? Hell no. Of the hundreds of synths (hardware and software) that I've owned in my lifetime, I would easily put Gladiator 2 and Blue, and possibly even Rapture and Massive in my top ten favorites. And, soft synths still make up at least 50% of the synth sounds in my productions.
As far as comparing the sound of soft synths to that of hardware synths, well the difficulty there is that not all hardware is created equally, nor is all software. A Virus sounds different than a Nord and they both sound different than a Moog, etc., just as Gladiator sounds different than Vanguard, etc., etc., etc. And anybody who claims emphatically that hardware is better than software has probably never owned anything as wretched sounding as a Roland D-10 or JV880 - I don't think that there's a soft synth out there that sounds as bad as those two hardware synths do.
The other thing that I find troubling in this whole debate is that the software-only guys have a tendency to refer to hardware users as "hardware snobs", when the converse actually seems to be more true. I don't know of anybody these days who uses hardware synths exclusively. Pretty much everybody who uses hardware also uses software synths and effects as well. But, I don't have to look very far to see people who use software only (by choice) and refuse to use hardware because "software can do everything hardware can do".
When it comes right down to it, I really don't care what anybody else uses and I find these comparisons of each synth's oscillators, filters, etc. to be pretty silly. The only thing it proves is that each person has an opinion. My opinion is that all of my hardware and software synths are great.
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Sonar Platinum | Ableton Live 9 | Logic Pro X | Access Virus TI2 Keyboard | Kurzweil PC3X | Nord Lead 4R | NI Maschine
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