transferring the essential outboard gear setup to pc

[judas_beast]

The beauty of a PC setup, is the variety of soft synths availble. I love the sound of a 303 or a 909 as much as the next man, but look to the future.

[iconn12345]

Yes but most of the soft synths sound bad. Maybe the situation is better now i haven't checked any of them for a year or two.. I understand that experimenting is good. But what soft synth do you use when you just want a 303 sounding bassline?? Audiorealism? WHat about rebirth, do you guys still use it? It sounded good..

[iconn12345]

ok i just searched the production forum and saw that audiorealism is the general consensus..

[judas_beast]

ok i just searched the production forum and saw that audiorealism is the general consensus..

Yeh I use Audiorealism. Check the free VST's thread in this forum, some good stuff.

I used to really dislike soft synths, but theres a lot of good stuff out at the moment.

[Barely Human]

So many people now are converting to Vst orientated set ups. I know a lot of people who have some decent hardware that is just sitting there gathering dust now. A lot of the stuff now with Vst sounds really good, and because of its wide use, its character is getting played with. I remember when the warm analouge sound was the only thing you aimed for, now it seams its a play off between analouge kicks and bottome end fused with very digital sounding synth lines and crunchy top end. I would deffinately save your money and go down the vst route. At least then you wont feel guilty if a plugin ends up not getting used.

The main problem with Vst is how much choice is out there. When you buy a piece of hardware, you tend to learn the thing inside out and really get it to do things it wasnt designed to do, (see squarepusher for best example of this). But with vst, most people have thier plugin folder full of hundreds off different things and try to use them all instead of learning a couple extensively.

That being said, you only have to look at reactor to see the huge benefits from Vst.

[dirty_bass]

The main problem with Vst is how much choice is out there. When you buy a piece of hardware, you tend to learn the thing inside out and really get it to do things it wasnt designed to do, (see squarepusher for best example of this). But with vst, most people have thier plugin folder full of hundreds off different things and try to use them all instead of learning a couple extensively.

That being said, you only have to look at reactor to see the huge benefits from Vst.

This is a really good point, and it`s why a lot of vst produced dance music sounds generic and lifeless.
There`s no pushing of the envelope, and little experiemntation.
To combat the billion vst folder of mediocracy, I learn one new vst a month (sometimes not even that) and really get to know my synths.

I treat my vst like I used to treat my old studio, designating tasks to certain synths. It now means I know my synths and effects really well, can get what I want quickly, and can push and experiment as I know the capabilities. When something genuinely impressive comes along, and I get my hands on it, I spend time with it, rather than knocking up another track in half an hour with it.

People are very impatient these days, yet musicality is a lot about time spent and experience.