Hardware synthesizers: are they necessary?

Q. Just wondering, do you think its worth investing in an access virus or do you think using albino and z3ta will give me equally good results?

        Nord Lead 3. You know you want one, but do you need one?

A  Owning a hardware unit is not strictly necessary as you can get the same sounds, albeit with a slightly different character from the VST synths that you mentioned.

An important point to keep in mind is the fact that because some hardware may sound different to an equivalently specified software synth does not equate to it sounding better. It just sounds different. Different in exactly the same way that a Nord sounds different to a Virus.

In fact, if we take four of the most popular hardware subtractive "analogue" synths used today: Roland JP8000, the Nord Lead 1, 2 and 3, Access' Virus series and Novation's Supernova etc. and opened them all up, all we would be able to find is software running on a DSP chip. No VCO oscillators, no VCF filters. In essence exactly the same as a VSTI (software) running on the (much more powerful) CPU chip inside your computer.

But - and it is a big but - having a controller with dedicated knobs just for that particular synth is a much more satisfying experience and can be particularly good for learning and understanding in depth about subtractive synthesis. Knowledge that you can then apply to other VST synths that you may have. Of course, a determining factor here is if you actually spend enough time programming and getting to know it. Also it must be said that it is a lot easier and more pleasurable to just switch a keyboard synth on, grab some knobs and start tweaking. So given that, you could do a lot worse that picking up a good condition second hand Nord Lead 2 or Virus B.

However, there is a trade off . Hardware synths (with the possible exception of the Virus TI ) would not:

1. Store the exact patches in the project. Complete total recall.

2. External hardware is not sample accurate inside your host sequencer in the same way as VSTIs. Hardware synths are only as accurate in timing as your MIDI interface technology + sometimes a small processing latency inherent in the synth.

3. You lose the ability to simply bounce audio (with or without internal plug in processing) onto another track. You will instead have to record the synth to audio - and then align the track by hand if it is a timing critical part like a bassline for example.

Really the main thing that you lose with a VST (assuming that it has decent spec and a good sound - not all VSTIs are equal) is the nice programming interface with its dedicated knobs and sliders.

Given that fact, a cheaper (and quite possibly better ) overall solution for you may be to get one of the new generation of soft synth controller interfaces which automatically map your VSTI's parameters to the knobs and sliders on the controller. There are currently two of these available N.I's Kore and Novation's Remote SL with automap.

Of the two, the Remote SL looks the better choice to me and gets my vote as a synth controller.

If you use Ableton Live either for live gigs (as I do) or or in the studio then I can heartily recommend checking out the APC40 as a MIDI control surface for Ableton Live. It integrates superbly and expands the hands on improvisational and fun aspects of Live enormously:

Cosmosis Music Webshop: http://cosmosis.bandcamp.com/