Hardware

You’ve probably all noticed the increasing number of threads on Here and articles in FM, CM and SoS that are bringing up hardware… analogue synths, Summing mixers and other bits but do you really think it makes a difference ?



I personally don’t have much to go buy, Ive owned around 20 or so bits of hardware but that’s nothing in comparison to my software studio where my collection is in the upper hundreds. personally if i had the room i would go with a mixed studio (software/hardware) but i have my reasons for this. Most people i speak to though especially those that are new to production (less than a year) seem to want all this hardware with out knowing why they want it or because another producer has one.



maybe if we have this as a discussion about hardware we could between us at least answer some of these questions. I’m sure there are many guys on the forum that have had some experience.

I remember Phil mentioning once that he had loads of hardware and pretty much got rid of it all?



In one of the previous FM magazines, the DVD that came with it was in the studio with Chocolate Puma and they mentioned they put all their hardware in the attic and now work completely ‘in the box’ now (software).



I’ve always previously never seen the point bothering with hardware (mo hardware mo problems), but have been attracted lately to certain hardware pieces as mentioned in another thread. Mainly for the fact it’s something to touch and play with, as opposed to using your mouse or setting up midi control.





There is definitely benefits to hardware though, for instance it puts less pressure on your CPU for starters.

You can’t warez hardware :frowning: :stuck_out_tongue:


[quote]slender (21/11/2010)[hr]You can’t warez hardware :frowning: :stuck_out_tongue:



[/quote]



yeah i go with that one, anyone can sound the same after they download all the same software, synths and samples

Ok here is the gear I use to have bear in mind this was al hooked up to an Atari many many years ago



Novation BassStation - speaks for its self - personay I never really got the sounds I wanted from it



Juno 106 - wish I still had this as its a great lush analougue piece of kit



Rolond JD800 - really great sounding synth for metallic sounding pads



EMU Sampler (can’t remember the number) was fairly easy to use

I got a virus b not long ago, and since am saving up for a roland jp-8080… my reasons for this are that personally i feel that hardware has more character than vst, and i find it much better to be hands on with a synthesizer than tweaking knobs with my mouse… ive been getting much better results and experimenting more… i also feel that the filters on the virus are far superior to any filters on vsts that ive used in the past… but i guess its just down to personal preference, some people may find that they get better results from vst instruments, but i definately prefer the hardware and thats from only owning one piece of kit

It probably doesn’t make any difference what you use, I suppose it’s what you do with it.



But for me it’s all about that hands on feel and feeding my fetish for gear porn :slight_smile: I just love hardware



Ive trimmed back my gear recently because there is only so much you can use. At the moment I have a blofeld, 303, commodore 64, roland mks50 + pg300, Roland u220, machinedrum, emu orbit, a station, 2 alesis 3630s, dirty rat distortion. Building a x0xb0x and mps perc synth

And want a Juno 106, little phatty and mfb synth2 and **** loads of other stuff :slight_smile:

[quote]Mussi81 (21/11/2010)[hr]It probably doesn’t make any difference what you use, I suppose it’s what you do with it.



But for me it’s all about that hands on feel and feeding my fetish for gear porn :slight_smile: I just love hardware



Ive trimmed back my gear recently because there is only so much you can use. At the moment I have a blofeld, 303, commodore 64, roland mks50 + pg300, Roland u220, machinedrum, emu orbit, a station, 2 alesis 3630s, dirty rat distortion. Building a x0xb0x and mps perc synth

And want a Juno 106, little phatty and mfb synth2 and **** loads of other stuff :slight_smile:

[/quote]



Love the A-station

One good thing with hardware is it ties you down a bit and forces to work with a sound once it’s recorded or whatever.



One bad thing with software is you can just keep editing sounds constantly and never actually finish anything because of it

[quote]Jon_fisher (21/11/2010)[hr][quote]Mussi81 (21/11/2010)[hr]It probably doesn’t make any difference what you use, I suppose it’s what you do with it.



But for me it’s all about that hands on feel and feeding my fetish for gear porn :slight_smile: I just love hardware



Ive trimmed back my gear recently because there is only so much you can use. At the moment I have a blofeld, 303, commodore 64, roland mks50 + pg300, Roland u220, machinedrum, emu orbit, a station, 2 alesis 3630s, dirty rat distortion. Building a x0xb0x and mps perc synth

And want a Juno 106, little phatty and mfb synth2 and **** loads of other stuff :slight_smile:

[/quote]



Love the A-station[/quote]



Haha I never really use it nowadays. I’m gonna use it on my next tune lol

[quote]Zany90 (21/11/2010)[hr]I got a virus b not long ago, and since am saving up for a roland jp-8080… my reasons for this are that personally i feel that hardware has more character than vst, and i find it much better to be hands on with a synthesizer than tweaking knobs with my mouse… ive been getting much better results and experimenting more… i also feel that the filters on the virus are far superior to any filters on vsts that ive used in the past… but i guess its just down to personal preference, some people may find that they get better results from vst instruments, but i definately prefer the hardware and thats from only owning one piece of kit[/quote]



I’ve been checking out the jp8000 lately, looks really cool, just not sure if it would suit my needs

my only experience of hardware was at school, we had a good selection of synths, a descent compressor (but nothing ‘famous’ ) and 24CH desk…and after 3 years I can say that it’s definitely not for me! lol



while, turning knobs is a lot of fun :smiley: it’s all soo slow…


almost forgot about the korg poly 800 mk2 with moog filter and the yamaha tx81z :slight_smile:

only vst i really use is sylenth, sonic maximizer and all the ableton plugs

I have to say I love my virus ti, the sound I get out of it has so much more depth to it than any vst’s I have used and the fx’s on it are 1st class. I don’t use it hands on though and use it via it’s plugin and that suits me fine. I know £1400 is alot of money but it’s about the same as a few good sortsynths!

Also setting it up was easy via usb and access’s customer support is the best I have come across for anything, 20 minute reply at the weekend:)

[quote]BoneIDOL (21/11/2010)[hr]I have to say I love my virusti,the sound I get out of it has so much more depth to it than anyvst’s I have usedand the fx’s on it are 1st class. I don’t use it hands on though and use it via it’s plugin and that suits me fine. I know £1400 is alot of money but it’s about the same as a few goodsortsynths!



Also setting it up was easy via usb and access’s customer support is the best I have come across for anything, 20 minute reply at the weekend:)[/quote]



was never a fan of the virus… crazy to think i had 3 haha

[quote]Jon_fisher (21/11/2010)[hr][quote]BoneIDOL (21/11/2010)[hr]I have to say I love my virusti,the sound I get out of it has so much more depth to it than anyvst’s I have usedand the fx’s on it are 1st class. I don’t use it hands on though and use it via it’s plugin and that suits me fine. I know £1400 is alot of money but it’s about the same as a few goodsortsynths!

Also setting it up was easy via usb and access’s customer support is the best I have come across for anything, 20 minute reply at the weekend:)[/quote]

was never a fan of the virus… crazy to think i had 3 haha[/quote]

To be honest I am not a fan of the virus c after having go on it the other week, but that could be due to the ti being so much easyer to use.

Can’t see me liking hands on hardware now after using the ti…lol

:cool:

whats the waldorf blofeld like then? i toyed with buying one a while back but never did…



you guys think the jp-8080 is a good one?



any of you guys use hardware eq, fx, compressors etc??

I recently got my An1x and tbh the main reason i got it was because i was sick to death of Sylenth and the Nexus. Its a welcome addition and tbh even though you get nice sounds out of it all my sounds tend to be 3, 4, 5, layers etc from all different synths. Although some of the sounds within the an1x could be used on their own like the plucky sounds. As for the supersaw sounds i find it a nicer sounding one than the sylenth one but i always layer my supersaws because you need them to be big. The only annoying thing about hardware is the ***** about trying to program up a patch and then having to record in everything as audio. that really is where vst’s win hands down. But for sound… i dunno just something warmer from a piece of hardware, weather they are analogue or trying to emulate analogue.