I think this whole discussion is a)tired and b)a fat load of horseshxt. But I will say, perhaps tongue-in-cheekly, that I just can't get around a hardware mixdown. Other than that I'm fine with whatever, but putting it through a Mackie seems to make all the difference. A close second to that mixer would be hardware compression.
I mixed one of my tracks a couple years ago then re-edited it digitally and bounced it. The mix just drops dead. It's really telling. I can play those two examples for anybody and they have only to listen with their own two earballs to hear the difference. On 2/25/10, kent williams <[email protected]> wrote: > All hardware is The Detroit Way(tm), and one can't argue with results. > Virtually ('Virtually'?) every track that defines Detroit Techno and > House music was made with hardware synths and mixed down outside the > computer. As it happens, prior to roughly 1998, a computer was of > limited utility for anything other than MIDI sequencing. > > The sound of Detroit techno arose at least in part from the way > working with the hardware influences the aesthetic choices made. The > one measure drum loop is a limitation of Roland Drum Machines* so > Techno mostly involves one measure rhythm loops. Within that > limitation, producers soon used the tools available to them (volume > controls for individual sounds, sound parameters, write-mode real-time > step programming) to make something static come alive. > > I use a mix of hardware and software, and end up doing the mix in the > computer. That's just what I've evolved into using over the years. I > still have nearly every synth & drum machine I've ever bought, and got > my latest analog synth in 2008. > > That being said, I think it is very possible to make good music > without the hardware, and in fact many people who make tracks simply > can't afford a full-on hardware studio. Software synths are free to > cheap; a proper modern analog synth costs a minimum of $300-400, a > TR909 -- if you can find one -- is $1000 or more. A usable laptop is > $600, and sufficient software is free to cheap (or stolen). > > If you don't like how all-computer productions sound, you can spend > the multiple thousands of dollars to equip yourself with 'real' gear** > or you could learn to get the sound you want out of the computer. The > production techniques required for working in the computer are > different than working with outboard hardware. > > In the end it's always what your'e able to do with the gear more than > the gear itself. Whatever inspires you or feels comfortable should > your guide, not what anyone thinks that you 'should' be using. > > *You can use drum loops longer than one measure on Roland drum > machines, but it isn't the easiest or most natural way to work. > > **My rule of thumb about buying external gear -- if it's just a > computer on the inside, I'd rather save my money and use my computer. > A lot of external synths -- e.g. Nord, Elektron Machine Drum, Alesis > Micron -- are just computers in a fancy box. They may be useful for > many reasons, but they don't do anything your computer can't, at least > insofar as sound is concerned. > > On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 6:28 AM, Kevin Kennedy <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> As a side note, I have gone back to using hardware, and there will be >> results to post for everyone soon... >> >
