New hardware?

[TweakHead]

Yep, I've seen them listed on music stores. These are dedicated audio workstations, right? I think even Roland/Cakewalk sells some complete solutions as well. But I think it would be a lot better for high end computers - the mac pro is just an example of this, of course - should incorporate some of this high end features within their main configurations. A better, more reliable sound card is just the obvious improvement I'd like to see implemented. I mean, there's great internal sound cards that can be expanded with external interfaces for extra connectivity from vendors like RME or Apogee for example. This two offer really high end low latency, very impressive word clocks for syncing hardware devices and top notch audio quality.

To some extent, what I've been ranting about here is that the standards should be placed higher. It's easy to convince people to buy a new computer based on the looks alone (like the majority of Apple's computers), but if we're serious about making computers better suited for demanding applications, they could just as well come packed with higher quality components overall. My idea of introducing a new component at this "basic configuration level" is another way of saying that we should be getting more for granted based on the price tag of such computers and even that the industry should focus on setting new standards - because ultimately it would help the programmers (not having to translate the same plug-in to different formats) and the users because we'd be getting better software with access to more resources and ultimately a performance and quality boost.

It's easy enough to say this, but if we take into account how the market works it seems a daunting task. I'm going to stress again that it isn't positive when the interests of particular brands surpass the interests of the user or even go against him. Making profit is not only an objective here, but also a surviving necessity - that's granted. But to which extent are we willing to go before we start making more compromises that would allow better solutions to be achieved? It's like politics, diplomacy is much needed here! No one can win alone, and if no one steps back just a little bit, we'll be seeing this plenty of standards, protecting trade secrets versus open attitude - even for users and hobbyists - stretch beyond reason.

I agree with you about CPU, even though the performance has been getting higher non the less.

Cheers

[MBTC]

I just saw this article and thought about this discussion:

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013...pu-technology/

"In turn, licensees will receive designs, collateral, and support from the company."

Holy shit, how much more incentive does one need? Obviously, this is not something NVidia is specifically targeting audio-related uses for, but to my knowledge there is no other platform (combination of hardware+software dev kit) out there this capable of fulfilling the kind of need we're talking about here.

[TweakHead]

Nice! Thanks! Yep, I guess they're promoting this seeing that it would be an advantage for them as well - making it easier to reach more devices.

We forgot to talk about tablets and their potential - that will certainly rise - for acting out as synthesizers and what not. Maybe because we feel that the quality doesn't cut it when compared to other solutions, yet. But if this evolves - like it's presumable to do - this can be the answer to our needs. Once again, however, we're talking about super proprietary items here, unless Android or Ubuntu conquers a bright future somehow. There's something to it, though, and most music magazines are paying a lot of attention to it. Some of it is just plain marketing hype of course, but even serious players like Moog have made special products for this new market - and they do sound good and take profit from the technology. Still a long way to go, of course, but it's kind of cool (perhaps nothing more then that XD)...

On another note: do you guys feel that the synthesizers we're currently using will be rendered completely old by more and more improvement on features and specially quality as the processing capacities of newer computers will allow for greater implementation of more demanding features? And holding that thought, that some of the software instruments we use today will be regarded as classics the same way a Mini Moog is today, like vintage synth's website seems to believe by introducing some of them among their hardware cousins?

And how will our Virus (if that's the case eheh) hold up against more capable software synthesizers? I don't mean future incarnations of the Virus (whenever they decide to show up XD) but the current ones we have?

[MBTC]

There is something about most tangible, manufactured items that make them magical and of higher value once they are not longer being produced. When it comes to certain types of items like musical instruments, that "magical value" goes through the roof, vintage keyboards for example.

It won't really matter how well they hold up (musically I mean, not physically), they will still be desirable for nostalgic reasons. I've seen people selling their vintage gear like Jupiter-8 or Prophet V for example because they A/B'ed the Arturia plug-in side by side and found them indistinguishable (the plugin being of course easier to work with). Vince Clark, founder of Depeche Mode, Yaz and Erasure put most of his hardware gear up on eBay the moment soft-synths crossed the equality threshold, and he was known for having one of the best synth studios (partially underground bunker) in the industry.

I think software is already there, it's just that there is still something to be said about a hardware synth that is a self-contained instrument with no dependency on a DAW, PC or additional controller, and hardware synths that are no longer in production have a particular mystique. I'd love to have a Kawai K5 again -- not because it was really a great synth, its considered by many to be the most difficult synth to program ever created, and I never even thought the sound was all that great, but I have a lot of fond memories of music creation with it, so there's a nostalgia value there.

So, I'm not sure synths ever become obsolete until they physically stop working, or in the case of software just fall into the unsupported graveyard (Albino is an example of that which has come up before).

About tablets and there potential... To me the value there is strictly in the mobility of it (very important for some, less important for me). I see a tablet has having all the limitation of a laptop, except much worse. Airflow, thermal limitations and overall computing power do not put them in the league of the hardware I'm currently interested in as a primary means of music creation. But, when you're sitting in a hotel room bored or whatever, pulling out the tablet and tapping out a riff can be satisfying.

[TweakHead]

Yep, I also feel that software quality has gone through the roof lately. One of the things we don't talk about much here: compressors, equalizers - specially those that you use to color the sound or shape it's tone, rather then surgical stuff; reverb is really much better then when I first started using music software, there's some lush sounding ones out there. Things like Melodyne... I mean, it's just black magic. Now there's also a great audio to midi thing in Ableton that's also amazing. Being able to use such a thing as Monark or Diva - I think it sounds even better then Arturia's Mini Moog V, even though the movement thing on Arturia's can lead to places you can't go with the others... - and earing those filters gives me the chills sometimes. I mean, we're able to do stuff today that is just simply amazing, like having access to tons of high quality samples for drums or whatever we can choose on the fly - I'm thinking Kontakt here - and replace drums as we wish to test things out or whatever. That thing alone puts almost any hardware sampler - even the really expensive ones - to shame, and that's undebatable.

I have to agree with you when it comes to physical objects and instruments holding their value more. The Virus is great to tweak and get inspired, it's not all just about the sound. And there's a tendency for me to explore it more because it's just right there. But it's not just synthesizers. I don't really feel the need to invest in a Neve equalizer or even the Eventide fx unit or something. For such a big buck, I'd rather take my chances with software even though I know this things are still killer but... I feel compressors used to be lame and now they behave like the real stuff, same goes for Equalizers. Which ones do you guys like best here?

[MBTC]

For me in modern times, compressors and equalizers all come in the form of software, slapped onto a mixer channel of a DAW -- but no doubt hardware versions have allure of their own. On that topic I'd rather sit back and hear from those in the know than pretend I do...