.... this makes me wonder is hardware really needed?
Well, think of it this way... look at an iPad or android tablet.. is a keyboard really needed? No, but do you want to sit down and write a novel using one? fuck no.
I realise the sound wont be exactly the same maybe not quite as good but would you say it is worth splashing out on a virus or hardware synth when there's so many virtual synth choices?
Software often sounds just as good (VA's are a CPU running software algorithms anyway), and software is often not limited by polyphony, modulation options, and especially menus and graphical interfaces. Displays on hardware synths are expensive and rare. However, softsynths have pictures of knobs. Ask yourself, do you want to twist knobs, or do you wnt to click on pictures of them with your mouse?[/quote]
I will have the money for a virus come september when i sell my car,... do i take the plunge?
Do you have any other gear? Hardware really starts to take off when you have a good mixer and an fx rack. It's not about what sounds better, it's about how you wire up your studio and how you grab stuff with your hands and if you like having the lights down low and hundreds of blinking, pulsating LEDs everywhere. If you find yoruself lost in soundcard device preferences and DAW sampling rates and especially midi controller mappings and routing issues, then absolutely go for hardware.... if you are curious, a used virus B or C is a bloody great place to start. Research and ask yourself if you really need the TI stuff, cos that is EXPENSIVE. The earlier models sound and perform very much the same, just lack the usb TI parts.
I don't use any computers or soundcards in my studio. My main sequencer is an MPC 1000k which I use for MIDI sequencing my Virus B. I have a bunch of drum samples in the MPC too. I've also an EMX which
I use mostly for percussion and dirty noises. The audio from these machines goes through a mixer, and I add on effects with a couple hardware fx machines. I often sample back into the MPC again. I've a MIDI drumkit for when I wanna rock out and play some breakbeat stuff, it triggers samples or chopped loops in the MPC. I record the main mixer out with a minidisc machine.
Arguably, I would have much more options and hundreds of synths and greater editing possibilities if I used a computer and a midi controller. I cant just whack a reverb, compressor and EQ on every channel, I would need to stop, resample, reroute audio, and treat the next track in the same way. But that is often a good thing, I don't do stuff unnecessarily. I currently have 229 knobs and 370 buttons (if you include piano keys). I think this is better than pictures of an unlimited amount of them. I like messing with cables. Since I spend my working day staring into a computer screen, it's the last thing I wanna do when I get home and start making music.
In the end of the day I think you can sum up the whole software/hardware thing with the keyboard analogy above. Sure you can get by with typing on a software keyboard, and you can install several of them in different languages and colours with predictive text and other features, but it's still not the same thing as just typing on a real one.
No really Fletch.. The plugin is absolutely great, it has a very warm sound and it can produce very diverse sounds. Definitely worth the money.
welcome back Innovine!