Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music
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Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music
#2"Digital audio workstations have become increasingly sophisticated, able to emulate with "plug-ins" the capabilities of sought-after analog studio gear of the past. It has taken a bit longer for virtual instruments to meet this same standard, but they may be nearly there."
Hardware is much more hands on, with real dials, switches, and other means of physical interaction which screens and mice don't come close to matching. Hardware does exist through which musicians can interact with computers, but it's usually MIDI, which has its own limitations compared to fully analog gear.
With hardware you generally don't have to worry about software or OS updates, and the hardware generally continues to "just work" for a long time.
A lot of uncommon analog hardware is very unlikely to ever be modeled in software, so the way it reacts when manipulated may never actually be matched in software (even when the potential to do so is in principle there if anyone ever bothered to create a high quality model of it in software). This extends to how it sounds as well, for the same reason.
That said, modular synth software like this is still great, and may be the next best thing to using the real thing. It's also a great way to learn and get a taste for what's possible before committing money to buying any hardware.
Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music
#3Stupid title. It would also let you create 2018 Electronic Music.
Been using VCV rack for a bit and its fairly awesome (Usually over MIDI sequenced via BitWig).
Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music
#4"Digital audio workstations have become increasingly sophisticated, able to emulate with "plug-ins" the capabilities of sought-after analog studio gear of the past. It has taken a bit longer for virtual instruments to meet this same standard, but they may be nearly there." Hardware is much more hands on, with real dials, switches, and other means of physical interaction which screens and mice don't come close to matc…
Totally agree.
Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music
#5Previous discussion on HN:
Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music
#6"Digital audio workstations have become increasingly sophisticated, able to emulate with "plug-ins" the capabilities of sought-after analog studio gear of the past. It has taken a bit longer for virtual instruments to meet this same standard, but they may be nearly there." Hardware is much more hands on, with real dials, switches, and other means of physical interaction which screens and mice don't come close to matc…
And importantly, it's a way to get into synths without breaking the bank on "fixed layout" hardware, even if it's supposed to be awesome hardware. If you're on a $10/week allowance, projects like these are fantastic.
Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music
#7Stupid title. It would also let you create 2018 Electronic Music. Been using VCV rack for a bit and its fairly awesome (Usually over MIDI sequenced via BitWig).
That seems an odd complaint? Any music made this year is 2018 music, but what people might not know is that you can faithfully reproduce the sounds of analog synths that largely defined vast swathes of the music landscape of the 70s and 80s.
(If you've been active in digital music for a while it's easy to forget how little the general public knows about stuff like this, and a title that goes "did you know you can do X with Y?" is better than a dry factual title)
Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music
#8Stupid title. It would also let you create 2018 Electronic Music. Been using VCV rack for a bit and its fairly awesome (Usually over MIDI sequenced via BitWig).
That seems an odd complaint? Any music made this year is 2018 music, but what people might not know is that you can faithfully reproduce the sounds of analog synths that largely defined vast swathes of the music landscape of the 70s and 80s. (If you've been active in digital music for a while it's easy to forget how little the general public knows about stuff like this, and a title that goes "did you know you can do…
i'm with timc3 on this one. at this point every dude with a beard and a modular suitcase has a standing gig in the park making gurgly noises for people, and every gamer who watched deadmau5's twitch has a bunch of mutable instruments modules. it's folk music for the 2010s. and the music of the 70s wasn't, for the most part (yes we can point to the exceptions but that misses the point), bleeps and bloops, it was keith wakeman in leather pants. by the 80s these were collecting dust (so that we could buy them for cheap in the 90s!)
Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music
#9>Once you’ve created an account and installed it, you can start adding dozens of plug-ins, including various synthesizers, gates, reverbs, compressors, sequencers, keyboards, etc.
Sigh.
Re: Open source modular synth software lets you create 70s & 80s electronic music
#10"Digital audio workstations have become increasingly sophisticated, able to emulate with "plug-ins" the capabilities of sought-after analog studio gear of the past. It has taken a bit longer for virtual instruments to meet this same standard, but they may be nearly there." Hardware is much more hands on, with real dials, switches, and other means of physical interaction which screens and mice don't come close to matc…
Yes. The phrases "menu" and "software update" are what kills all tactile electronic instruments of various kinds.
This is the same for electronic test equipment as well. There are so many features crammed in new devices, even if you manage to get enough controls for the basic cases on the front panel, a lot is still hidden in nested menus galore and they aren't necessarily sensible or discoverable or even work properly. This results in semi-religious fighting over which update is the least shit and people refusing to accept updates because they fear them.
The outcome, at least with electronics, is that you'll find a lot of 30-40 year old equipment nestling next to the state of the art with a sticker on it "for indication only". This equipment does a lot of the real work while the new stuff is used for validation and traceable measurements only. Due to rapid progress in technology, people cling to the last thing they felt any physical connection with.
This will pass in time as the status quo is accepted for younger generations. Fly by wire it is.
(I am incidentally a rather large fan of analogue and modular synthesizers and half built one in the late 1990s with 1970's electronic equipment, some of which I still own!)