[Ardour-Users] Analog synths

[David Kastrup]

Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> writes:

> On Sat, 23 Dec 2017 00:45:21 +0000, Gordonjcp wrote:
> [snip]
>
> You are simply an idiot missing the whole point.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMiaUxMS2EQ
>
> A friend of mine is a musician of that class, unfortunately I'm not
> that good. He's playing piano as well as drums. If you should be
> unable to notice the difference between a good drummer playing virtual
> drums and a real drum set e.g. from the 70s, you are simply missing
> musically skills.

The difference is quite easier to note for the player himself, and next
to that, in unplugged live settings.  A "virtual" drum will use
recordings from a real drum.  A recording of a real drum and a recording
of a virtual drum are in their _substance_ the same thing: a recording
of a real drum.  (Now of course there is a difference to playing a large
drum set with sticks where most of the variability is which drum you hit
how hard and possibly where, or playing tabla drums with your hands
where a single drum has a large "vocabulary" which is conveying meaning
to the listener but I digress).

It's similar with other things: Leslie speaker emulators are pretty good
these days and you won't hear much of a difference between a recording
of a Leslie speaker and its emulation.  Also not between a Leslie
speaker routed through a PA and an emulator.

But if the venue is small enough to actually use the Leslie speaker
itself as audience speaker, there is a world of difference.  It just
doesn't make it through recording.

So for practical purposes, virtual instruments are to a good degree just
"prerecorded".  The question is just how much variability is expected
from controls and execution.  Any lack of variability will be more
noticeable to the player than the listener unless there are obvious
blunders like stair-stepped volume changes.

> This applies to the sound provided by analog synth compared to
> digitally emulated analog synth as well. The more analog an instrument
> is, the easier it's for the musician to interact with the instrument,
> to become one with the instrument.

Shrug.  For an electronic instrument, it is quite easier to make sure
that all the controls for a synth are there.

-- 
David Kastrup