what benefits are there to hardware

i like my max, my massive, my fm8, my logic express piano roll/notation, my midis, my tassman 4, my kontakt (which samples a gigantic list of analogue synthesizers and drum machines which i acquired on the internet - meaning i basically own a shit ton of synthesizers). i like clicking to sequence! it's so efficient! i sure as hell like my ultrabeat.

what is the point of buying a real drum machine or a real synthesizer or sampler? if i have this setup, what would i benefit the most from?

i want to make loud, abrasive, bizarre sounds and i want to do it by tweaking knobs, but i don't know what is the point if i already can make insane things using only software?

is the point that the analogue sounds analogue, and is therefor sonically superior? what is the reasoning behind shelling out 1000 dollars for a moog other than to have a fun toy to play with while not creating serious recordings? (what i mean is, isn't it more practical and powerful to use software for your sequencing and automation needs?)

ok that's my question. don't read it like i'm putting down hardware, i really want to know if there are any benefits because i'm still trying to make up my mind whether to spend the money i don't have on advancing my plastic software setup or beginning to enter the realm of analogue synthesis and recording.

pros, cons of buying an arturia synthesizer vs. buying a roland alpha juno?

one of them is surely more pricey, but is the difference really worth the money? explain yourself

my mother is the one that knows nnnnnnnnn

Some people feel more comfortable working with hardware, just like you seem to be more comfortable using a computer. That is probably the most important thing to consider.

I for one notice a pretty clear difference between an analog synthesizer & vsts/samples. A digital synthesizer, not really if you're good at making vst chains.

i think you should stick to software so you're not on ebay driving up the prices of 2nd hand hardware

  On 3/20/2010 at 9:50 AM, analogue wings said:

driving up the prices of 2nd hand hardware

urgh +10

http://www.electronicmusing.com/blog/2010/03/gas-gear-acquisition-syndrome/

bottom line for you -- maybe get a nice midi controller, some knobs and sliders you can put your fingers on..... but keep the sounds coming from software.

to me it's how I approach it. that's the biggest difference. it's nice to not look at a piano roll all the time and just jam. I come up with shit on my hardware that I'd never think of making in a DAW. and vice versa. everything has its uses.

yeah, and analog synths sound better than VSTs.

hardware is sosososososososo much more fun, well i went from a computer to lots of bits of hardware and that was the biggest difference

i never had a piece of hardware but i'm planning to make some debt in the near future,

i'm looking for the gestuality, the movement, aka the empathy that lacks when making music using software only.

mastering a drum machine or a synth sounds to me like craving to use a toy

and you can push buttons rhytmically.

  On 3/20/2010 at 6:38 AM, vamos scorcho said:

what is the reasoning behind shelling out 1000 dollars for a moog other than to have a fun toy to play with while not creating serious recordings?

Since when do people need reasons to buy expensive toys?

sound - analogues have no aliasing and are harmonically richer due to natural analogue distortion/instabilities especially in the higher frequency ranges, audio rate filter modulation and filter self ossification are two examples of what digital emulations can't do very well if at all, no VST emulation replicates 100% the range of a real analogue and believe me I've tried. On the other side of the coin the big sound of analogues can be hard to tame and often swamp a mix, you have much more precise control of digital sounds which has its own merits, possibilities and virtues but each is like chalk and cheese i.e. do Autechre need analogue to do what they do or would Analord sound the same done on VST's?

interface - a good bit of hardware will be more intuitive and tactile to use similar to a real instrument than preconceiving where to drag a mouse which is where software always falls short imho, sure a decent MIDI controller helps a lot but having a specific interface for a specific bit of kit is better to get familiar with. Then you have stuff like Elektron who manage to create a comprehensive simple sound engine with a very powerful and intuitive sequencer with and easy to use interface and there's nothing in the software world (yet) to touch the powerful multi trigger sequencer and parameter locks/s in a Monomachine.

It's easy to say I've got all the power of the world at my fingertips with a healthy array of software alone but its not what you have but how you interact with it, if it's intuitive and most importantly inspiring to use enough to to get the results you want. Too many options can be overwhelming and more often than not distracting and counter creative. I personally find creativity often comes from simple out of the box approaches to limited parameters e.g. I can create weird shit with a flick of my finger on my Kaoss pad that I would never preconceive to do on software and would take me ages to achieve the same results with setting up MIDI comptroller lanes and assigning parameters ect.

The argument against hardware is that it has to appeal to a mass market to cover production costs and some radical bit of software is better released on its own merit next to the tons of other software out there although the software market these days (stuff like MAX/mas, Reaktor aside)is tending to sway away from pioneering designs and more towards providing easy ways of sounding like something else .

I've done the all software approach years ago spent most of my time optimising and configuring which got me nowhere creatively but thats just me, personally I find software to be more a post production tool to what I've tweaked hardware but like I said its all about what works for you but I wouldn't shun something unless you've tried it.

You can also ask yourself that if your approach to creating music is the same as what every other fucker is doing what are the chances of creating something that will stand out above the rest unless all you want is just to follow the crowd?

  On 3/20/2010 at 3:14 PM, Rbrmyofr said:

  On 3/20/2010 at 6:38 AM, vamos scorcho said:

what is the reasoning behind shelling out 1000 dollars for a moog other than to have a fun toy to play with while not creating serious recordings?

Since when do people need reasons to buy expensive toys?

investment hobby like classic cars, modern (f)art or model trains

why have my expendable income sitting in a bank when I can have a Moog Modular that can only ever go up in value and give me something to do on a sunday afternoon and show off on youtube even if everything I'm capable of doing on it on it sounds like shite