[sdiy] Analog Originals vs. Digital "Recreations"

[Metrophage]

Digital is good for two things, basically - it is cheap and portable. 

A simulation only gets you so far. It has to offer some fidelity to an
"original" and comparable interaction. I am of the opinion that the
tradeoffs are not worth it. I prefer to reproduce vintage gear in
hardware. I bought Moog style VCO PCBs, Moog and Korg style VCF PCBs
from TomG for only a few dollars. It's not a mini or a voyager, but
sounds as good as a lot of their gear from the mid to late '70s. I
prefer to mix and match module features than buy an overpriced bit of
vintage gear which will need repair.

And then there's customization. I can't leave gear alone if I can coax
something more musical (to me) out of it. I can't excuse drilling holes
in a beautiful old synth, and I cannot customize a VST plugin at all.
If you can't cross-mod the VCOs once it's installed, you're never going
to! I very much prefer for digital synths to be original. The
simulations are just borrowed equity for familarity, like Mr. T and
Donkey Kong breakfast cereals. Who would have bought those without the
familiar name on the box? It is easier to market an instrument which
already has had 20 years of "free" advertising. I think the VA trend
has passed its peak and more plugins are and will be offering more
varied architectures now that people are starting to become familiar
with them. 

What I like softsynths for is rapid development time. Rather than yet
another VA, there are some plugin instruments which pushing the
envelope with digital models. Not a lot of FFT or wavelet based
hardware synths at the local store, are there? Since there aren't a lot
of parts to invest in, designers get more adventurous. Consider though,
that the same instruments in digital hardware would probably be faster
and more reliable. Plugins also offer tighter integration with a DAW
than a computer and lots of outboard gear do, but this can be improved.
USB, FireWire, and Ethernet have become ubiquitous - all that is needed
are some more robust digital music protocols.

Is it better to convert a lot of pots to MIDI, send the MIDI to a
computer DAW, and have the DAW coordinate the VST (or whatever)
parameters along with everything else it is doing? Or to send timing
and gesture data with dedicated hardware? Dedicated hardware will
probably always perform better, but generalized stuff is always less
expensive. Then there is the middle ground of computers with DSP cards,
like Pulsar, Kyma, PowerCore, etc. I use an old Korg OASYS PCI in a
PowerMac 8600 (G3 500) with excellent results. The OASYS RAM is
limited, but algorithms run tighter on this combo than VSTs or
AudioUnits on my G4. One can roughly model the features of vintage
gear, or piece together new ones like MSP or Reaktor. It was
inexpensive and is great fun to play with. Years ago Analog Devices
even made a DSP card ("Sphinx") for running a version of CSound, but
they were too hush about it so the project died. One could always get
DSP development boards and mess around with those.

CJ - The human adventure is just beginning.



		
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