BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

In terms of the “debate”:
how they sound in a track or how the track sounds overall
I think depends a whole lot on what type of music one makes
And how one makes that music.

For example, I make acoustic based stuff: acoustic guitar, piano, strings, bass, drums,
with small amounts of synth sounds.
I also like to work quickly, lay ideas & tracks down fast.
Have all my sounds from max 5 sources, but all of them coming through one interface.
Thus I just need a fairly decent software sample bank,
eg, Sonik Synth2, or EMu ProteusX or Cakewalk Dimension Pro.
And a simple midi controller keyboard, ok pc.

For my needs I found SS2 far more immediate & useable than say Yamaha Motif, Roland Fantom.

Thus for me this "debate" doesn't arise.

To me, it's not really one versus the other, I use all of them, and I must say I really like the Analog and Hardware approach, but VSTs do have their advantages too... I'll keep using a combination of the three..

Soundwise I don't think it really matters as long as the end product is good.....

You can debate this until the Cows come home,but you'll still never get a definetive solution,its about your own way of creating music,I personally could do without Software,its far too unpredictable for me to use it 100% and do away with hardware.....but then again there are certain things achieveable with software that i can't solely rely on hardware alone to utilise.....

As for sounds...to me the Wavestation VST and hardware version are identical,and a previous owner of a polysix can say its very much a clone....As for the Moogs and ARPs VST about as close as I'll get to the sound,but die hard purists will say there is no comparision to the original

Like saying whats best...Night or day!!!!each has its advantages/Disadvantages


I have a lot of Dance orientated Gear(electribes ) but i don't do dance music,these machines don't influence me into a type of genre,i make the machine work for my needs not the other way round.

I tend to do a lot of live playing and record this direct into my DAW,and then sequence stuff to fit round it,i prefer to have a human element in my tracks rather than rely solely on sequences,I have the laptop for laying down ideas away from the studio...like a kind of notepad ideas book
I've been doing more jam work with real musicians ,and have enjoyed this far more than being stuck behind the PC all the time,i'm slowly trying to break the software habit

Dangerous topic

For me I try to use as much analog gear as possible. Because of they way I record (one track at a time) and mostly because analog sounds the best. Analog instruments are not stable and that's their charme/character. I also like to fiddle with knobs, switches and push pins in a matrix or create a chaos with wires You can't do that with a VSTi (well ok but you can not touch them unless you want to hug your monitor). There are some controllers out there that you can use with VSTi's but I think it's not the same. The way an instrument looks or 'flows' decides for you what sounds you most likely will create.

I do use VSTi's but only when I want a 'modern' sound that cannot be reproduced by the analog machines I have.

Like I wrote before I do use a lot of VSTe (FX) and some analog FX (like the EH's).

Ever heared an identical Smallstone Phaser VSTe? or an identical Eminent VSTi? that's the reason why I prefer analog over VST.

The rule of thumb here is: use the best of both world.

J.

My three ¢ worth:
It's definitely not what, but how you use the technologies.

A s***y engineering can destroy each kind no matter how good it is.
Also, take a Stradivarius for example, anyone can make it sound good, but its sound can beat the crap out of even good players and virtuosos.

Equin(00)xe: is that you or Ronan from Boyzone.

plate of chips wrote:Equin(00)xe: is that you or Ronan from Boyzone.

Perhaps they are the same person?

i remember when i was back home with juno 6 (great basses!) and jx3p (strings!!!!!!! just like in old films - eg terminator ).... i was shocked! i wasn't sleeping for nights! i love them, i love analogs [doesn't use vst no more except arp2600 and minimoog]

Which are the major VSTs...

plate of chips wrote:Equin(00)xe: is that you or Ronan from Boyzone.

Funny you should say that....

I once got stopped for my Autograph/Photograph by some Japanese tourists in Oxford St in London some years back!!!!
I hadn't got the heart to tell them i wasn't the real one!!!!I just put on the best Irish accent i could and posed and signed some autographs!! lmy mates laughed their heads off afterwards!!!

Nice to see what you look like then! Hahaha... I would probably do the same in that situation!

Well if you are single, I know some very nice ladies 24-38 who would love a Boyzone.

plate of chips wrote:Well if you are single, I know some very nice ladies 24-38 who would love a Boyzone.

Sadly....No..... I'm married!!!!

but being on a diet...doesn't mean you can't look at whats on the desert trolley!!

The only true analogue instrument I've worked with was a Moog Etherwave Theremin. Although it was interesting, I'm not much of a theremin person, so I was rather nonplussed by it. All the other synths I've worked with were either virtual analogue [both hardware and software] and digital FM. I can't really say that I can have a "preference" in any direction. There's a sign in a workroom at a youth-center I used to go to: "Everything has its place, everything in its place." I'm not going to constrain myself to any single type of synthesizer mainly because each type has a versatility that the others lack. I can't emulate real instruments well with VA. I can't create thick, chunky sounds on FM. Sometimes I need to use a harmonic synth to get the character I want, other times I actually need to go in there and draw the wave by hand. That's what I love so much about electronic music now. There is no "only option."

That's exactly what I was trying to say. All of them have particular advantages, be it in programmability or usablity, so I guess everyone has to find their own perfect blend.

In my own opinion, VSTs lack real analog warmth and punch, if I really need to have those analog sounds, I think even my JD can come up with more realistic analoglike sounds, and otherwise I still have the MS20

Changing to a software-only setup doesn't make sense to me, I mean, I can see it's advantages (as much as I dislike it myself) but I like to compare it with the release of the DX synths, it was the first different synthesis type back then. Did people go have DX-only setups...? Well I know, them DXs weren't as versatile as VSTs, but still...