the appeal of software

[CooGi_dice]

now let me state my intentions first, i simply wanna know how others not from my area feal about software... i dont wanna start a battle or a war... so lets keep it civilized and peacefull.

what exactly is the appeal of software over hardware?

me my self am a hardware man, i just feal a intamite conection with my gear, i also feal more expressive and creative with hardware and i never got into the software thing.... fooled with FL once and its just not me at all.


ive asked some people who use software about it and there answers varry, some like it cuz thats wut they started with, others say its easyer or its "free".
some say it saves space and so on and so on...

what is your opinion?

ps. remeber no matter what u like dont bash someone else becouse they like the oposite thing.

 

[N.U.G.]

They are both appealing.

Some of the advantages are it definitely saves space and is all centrally located on your computer meaning you don't have to fucc with cords and connections etc.

Another main appeal is it gets the job done easily.

Either way I don't see a whole lot of difference between the two. Some cats like to play basketball and other outdoor sports, some cats like to stay home and play playstation. It's the same with hardware/software.

 

[Chedda]

^^ yah i agree.

the whole software thing is so much easier and cheaper. i do use both, but im not gonna lie, all the software i've got is downloaded, when ur this dry for doe you can't afford to be payin big bucks for a computer program. if i was usin software from the start i probably would've payed for it, but because i've got some hardware, it kinda puts me against payin out for more shit on the software side of things.

as far as results go, i think you can get just as good results thru either method, but the only problem i have with software is the problems that come with pc's, especially having the internet and file sharin programs on the same comp as my production shit. that shit is not good.

 

[N.U.G.]

^^^^

word, anybody can download a demo or pirated copy of a lot of music related software so a lot of people this day start with software as a result.

yo Chedda, you should think of getting a dedicated music PC. A laptop could be nice too depending on your needs.

 

[Chedda]

yeah i've been meanin to for quite a while, it's just the expensives of life get in the way, u know how it is.

what are laptops like for production? i heard they can give u a lot of problems? and that they arn't very upgradable?

 

[N.U.G.]

^^^^

yeah I know how it is...

I did save of and get me a dedicated music PC though and it's banging - I love it.

As far as laptops, if you get a good one that suits your needs you can do almost anything with it. It's definitely worth considering, I plan on getting a laptop for production myself eventually too. That way I can make beats anywhere I want to. Laptops are a little more expensive though, so only go with this option if you can afford it or you need something portable.

 

[Chedda]

yeah man, i know im serious about this shit so it's worth investing.


plus, i wanna be able to set up proper vocal recordin facilities so i can do the whole shit from my room, rather than havin to hire studios or any bullshit.
the laptop idea sounds good tho, would be ill to be producing on the move.

but it does come down to the money, it is a damn expensive hobby, but it's gotta be done.

 

[CooGi_dice]

the computer i got right now is my first one... its a laptop , a mac as a matter of fact.
i got it specificly for my music, i see it as a great tool since i can use it at my basment studio or take it to a profesional studio.

i dont do any of my song creation on here though, i only use it to record and mix.

im fealing what you guys are saying as far as d/l the free stuff, its a great advantage that people who are just starting out have now adays.

do you guys feal like you are limited in the ways you can express your selfs or translate your fealings into the software?
or
do you feal that the computer/software brings out creativity and experssiveness with in you?

 

[Chedda]

i think it limits you if you're going from hardware to software, just a bit. i cant really find the words to explain it properly but its just with the hardware it's very hands on, it's like you can mould the sounds you want with your hands. its like with hardware your music is sitting on the table in front of you, but with software it's trapped inside a rubix cube, if that makes any sense.

but software is obviously the way forward, everyone's comin with their software equivilents now, and because it's such a cheaper and less space consuming alternative it's sure to take over. it's funny thinkin about a few years back when there was none of these fancy plugins

 

[CooGi_dice]

Originally posted by Chedda
i think it limits you if you're going from hardware to software, just a bit. i cant really find the words to explain it properly but its just with the hardware it's very hands on, it's like you can mould the sounds you want with your hands. its like with hardware your music is sitting on the table in front of you, but with software it's trapped inside a rubix cube, if that makes any sense.

but software is obviously the way forward, everyone's comin with their software equivilents now, and because it's such a cheaper and less space consuming alternative it's sure to take over. it's funny thinkin about a few years back when there was none of these fancy plugins

yea i feal what your saying as far as hardware being hands on and how software is like a rubix cube.
thats how i feal, i feal traped with software, it also feals "fake" to me, i dont know how to discribe what i mean by fake... i guess sorta like a game or something.

a freind of mine showed me this euro techno albulm that was produced by this guy all on a computer in his house, now im not into that sorta music but i was fealing what he was able to create and i definitly give him props on that (forgot his name though)... he had this one synth that sounded like a moog, although it didnt sound like the real thing cuz a computer caint re-create the nuances of analog it did sound realy dope, just like a VA and it was verry "warm".

if software ever gets to the level that it could recreate classic old school synths like the old moog, juno's or jupiters i would defitly cop a few.

but i dont think software will ever take over or replace hardware.

 

[Chedda]

nah i doubt it could really, unless they started packin pc's with synth components, which is unlikely.

i think the software thing just takes gettin used to, to build up ur own technqies of gettin a 'real' sound.
i do feel what ur saying, you really get a computerized feel with software, but with hardware it all feels so natural.

 

[N.U.G.]

I don't feel limited by software but I do use hardware in my setup as well. Although software might seem limiting for some people, I think you could get more comfortable with it over time. Whatever works for you is cool though. I don't believe in one being better than the other, just different.

If you want to hear a dope hip-hop album that was created all on a computer, peep "Little Brother - The Listening".

 

[bigdmakintrax]

We had this discussion sooooo many times but for the most part if you haven't got a cracked copy of software the only real affordable one is Fruity Loops, by the time most you buy software and plugins if you are able to afford it you might as well get a piece of gear, but like I said most people I know making tracks have some leeched copy of software..for free and then they sit up and talk about the advantages of software over hardware, when a lot of times they haven't really ever had the experience of actually making tracks on hardware that's what kills me.......hahaha anyhow I have used both equally only because I ran into a short period of having to come up on cash...LOL and luckily all of the gear I had held it's value and sold a lot of it off......but using software is ok but I don't buy into the argument that software is just as good or even better than quality high end gear....for punch and warmth, I heard the 9th wonder interview and that's ok for him but most of the other producers on that album aren't using Fruity Loops....but you can get some good beats but to me compared to archived beats from some of my hardware gear they have a distinctively thin and digital sound....that's all....but there are pieces of hardware that have that same thin digital sound......but if you look at it hardware and software have always coexisted.......I mean the interface of most pieces is always your lcd screen running some OS on a rom in the form of firmware......I am building all of my studio back up, I have all of the software I could want, but I am still rebuilding my gear for my midi chain setup and keep my rack filled with goodies.....what I don't like is that using software is a lot more unstable environment and much harder to recover from a disaster if you are not backing things up, and if you are into beats as business you have to be able to call a beat back up and edit it from time to time.

 

[Cold Truth]

well, i will talk as someone who went from three years of hardware to the last 5 months or so using software....

software, number one, has the advantage of cost effectiveness. i had a motif rack and an mpc- $2000 right there. Korg PXR4 to record in, $300.
thats $2300 to produce a mono recording. great equipment- but nothing to record on a high level with- the korg is really more for a guitarist.

so, for the $1600 i got selling them off (i still have the korg) i got a pc, maudio card, cubase sx, and kontakt. i invested in Sampletank 2 four
months ago, i got stylus and virtual guitarist, and got hooked up with waves gold bundle and countless sample cd's (if you havent heard of Garritan Orchestral string... whoo man....

HUGE difference- i can do things within a stereo field, high quality effects with a great sequencer, and i can do it all on one machine. it would have cost me another $1000 at least for the extra outs on the mpc, a mixer, and another recorder. i basically broke even and have (what i think) a very respectable PC rig. i have even been told, courtosy of Deuce Made, that my beats still sound like mpc tracks to him... but i have also been told that the sounds in some songs sound a lil to bright- not 'warm' enough and things like that- which comes down to the engineering aspect. i can do a whole lot with waves and sampletank 2 effects- which has 4 insert effects PER INSTRUMENT. now compare that with the motif, which has 6 TOTAL.

as far as the feeling being "fake" or hardware being more "hands on" i can tell you that that is simply an illusion, one i still have from time to time. i found myself drooling over the fantom x and triton extreme the other day, then realized that, realisticlly, they have nothing to offer that i dont already have, and because there are thopusands of sample cd's out there with the instruments i use (i use almost exclusively organic sounds- pianos, strings, horns,, organs..... unles i go atmospheric...), it makes no sense to get myself back in debt (or deeper in debt!) by spending the $1400 it will cost me for the Fantom XR i want SOOOOOOOOOO bad, or even the mpc 1000 which really will only be $900 to play with the pads....

software wins with me by a landslide, until i have th $$$$ to invest in some real hardware- even then, i will likely still use my pc, only upgraded. you can never completely reproduce the analog feel, or exact synths, but you can come real close, and when you are on a budget, it makes more sense to go with what allows you to do the most for less- i couldnt record a whole song (with any quality) with an mpc and motif rack, and for aobut $400 more then what i sold them for, i got an excellent pc rig. ther are disadvantages such as crashes (HATE THEM) and the pc learning curve- man i was posting problems with my pc EVERY FRIGGIN DAY FOR MONTHS. ask vitaminman!

thats my 2 cents.

 

[bigdmakintrax]

I feel you ! I had probably 5K or more wrapped up in gear for like the past 4 or 5 years and...Motif6...RS7000...MP7....Mophatt.....SP12.....S950.....MPC2K...Roland-RS5....Kawai K5000.....SP1200....SP-808.....SP-505.....that's what I can recollect so I feel what your saying know what I mean?....but the headache comes in chaining all of that shidd together but I usually never had more than 3 pieces chained at a time......so I think you will find people that used both equally that will make a choice depending on their comfort with either one.......also the biggest factor is $$$$$ if I have enuff money Hardware is the my number one target and like I said I got all of the software I need...........whatever works for you I say, but the novelty has worn off with Software for me as my sole beatmaking source....

 

[vitaminman]

Hey,

1. Software is scalable. You can run it on a slow machine, you can run it on a fast machine. You can add stuff to it, you can take stuff away from it (like plugins).

2. Interface. Nothing is easier than using a mouse, keyboard and monitor to get most jobs done. And while some would argue that they work better with hardware, they need to keep in mind that a computer IS hardware.

3. Flexibility. There aren't many synths as powerful as the mighty Reaktor, because most hardware is fixed in what it is capable of doing.

4. Let's be honest...because you can download it.

5. For the rest of us, price. Once you buy a computer, it is so much cheaper to buy new software to turn it into a completely different machine than it is to buy a different computer to do a different task. When we buy several pieces of hardware, it is the same as us buying a different computer to run each piece of software that we use...imagine having a computer to surf the net, one to type in Word, one to record your audio, one to edit your audio, one to watch porn, etc.!

Nick

 

[Cold Truth]

plus, let us look at the archive factor-

no cd's, zips or floppies are needed once the samples are stored. i can access any .wav file on my hard drive in kontakt, and i can load .wavs and akai s1000/3000 samples into sampetank and they are there from that point on in sampletank- which, once again, 4 effects per channel, (plus a compression) pretty good synth parameters (not really a synth wiz, so i dont know what good is for those, but they are great to me) plus it has an emu/motif worthy 4.5 mb of sounds with the program..... fro 400 bucks. plus, i can have my beloved xp 80 sound set in there!

 

[mono]

yea, softwares cheaper. id love to have an mpc, and playing my own rhythm on it, instead of sitting about 45 minutes on a drumloop, till the feelings right. sux. hardware even sounds much thicker. but hey, the results you get with software are quite comparable (depends on the producer, i know a few with fat studios, but they couldn drop no shit if they where sittin on the toilet ), and i still can buy some drinks for my girl. so i'll first make some little money with my pc beats, and then add some hardware stuff to it.

 

[hookiefree]

Originally posted by CooGi_dice
do you guys feal like you are limited in the ways you can express your selfs or translate your fealings into the software?
or
do you feal that the computer/software brings out creativity and experssiveness with in you?

i think it's all about what you're comfortable with. when i first went from a dr 202 to an MPC i'd always go back and make beats on the 202 while i was still learning the MPC because i was comfortable with the 202. i knew it inside and out so i could manipulate it easily. when i got into the MPC i learned different sequencing and sampling theories that can be applied to whatever hard or software i use as long as i have drum pads and keys. I would sequence in the MPC then i'd record the MIDI into Pro Tools to fine tune (cuz it's much easier to edit on the big screen) it then i'd record the audio from my PK6 and mix it. then i started sequencing right into PT but i still had my MPC as my crutch while i got the hang of it. after a while i only used the MPC for the drum pads. i still use the PK6's sounds sometimes cuz i know them but for the most part all my sounds come from reason which is rewired to PT and it's all in 1 neat lil package. it is a lot to learn though cuz software does so much more but once u get it down u can be just as creative and efficient.

 

[CooGi_dice]

alright i see....

alot of good opions...2many and im 2lazy to go quoting them all but im fealing where some of you are coming from even though i dont completely understand it since im not there my self (software world).... i can still feal you as a creator of music.

a frined of mine showed me a spot where i can d/l alota software.
when i get my studio going again im going to purchae a windows emulator and a cable or dsl connection, then ima check out some of these programs you guys and others out there are running.

thanks for the insight.