Software Vs. Hardware
hey guys. ive been trying all this smart mixing stuff and its really crazy how much potential there is…but when it comes down to it.
what sounds better? hardware effects or software effects?
interested to hear what you guys think.
shitty hardware boxes sound like shit.
Shitty VST effects sound like shit.
It’s gotten to the point where software effects/synths rival, and in some cases surpass, hardware effects/synths, at a much lower cost point. You are also not limited in the same ways with software as you are with hardware. As an example, looking strictly at Reason 4… the sheer number of ways you can modulate your oscillators in Thor is astounding.
With hardware you have, arguably, more reliable equipment when you pay the money. It isn’t victim to as many variables as a computer is. But if you treat either one poorly it will fail, and if you treat either one well it will live on for a while.
At this point, for strict creation of music, I would say there is almost no need to go outside the box. For performance, that’s a different story.
But it always is.
I like to use software for monetary reasons. One program and shit ton of effects. Around the same money you can get hardware that will in the end… be limited.
You can get way more creative and fly with digital effects, they sound just as good too except you dont need 40 hands to do what you need to do
pretty much any hardware effect marketed to DJs is a digital effect these days which makes them a glorified plug-in . I am fairly certain what makes things sound better when Djing or producing is analog summing of a mixer . Which makes me want separate outputs for the effects in traktor now that I think about it
Theres nothing wrong with digital summing… but your certainly right about them being glorified plugins, death to them all i say ! I want a midi kaoscilator that actually sends midi and therefor is useful for something 
no not at all I think it sounds great . But I hate competing with the DJ before me who overloaded the volume way too much with their Serato . Not that I want to distort the volume but I wanna not appear to be the guy turning it down .
Tell who ever is in charge of the system turn up the amp, thats what should be happening. Is it just me or do djs never actually ask this to happen ? Or am i missing something ? Overloading the decks is so not cool.
most places it’s either the I’m playing with that handles the system or it’s me . I’m notorious for turning down the outputs on the compressor when people push the mix too hard .
There’s always some incongruity among different classes of musicians whenever technology encroaches on their turf. Coming from a guitar playing background, I can assure you that even 30-odd years since Jimi Hendrix whacked some Wah-Wah onto a screaming guitar solo, there are still purist guitarists who refuse to use any effects [digital or analogue] and disregard any guitar players that do make use of such effects.
I imagine that the DJ circle will operate in a comparable way. There will be those who consider turntables and analogue effects as being the only way to truely DJ while the rest of us are out making use of the new technology available to push the term ‘DJ’ into new and uncharted creative territory regardless of the type of gear we are using.
kidfromkibbly… perfect… just perfectly said.
You’re completely correct on that one . It’s funny how people can act like what we do is a gimmick when most of the time they are just using the same gimmicks that have been used for the last 30 years .
Will the crowd know or care what you’re using ? Not if you’re a good DJ .
I think half of it is traditions and the other half is image. When most people think DJ they think 2 TT and a mixer, cutting, twisting, one ear holding the cans on.
When people see controllers they just don’t get that… yes they do the same thing. Just a little bit differenly. I have had conversations with friends that seen my stuff and they would say:
“What is this? Where are your TTs? Even I could do this.”
And they couldn’t. I guess when it comes to fx, software to hardware, it’s just like TTs to controllers.
I’ve heard lots of people saying they could do it too, not many people actually put their money where their mouth is.
Probably because when they are there and they don’t know how any of it works… they would soon realize that they said something stupid.
Software vs. Hardware: obviously it’s a sliding scale without absolutes, and neither extreme makes much sense.
That said, the biggest thing I hear in favor of VSTs, for instance, is that they’re cheap, convenient, and flexible. The biggest criticism I hear about HW is that it’s limited. (Notably, I never hear anybody with HW experience say it doesn’t sound as good.)
Here’s the crux – I almost never hear anybody use SW to the fullest. There’s always this fear of being “limited” but I think it almost never actually happens. What happens is that a person gets bored instead, so rather than working on technique, or making the track better compositionally, they slap more VST effects on it.
The scenario I see much more often is that a person has 28 VST reverbs, for instance, so they spend 5 minutes with each and keep the one that’s the most instantly gratifying. In other words, they’re not giving it the attention that they would a piece of HW they paid $500 for, then made space on the table for, and found cabling for.
In my opinion HW usually ends up sounding better. Whether that’s because of the “OTB mixing effect”, or that the designers knew they had one shot to get it right so it’s tweaked better, or that people spend more time getting the most out of it, I don’t know. But the one thing I have learned is that even though it’s theoretically possible to spend 50 hours mastering a certain reverb VST, that’s much, much less likely to happen in the SW realm.
rs
Wow, 3 year old necropost. Nice!!