Despite what @Smoove Grooves says, I'm not sure if the OP meant real gear or plugins: if he's talking about real keyboards then the discussion is more interesting for me.

What @BEAT16 says is a personal point of view and I tend to disagree.

If we are comparing gear vs its virtual emulation this statement is false: no virtual emulation gets to sound like its original hardware (whoever deals with real keyboards / drum machines knows this very well)

Since the two concepts physical/virtual are so different they are not comparable, it is impossible to bring it to this level.

• Devs bankrupt and abandon development code
• Sometimes with OS updates the plugin no longer works
• It happens that for an update you have to pay the price again

On the other hand, real gear (if treated well) works well even after 50 years, often increasing its commercial value on the vintage market, outdated software has no value on the second-hand market

Yes: the only advantage of virtual clones is that they are more practical: there is no dust to clean

 

Last edited by a moderator: Sep 22, 2021

Yes, sorry.
OP really could have meant what you all picked up on. Probably is that.
Don't know why I was adamant I was correct.