I love the " Let's argue" in the title because it invites the exchange of opinions on a total subjective topic. Saying that one is "better" than the other is a simple matter of opinion mainly based on acquired taste/appreciation. Saying that a hardware analog synth and its software counterpart sound the same is a totally different story. To be clear, how do you convince a 20 year-old EDM producer that his Arturia plugins do not sound better than the originals? Certainly, his musical ear is used to the sounds of the same plugins that he uses so they are familiar to him, and familiarity breeds preference. Likewise, how do you convince me that the Arturia plugin sounds better than my Matrix-12? There is no way I would ever admit that! How do you expect vintage synths owners to be objective when comparing a $150 plugin to their $12,000 hardware synth? On the other hand, claiming that both sound or do not sound the same can be determined without a hearing test. Finally, plugins do have advantages over their hardware counterparts worth of mentioning such as affordability, availability, sound consistency, portability, implementation of features demanded by users...and crackeability. Well, some of them. As to their hardware counterparts, they are a business asset, the recordings will be different than 99% of what is currently produced, and owners enjoy bragging rights.

 

My first requirement is the sound quality when I'm looking for a synthesizer or any instrument by the way,personally.It's a mistake to buy an instrument with versatility in mind,IMO.I bought few synths because of their versatility first and in the end I regretted my choices.

 

I agree with what you said, 100%. I foremost care about the sound. Indeed, I don't recall ever choosing a workstation over the regular synth from the same manufacturer. My decision making process may be influenced by the fact that I am not a synthesizer player, and through the years have delegated the sound design aspect of productions to those who can do a better job. I have several synths for which you need a college degree to navigate their menus.

 

My experience has never been where the sound came from, but where it's going. Can't start from crap and expect a lot, or anything, but nowadays man, so man software synths can make what I want, scratch that, need to hear. From there I do my master magic and presto. The sound that wasn't wanted but needed.

I find most PRESETS are garbage, but the synths themselves... There's a sound attached to everything. Making it special, well, that's my mf'n job.

 

I guess if you can emulate a given sound source and there is no difference between the original source and the emulation, it subsequently implies that the sonic quality does not depend on a specific source. If the result is the same, there is no difference. That said, even if the sound was exactly the same, it doesn't necessarily mean that it would be perceived to be the same as well.

I guess if you play the same sound twice and tell people that they should choose the one they liked better, not all but certainly most of them will pick one or the other, just because that is what they are expected to do. They might even tell you about the sonic differences that were responsible for them to pick one above the other.

 

Last edited: Mar 20, 2020

I remember someone posting sound examples from Diva and some kind of hardware synth on gearslutz (where users are even bigger snobs); and many thought Diva was the analogue one...
Imo, a synth doesn't have to sound pleasant at all - different types of music require different sounds ( for industrial music you need harsher sounds etc).
The price argument is beyond wrong - software synths are just computer programs; digital hardware synth with less functionality and having buttons/knobs are not on the cheap side.
If someone is incapable of making good sounding music with softsynths, switching to hardware won't help.

 

You're thinking of Swan Audio:
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/ele...943105-analogue-vs-digital-diva-ob8-test.html

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/ele...n/1287193-diva-vs-behringer-d-blind-test.html

Also, this a good comparison:

 

Love this statement !!!

And that’s the problem of this whole thread.

Quality is a very vague defined thing.

Just to be clear you would take this:



https://www.thomann.de/de/ketron_klavi_pro_piano_expander.htm
against something like this

https://www.thomann.de/de/behringer_pro_1.htm

Just because of a putative better "sound quality"?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 20, 2020

Links don't work

 

i am not a hardware synth player/user but people are forgetting to give credit to the playability. everything you need is right in front of you and the workflow is very fluid.
that said, MIDI control is very powerful these days and even for live folks its easy to tour a controller and a small laptop. for some reason i rarely see that though.

 

Impressively close but sadly, this is the MIDI-fied version of P5 and this one had different chips than the older versions and didn't sound the same anymore. I once owned one of these and sold it again.

@The Pirate could probably write pages about the different chips and their development.

 

I would take the Pro-1 over this Klavipro (I didn't know this thing untill now) without any doubt because I don't use pianos very often and I like the Pro-one' sound.It's a personal choice,everybody is free to take this Klavipro.I don't see anything "putative" to chose an instrument according to its sound.For me it's just logic.

And I disagree with someone who said that any instrument may sound like you wish if you know what to do.It's a nonsense.You will never get a Moog sound with a Juno for example,and vice versa.

 

"Quality is a very vague defined thing" That’s why I wrote putative better "sound quality"
We all can only say if a sound is pleasing to our ears.
Quality is an abstract term in this case .
Some like a more warm sound. Some like a more rough sound.
But both probably would say the other is bad quality for them.

 

I'm 50/50 on this but I know where you're going. I'm fine with warm / digital but it needs to be something that can be used. Every sound can have a purpose, but I'm not recording babies crying for a reason, no one wants to hear that.

The other 50 is yes preference, there are some sounds I just ignore.

 

Sure my friend,I agree with you on this point.A pleasant sound is subjective,that's one of the reasons that all different synth manufacturers have a distinguishable sound/their own sound,according to their tastes I presume...

I know "warm sound" doesn't mean anything scientifically,though usually the term "warm" refers to even harmonics or a high frequencies roll-off ("smooth" is maybe more suitable in the last case).
I used this term trying to describe what I heard/felt.Probably I would have used the word "smooth"....But I didn't mean "bad quality" for the other.It was a manner to differentiate the HW vs the plugin.I repeat it again,for me Diva is a fantastic plugin,like many others that I use daily.I make music with both hardware and software.Usually I use plugins when I need digital sounds or when I need much polyphony or much modulations.I use analog hardware for the other sounds,especially bass,leads and sequences with my lovely little DSI Evolver desktop(this cute toy is amazing guys,very powerful and many features for such an old,little and cheap mono synth like that!,but the workflow is quite a pain in the arse and its midi is not very reliable sadly)

 

Last edited: Mar 21, 2020

Thanks for the deference but I would let Doctor Smith do the talking.
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Last edited: Mar 21, 2020

There's nothing on that first bullet, does that mean anything goes?

 

It has been corrected

 

I can tell with a 100% accuracy. Indeed, anyone can do it! All you have to do is look at the CPU usage.

 

if you look closely you can also see the wires coming from the keyboard going to a computer.