this tutorial is missing one key component, Digital synths by its nature don't come in BOXES. Dave Pensado once told me that the bigger the box, the bigger the sound. I bought a Moog Modular and they had to helicopter that shit to my home just because the box was so big. But it was worth it. You can't compare the sound of the analog because your computer doesn't come in a real, analog box, it's a digital box. Even if the box is a big digital box, it's still just a digital box. You need a real, cardboard, locally wrapped and handled Cuboid
Hmmm....That explains why I never did like the sound of the Prophet 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10 on TH-cam enough to buy one. Same with the OB X ,Y and Z.... wait your trying to trick me...I didn't buy any of those because they sounded dated.
I apologize if I’ve caused some discomfort for using the word analog too lightly, I should have phrased it ‘making it sound less digital’ or smth idk, I still like how it sounds tho
@@GuitarsAndSynths I own a virus ti2. you really gotta milk the eq and distortion, analog character level and saturation to get it even remotely analog. then i flip on my dreadbox murmux v2 and am instantly reminded that the virus is digital. virus is irreplaceable for its versatility imo though.
i really hope this is the future of tutorials. couldn’t have made it more simple. in 6 mins you gave me a clearer understanding of creating synths to your liking. thank you for this video.
Finally somewhere where I can say screw those analog purists, bunch of carpet baggers if you ask me. But now joking aside. I really believe that you don't need analog at all anymore, at this point you can almost identically create any sounds off any of those machines, and do way more with them, not to mention you can save the setting lol. I think the future of performance and production will be multiple touch screens with your synths open on each, a couple MIDI controllers, a mixer and boom, $20,000 setup for 500 bucks
@@LoserDub I still like my analogue toys, but arguably all your getting for the price these days is improved workflow. its still quicker for me to run everything I record through a channel strip with a bit of light dynamics processing on the inserts than it is to make that channel strip in the daw. but here's what catches me out and why you're right. what if that day I don't want the ssl pre and eq, maybe the artist im working with prefers the Neve sound. im still gonna bringup a 1073 plugin to get that in my workflow. granted on the was 900 I can record 24 channels with zero patch baying and have that set up in the control room in less than ten minutes. which is beneficial. but theses days were mostly dubbing in the studio, giving us the time to be flexible with our sounds. which is what's better about how many great digital plugins there are these days. just cause my studio runs ssl I can still bring up like a century channel strip or something inprotools and basically have emulated versions of like six different studios in my daw. digital is amazing now. still love analogue but honestly I think its less and less useful. I have a real teletronix la2a in the studio at college. but sometimes I pull up the plugin version of the silver one or whatever because it sounds different, and I didn't have to spend another 3k on a compressor.
For those who are interested about the wavetable synth and maybe don't know much about it i've got a little tip to have a huge variety of wavetables. Load a sample (let's say we've got a chord stab but it could be anything even something sampled from a record or a simple kickdrum) in the timeline and zoom until you can see the single sinusoidal cycle of the sample's waveform, cut the single cycle and consolidate it, so drag it and drop it into the wavetable osc. In this way every note you play will sound with the characteristics of the sample and you'll have a completely unique, inspiring and interesting sound from the start.
I grew up using digital synths. Today I am designing both analog and digital synth circuits/code for hardware mostly. The key difference between digital and analog in terms of sound becomes ever smaller (unless we are talking about wild feedback-patches on a modular synthesizer). What is a difference tho, is the one between a plugin and dedicated hardware synths - regardless if analog or digital - on hardware you have the advantage that you usually have knobs that allow you to directly interface with a parameter and they are right there without you having to set anything up. This can change how you interact with the thing and therefore change what you make with it (not automatically leading to better results, but it is a different experience and that can have an impact on how you do music). I still use a lot of software synths if I am working on a sound design, but hardware can be more in the moment if you are in the rehearsal room with other musicians. Ah yeah, and certain filters still sound better in analog, e.g. I have yet to hear a convincing emulation of the Wasp Filter - but there are also digital things I have never heard in the analog world and would not like to miss.
Same point on my comment, and this vid is a good example, it's fulll of digital clickz lol. And just to say, if they decided to leave the new synclavier regen at 50hz max, it's for a reason and i love it, it's not about analog and digital, each is usefull, it's about good hardware, real instruments on one side (and i wont go about the ethical part of the buisness huh), and crappy plastic, not durable, not reparable, or digital clicks and/or a dehumanizing relationship with a computer, wich is the less intuitive way to make music whatever genre....
Something I do with all of my patches by default is to assign a value between 0.1-0.5 to the random column on the matrix for filter cutoff, oscillator fine tune, oscillator position, envelope attack and decay times, and amplitude. This means that every time you hit a key, you get a slight variation in the sound. I based on this on how the vintage knob on the P6 / OB6 works. The major limitation is that each parameter is taking the same random value on each key press, but I find if I vary the modulation amount from -0.5 - +0.5, it adds a certain something. Then you just need to add some saturation and/or tape emulation down the chain, and it usually sounds pretty good. I don't most people could tell the difference on a recording between a well-made VST patch and an analogue synth. I use analogue gear myself and I mostly keep it around because I like the device, more than because the sound is inherently better.
For me, using hardware (analogue or digital) is not necessarily all about the sound, but the immediate access to ways to edit it. Clicking around on a screen VS just moving your hands and adjusting physical dials and switches, is two very different ways of working.
@@KimStennabbCaesar For me it's about the specific synth itself. Just like Serum doesn't sound like Omnisphere, a JD-990 doesn't sound like an OB-X. They just all lean towards different characteristics because of their capabilities, limitations, workflow, as well as type of synthesis.
@fisle that's what I do on most patches - there's almost always slight movement of the filter, and tuning, and pitch, and those are modulated with separate things (different LFOs, cycling envelopes) minifreak makes this easy
Well, I have an impression that some of us think that analog sound is just a messed dirty sound with added noise ... There is something in analog synths that to me simply cannot be emulated with any plugin or digital synth ... At least not just yet, but i am not saying we're not close, and also that it is bad, it's just the taste 😊
Interesting video, thank you. I agree, many digital synths and VSTs or AUs can be used to create lovely analog-sounding sounds. And people don’t necessarily need an analog synth. The difference with analog synths is that the “warmth” happens more or less by itself. (If the synth has been designed to have “warmth” at all, that is.) It is possible to add lots of analog-y quirks to a digital synth. But it is really hard to replicate the ease and directness with which an analog synth can produce them. Yes, analog quirks are instabilities and noise … and distortions. But there are also other subtle effects. Such as the subtle beating that multiple voices can have, which can be very characteristic for a synth. Or the subtle idiosyncrasies in oscillator waveforms, that end up in the overtone spectrum. And because everything is based on voltages and currents, there can be cross-influences across components. Something can change subtly when a key is pressed, for example. Everything is somewhat connected (although designers tend to try to isolate the components, but there is always a bit of a remaining influence between them). So, the artifacts can also synchronize in analog-typical ways. - And the typical analog artifacts appear by themselves. I believe that all of these idiosyncrasies can in principle be replicated with digital synths. But it is not easy. And the digital synth needs to be able to support all these. And the sound designer needs to try to avoid the digital artifacts as well. Analog artifacts can depend on lots of different things. But analog equipment typically behaves “smoothly” … and that usually means that the artifacts sound “warm”. Digital synths have long learned to simulate analog distortions, where they are prominent enough. (Digital artifacts, if not created intentionally, tend to behave “abruptly” … and that typically sounds “harsh”. But digital synths have learned to avoid these in many places, except when desired.) The remaining difference is that analog synths have smooth / warm artifacts even where digital synths do not simulate them. The sound designer can try to put them in, with some success … but it is really hard to do it in exactly the way analog equipment would do it … because it varies in idiosyncratic ways, and everything is somewhat connected. I have many plugins for my DAWs. But whatever I use, I find it really hard to replicate the sounds that people create on analog synths. (It doesn’t matter whether I use many parameters on a capable digital synth, or if I use a digital “clone” of the synth.) The differences are clearly audible even on youtube videos, and the sound has a different character. So, yes, it is easily possible to create analog sounding sounds. But the sheer emotion that a beautiful analog synth sound can evoke is hard to replicate. And no, I don’t own any analog synths … I cannot afford them, nor do I have enough space. But the cravings are there. Some people experience the character of a sound very consciously, even the more subtle parts. Others may not hear the character as clearly. But however much we hear it, it still influences us. The character of a sound makes us feel a certain way. All that being said, there are a few VSTs that go a long way to simulate analog sound. For example, the U-He synths: Diva in particular. The approach is to simulate the voltages and currents in the analog circuits of a synth. Thereby simulating all the analog artifacts along the way. And it sounds amazing. - Note that Diva is still limited, because as far as I understand, it uses shortcuts to simulate the circuits, to cut down on the enormous CPU processing costs of a full simulation. Some others use similar approaches: for example, the Yamaha AN technology is modeling analog circuits. All in all, I believe the main message of the video is fair: creating analog sounding sounds on digital synths is possible, and those sounds can be lovely. But I think it is also fair to say that analog synths are valuable for their effortless yet subtly complex analog character. - Would I pay 10k+ for them? Nope. Not unless I was super rich. But I do value them.
@@C1c4daI've tried creating the same patches in Serum & Vital. And I gotta tell ya, Serum has a warmer tone than Vital. I usually create simple analog synth inspired patches. For other sounds like growls and stuff, it didn't matter much. But recently bought Diva (blackfriday sale) and now I primarily use Diva for analogue inspired patches. It's beautiful. Anyways everything has its own strengths and weaknesses, I guess.
Yea, but there is more than the hard facts that need to be taken into account. I am an irrational and emotional being. My Moog Matriarch makes me feel special and inspires me. It is an actual physical instrument that I form a bond with. I am proud of it, it is mine. It has a smell, it gets dusty. I know how the knobs feel, I know where they are, and I build up muscle memory with it. I like grabbing patch cables and move my arms and hands around to experiment. Hear the little click when the patch cable goes into the socket. All sound generation happens right there in the electric domain. All of this for me is a pleasant and positive experience. As I often say, I LOVE PLAYING my Moog. When I step into my studio and I see it standing there, I want to fire it up, get a sequence going and experiment. I cannot not feel any of these things that I described here with a plugin on my computer screen. And the feeling is all important. The fact that inspiration starts flowing. I have never tried a blind test comparison between say Native Instruments Reaktor Minimoog plugin, and my own Minimoog style oscillator and filter of my Matriarch. I think Reaktor sounds damn good. I absolutely think it is possible that I would not be able to tell the difference between a plugin synth bass, and a synth bass from my Matriarch. So I guess you title holds true: you don't need fancy analog hardware synths. But I sure as hell believe that getting a fancy analog hardware synth is a fantastic addition to your music making, and will inspire you for the rest of your life
By the way, what I can most certainly tell apart in a blind test is Ableton Wavetable vs Native instruments reaktor. When you want something to sound like an analog synth, wavetable is never ever going to get you there. It's not build to sound like that. None of the sounds that you make in this video sound analog. It all sounds digital as hell. Never ever would I hear a sound produced by ableton wavetable and think 'ooh, guy has an analog synth at home'. Wavetable to me has this property of always sounding very much digital. Which is a feature, not a bug. Serum can sound more analog than Ableton wavetable, for that matter
true I did a test with my moog grandmother vs serum with the wavetables so aka you right and also modular synth are away more powerful then software synths aka No limit for modular hardware no cap @@isaacnewtech
I finally learned how to make one of the osc’s in wavetable actually sound like noise instead of a single cycle wave from the noise. Very helpful, thank you.
Very good demo! My main inhibition to using software synths for analogue tones is that most don't oversample at a high enough rate to do audio-rate modulation of anything besides oscillator pitch, and even then it's not consistently good. (Xfer Serum and the u-he titles are some notable exceptions; REPRO and Hive are pretty good at it.) I discovered a whole new world of textures with my Moog semimodular, but they are more like aliasing mush when I try them in software - which is so unfortunate, as I prefer softsynths for easy patch recall, portability, and DEFINITELY cost.
You should try VCVRack, its software architecture is built so that audio-rate modulation is the default to any module. Additionally many oscillators made in there are written to generate waves via oversampling. It's definitely one of the closest experiences to analog synths I have tried and considering most of it is completely free is insane.
Reason has amazing sounding synths and mixers. Run it at the highest bitrates and samples per second (whatever your sound output supports) and it starts to sound analogue...
Absolutely true, those old 80’s analog synths actually sound much cleaner than what was done here, they sound dirty like that when theyre played on a cassette tape, but thats cause theyre on tape being played thru a cheap walkman. Theres gunna be noise and pitch warble with that. Analog can be extremely stable and clean, actually, my analog electrosmith 3340 oscillator is much more clean sounding and tracks pitch significantly better than my digital 2hp sine oscillator. Production quality is probably the biggest factor there
even with the raw signal, if you're decent at sound design and aim for a "analog sound", no one can tell a high quality digital synth setup from an analog one. modern digital synths can sound really "analog" and modern analog synths can sound really "digital".
Its not about what you can hear in a mix. Are you serious? Contrarian TH-camrs always love to pull that one out there. It's the sound characteristics intrinsic to the weird interplay of analog oscillators. Not the "warmth" something easily lost in a mix.
I just got into EDM making and was a bit puzzled that I heard people talk about synths being somewhat complicated. Then I realized that my degrees in engineering of course made everything almost "intuitive", but if you haven't taken x classes in signal processing, filtering and mathematics, it might feel at bit more mysterious at the start...
Funny. I like Voice Table in TAL products. There are times of randomisation for osc, envelopes, filters, etc. But real deal is FUNNY to tweak and it affects your inspiration.
This was delightful, seeing the thought process behind it, all the individual steps explained and to top it all of this clean look that just makes it easier to follow. What a treat, thank you very much for sharing. I would love more of this pls.
Finally someone put it into video/words very well. I always thought of analogue gear in the modern age as kind of... Dumb. Unless you're a hardcore enthusiast and have the money, there's is NOTHING special about analogue except that it's prohibitively expensive.
i highly recommend taking some stereo pink noise and slowing it down until it’s completely inaudible, layering whatever sound with that, running that thru distortion, and then highpassing it
easily the best tutorial i've seen (about pretty much anything) and i don't even use ableton. if only all tutorials could be as clear and helpful as this one
I use mostly hardware due to IT being my day job. I cannot click 1000 times like i used to. Started getting into Ableton more. Hybrid is where it's at for me. For edge and grit... unstable sounds it would not hurt to just buy a single analog filter or module to run sounds through. Get the best of both worlds. Looking forward to more videos!
same and I started with Ableton and a laptop and got tired of working ITB all the time as it felt like my day computer job. Playing with hardware is more enjoyable and feels like instrument versus computer programming. Mixer recorders make life easier now to dump audio to an SDCard and import to your DAW as well.
@@GuitarsAndSynths I hit legit burnout around 2020. I am self employed which means lots of overtime with no overtime pay. Between that and events in my life something just snapped. I can no longer retain information from a screen. I feel sick at my desk. I look at code i have written and emails and it looks like it was written by another person. The burnout is a legit concern for anyone. DAWs can do so many amazing things i feel i am missing out. Hopefully i come out the other side of this and can leverage these tools better.
I’m not an analog purist but I do think there is something distinctly different between this and true analog, probably just overtone and physical wiring shenanigans, I use both whenever it is necessary so I have no real bias, just observations.
Play a sawtooth at around 20Hz with no filter. Compare e.g. Ableton Wavetable vs U-He Diva. Then compare to a hardware synth with real analogue sawtooth oscillators. It's not the random drift you got with 70s era synths, rather that _no two cycles from the oscillators are exactly the same despite having approximately the same period_. That's something that wavetable synths can't replicate so easily. I haven't done this for a while, but it was fun to make a track using my Bass Station II as the only sound source.
I most make music in the DAW, but I enjoy playing with my analog toys sometimes. I think they do sound just a little better than my plugs, but I cant usually be bothered recording them. Vintage synths evoke a strong feeling if nostalgia too, for those of us old enough to remember when they were new.
Excellent tutorial. I decided to avoid GAS when getting back into music during the lock downs, and do all my sound design with virtual modular (Cherry Audio Voltage 2). That gives very close parallels to hardware sound design. The one thing I missed was the physicality of twisting knobs and 'playing' the synths. I purchased an akai midi mix (great value) but still wanted more. I purchased an electra one (beautiful and very funtional device!) but it still left me feeling divorced from the synths. Then I got a Faderfox pc 12. Its awesome! All the knobs i want!. My dream midi interface to give a me that 'last mile' feeling would be a faderfox pc12 with 14bit midi / midi 2. In short, for me, analogue synths are not just the sound, but the tactile feel of playing with them. So gimmie lots of sensitive knobs to play with and I will be a happy man!
Great tutorial, I’ve never used Ableton or bought a software instrument but have owned lots of vintage synths and samplers. Really interested in Ableton but also looking at arturia v colection that I can use with logic which I have used for many years. The sounds you created, sound much like my old ensoniqs. Thank you, feel happy to have let them all go and ready to start a new journey with software
Some nice sounds. A lot can absolutely be accomplished by way of understanding how to get "that sound", if that's your bag. For me it's not the only the sound(non-linearities) that keep me from selling of my gear. It is the way each of them inspire performance not only through control but also the quirky(non-linear) way those controls combined with human performance, make the sound respond (their personalities). That said, I will never part ways with my computer or my myriad of digital plugins (and a few synths) which also have their own personalities. Also, analog filters are Truly lovely in the way they respond to material via various ways of modulation(s). They have a "character" I can't get with Cytomic or U-he's awesome models, but again,... I love All synths. You don't need analog hardware but if you love synthesis, well,.. I absolutely highly recommend trying that wonderful drug and decide for Yourself ;)
Great video, great patches! - With regards to the SMP filter: Andrew Simper of Cytomic created these filters (for The Drop) and licensed the (custom) MD versions to Ableton + he said this about the SMP filter on KVR: "SMP = Custom MS20 Rev. 2 / OSCar"
All this work just for ableton to release drift, which is designed to sound analog and get you there faster than wavetable. amazing tutorial regardless. Very deep understanding of synthesis demonstrated here.
been using ableton for 8 years and had no idea there were different filters in the stock plug-ins, i was freaked out by the acronyms so always left it😭 great vid, awesome sounding presets too 🤩
ever since I started "making music" and designing sounds I was fascinated by the amount of things you can do with Wavetable, and as I became more and more invested in the hobby I started to move away from basic Ableton devices thinking they were "too simple" or "too default-sounding" and that I needed to buy expensive shit just to achieve decent sounds, but this video has reminded me why I love stock plugins so much :) thank you!
There is a HUGE difference between manually creating analog and proper analog synths... but also you can do a TON with good software. I have a Moog soundstudio, and it just destroys other digital tone generators in its depth and interestingness in playing a single note... with some exceptions. I put it next to some of the Arturia Collection, and the Arturia Collection holds its own. *Absolutely* you don't need all hardware synths. On top of this, as others pointed out in the comments, some of the new replicated hardware synths are as great as their super costly predecessors. But I'd argue that to have a few (inexpensive) hardware synths is really useful for two reasons: - they really DO sound better often - but you definitely don't need ONLY hardware synths - there's nothing like the tactile feedback of a hardware synth to juice creativity. I - and many others - find that there's nothing as inspiring as turning on one instrument and jumping in.
Most of that comes down to being semi modular on the Moog Soundstudio though, not from being analogue. For it to be truly fair you'd have to compare it to vsts with lots of possible modulation. Theres even modular vsts by now.
One thing that I find really contributes to the "analog" sound are the waveforms itself. Since they're synthesized with circuitry, they have a certain sound or warmness to it, I sampled my SE-02's waves for use in Serum and it already makes a huge difference for emulating an analog sound in software, even without all the modulation. Still, great video!
There’s no right or wrong, but all I know for me is that I tried to make digital work, but in the end it’s physical boxes that actually made me want to make music and jam out. I know I could do way more in a DAW and I do a hybrid at times, but for a quick jam nothing beats a hardware setup.
the warmth of the pitch is not just a simple vibrato with a geometric shape at constant speed , but with random variations , it must be alive. For pseudo analog synths one guy was suggest a LFO with a mix triangle shape + random S/H . For the natural "drift" of the voice i have seen 3 S/H random wave at different speed , for a good natural variation. We can do it with a Gauss Band modulation too. When there is a good variation we can see on the specter slight variations of the level of high harmonics. For a polyphonic synth the real trick, even on modern analog synths which are too straight , is the Voice Component, variations of parameters by voice : pitch, filter, envelope, etc.. where every voice act independently , at different speed. For exmeple filter sweep instead of being synchronized for every voice, has different sweep speed for each voice, giving this organic sound we like. And the overdrive is important in the sound of analog synths, it give them all the meat. The best mono synths like the minimoog, etc.. have an over-driven sound.
Everything you demonstrated is correct. But I will also say that there is something in the harmonics of an analog oscillator that doesn’t exist in digital oscillators. Maybe they can’t replicate the higher frequencies because of the nyquist limit, or maybe the single cycle waveforms are just too boring when repeated hundreds of times per second. I tried for years to get that Minimoog bass sound on VST’s, but when I finally heard it on the real thing (or even the Behringer model D), I instantly knew that was it..! Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I’m a lifelong synth lover who bridges both analog and digital, I’ve had a pretty juicy career as a music producer, and there are some things digital does better, and some very minor things it can’t.
Spent years using soft synths. Bought a couple of hardware synths and my productivity x10d overnight. The thing is, it's not about the sound at all. It's about workflow and how I personally enjoy to interact with my synths. I realized I hate virtual instruments. I hate to program synths on a screen, recording midi etc - so hardware synths changed everything for me. If you love soft synths use soft synths. If you love hardware, use hardware. It's really as simple as that. Nobody who listens to your music will care what instruments you used to make it.
Both types of synths are great. but different though. you can't reach the same feeling of the analog with digital or reach the flexibility that the digital has with the analog instrument by itself.
0:30 I noticed the same thing on my Reface Cs. It's a virtual analogue and when you modulate the oscillators pitch with a very slow, very subtle LFO it sounds much nicer!
I work 90% itb and use almost entirely digital synths. This video is a great example of why analog is better than digital in certain cases. That being said, I have wayyy more soft synths in my workflow than hardware. Twiddling knobs on a computer to dial in imperfections vs just jumping into sound design and being creative. Musical expression happens in the moment and having a physical tool to use cannot be replaced by a digital synth. I map macros and values to an external midi controller but that is just time spent not playing and not being creative. Being able to play and change values at the same time is so much more engaging. Secondly, non linear breakdown of signals intermodulating is unique to the composition of alloys in each analog synth. I don't have to twiddle digital values to create unique imperfections. Thirdly, anything involving continuous time domain functions has literally an infinitely higher amount of resolution than a digital signal. I have yet to hear a digital lfo modulate a parameter without getting audibly step-y at higher frequencies. If anyone can show me a soft synth with the same degree of resolution as a vco I will eat my cpu. Both are good! If I want raw clean sub bass no fucking way am I using an analog synth. If I want to be inspired and use smooth lfo modulation you bet I am on analog.
While most of this I knew, some details were made clearer and a few things were new to me. Having said that, this video made me look at some of your other videos and I enjoyed them so much, I made a Patreon account just to subscribe to you! Great stuff. I can’t wait to explore all you have there.
I don't know wavetable but the best type of analog sound (in my opinion) revolves around assigning random pitch (just a tiny tiny bit) to every key pressed. You can do it in serum by plugging in NoteRand1 in Matrix to Osc or Master pitch. It will give you the real deal :)
Digital is good but it has this scalable tak sound when you twich the knobs and listen carefully because of the sampling rate. Analog is like a real vobration infinite as long you have electric current.
I love the feature Error on Analog and Drift on Drift which give them the "Analog" feel. The strongest thing about physical device is actually the tactile workflow, which enable you to experience in a intuitive and fast way, also the instrument design itself can guide you in a meaningful way.
another characteristic of analog is the phase drift that happens between two oscillators run at the same time, very noticeable in unison on bass notes.
For synthesis you can get great results in software but recently I tried the minifreak for example and there's nothing stimulating programming the software version Vs the hardware, I guess there's a whole psychology behind it too. I'd say I'm a kinesthetic learner and sound design/synthesis didn't click with me until I got a real synthesiser and I'd used software synths, I really loved Arturias CS-80 but hardware helped me learn within weeks. I can't go back now, plugins I love for FX and also sampled instruments with great UI like this here but I'm forever down with hardware now. Digital or analogue ☺️🤟 Nice patches btw! You don't need pur
I've seen people do the same with the PPG Wave. Which is literally one of the first digital synths. I think alot of people easily confuse wavetable sounds with subtractivie analogue sounds due to Wavetable also being subtractive. An old e-organ is analogue, but additive so sounds way different from a subtractive analogue synth.
You should maybe add, that you added Unison. I think many people didnt get how you achieved the Sound at the end, since that is the most viewed spot in the video.
I use digital +90% of the time but I do think my analog synths have a very particular sound to them that I really like. Sure I can recreate the sound of the screaming filters from my MS20 with some distortion and some tweaking, or I can just use MS20 and get the sound instantly. But that is about it, to me it is just a type of instrument. These days digital is so good, you can get way more out of a Push with Live than any hardware synth ever made. We haven't even scratched a fraction of a percent from the surface of what is possible with a modern computer and high tech control surface.
Would love to see a "Coca Cola vs. Pepsi" style test with analogue vs. digital synths, see if people can really tell the difference 😂 Great video though, I think wavetable is an underrated VST, can produce some great sounds!
I recommend the video "U-He Repro 5 vs Prophet 5" by Marius Leicht. He makes the exakt same sounds in Repro 5 and on a real Prophet 5 and compares them. It's crazy how identical they are, considering the price difference.
I spent ages in puredata, learning about synth components (osc, fitlers, lfo, wavetables, fm/am, etc), but it took ages to get a sound. So I'm spending more time in the DAW, and it's quicker. BUT, even now, the mouse clicks are getting in the way - going from the MIDI controller to the mouse, and back. Feels unnatural working this way to get to a good sound. So, I guess my next step is getting an actual synth. I love the chunky sounds of the analogue Moogs, but something like a Polybrute looks like it will be very quick to work with. Shorter hand travel from keys to knobs, and back. (Yes, I can map MIDI knobs to VST parameters, but meh, haha)
You could be surprise how well a full digital synth like the synclavier sound and it's just FM partial with additive layering with sampling and resynthesis function, Arturia made the new interface more appealing for sound design and it's able to work in high res 24 bit the original hardware coud'nt , real analog gear play in a different scale for example a perfect square waveform is almost impossible to record or replicate in any PCM converter, only analog synth record on tape or DSD recorder are able to replicate the result. By the way software replica are almost 90 to 98 % to make a great job.
this tutorial is missing one key component, Digital synths by its nature don't come in BOXES. Dave Pensado once told me that the bigger the box, the bigger the sound. I bought a Moog Modular and they had to helicopter that shit to my home just because the box was so big. But it was worth it. You can't compare the sound of the analog because your computer doesn't come in a real, analog box, it's a digital box. Even if the box is a big digital box, it's still just a digital box. You need a real, cardboard, locally wrapped and handled Cuboid
well fiNe thEN
*buys physical copy of omnisphere*
Can I buy just the box and stick my PC inside?
Hmmm....That explains why I never did like the sound of the Prophet 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10 on TH-cam enough to buy one. Same with the OB X ,Y and Z.... wait your trying to trick me...I didn't buy any of those because they sounded dated.
makes sense
It's because they are different that we can compare them. Lmao
I apologize if I’ve caused some discomfort for using the word analog too lightly, I should have phrased it ‘making it sound less digital’ or smth idk, I still like how it sounds tho
then again some digital synths like the Virus can sound analog and quite nicer than software.
Lol there's no pleasing the purists, it sounds analog to me. Nice tutorial!
great tutorial 🤙🏽
Very cool video, easy to follow. Dont let interwebz producer trolls get to ya. Good music is to you, what you love. Not what others think.. big ups!
@@GuitarsAndSynths I own a virus ti2. you really gotta milk the eq and distortion, analog character level and saturation to get it even remotely analog. then i flip on my dreadbox murmux v2 and am instantly reminded that the virus is digital. virus is irreplaceable for its versatility imo though.
i really hope this is the future of tutorials. couldn’t have made it more simple. in 6 mins you gave me a clearer understanding of creating synths to your liking. thank you for this video.
i fw your music bro its tuf
Finally somewhere where I can say screw those analog purists, bunch of carpet baggers if you ask me. But now joking aside. I really believe that you don't need analog at all anymore, at this point you can almost identically create any sounds off any of those machines, and do way more with them, not to mention you can save the setting lol. I think the future of performance and production will be multiple touch screens with your synths open on each, a couple MIDI controllers, a mixer and boom, $20,000 setup for 500 bucks
@@LoserDub I still like my analogue toys, but arguably all your getting for the price these days is improved workflow. its still quicker for me to run everything I record through a channel strip with a bit of light dynamics processing on the inserts than it is to make that channel strip in the daw. but here's what catches me out and why you're right. what if that day I don't want the ssl pre and eq, maybe the artist im working with prefers the Neve sound. im still gonna bringup a 1073 plugin to get that in my workflow. granted on the was 900 I can record 24 channels with zero patch baying and have that set up in the control room in less than ten minutes. which is beneficial. but theses days were mostly dubbing in the studio, giving us the time to be flexible with our sounds. which is what's better about how many great digital plugins there are these days. just cause my studio runs ssl I can still bring up like a century channel strip or something inprotools and basically have emulated versions of like six different studios in my daw. digital is amazing now. still love analogue but honestly I think its less and less useful. I have a real teletronix la2a in the studio at college. but sometimes I pull up the plugin version of the silver one or whatever because it sounds different, and I didn't have to spend another 3k on a compressor.
@@LoserDubI'm also hoping for some more solid MPE controllers personally
For those who are interested about the wavetable synth and maybe don't know much about it i've got a little tip to have a huge variety of wavetables. Load a sample (let's say we've got a chord stab but it could be anything even something sampled from a record or a simple kickdrum) in the timeline and zoom until you can see the single sinusoidal cycle of the sample's waveform, cut the single cycle and consolidate it, so drag it and drop it into the wavetable osc. In this way every note you play will sound with the characteristics of the sample and you'll have a completely unique, inspiring and interesting sound from the start.
Thank u so much for the tip 🫡
golden tip, thanks!!!
Great tip!
Cant you just drag the sample into wavetable and it'll do that for you but with more waves ?
@@NamelessSmile no, if i recall correctly, if you drag the whole sample it won't load the wavetable so it won't work...
Nicely done. Great patches.
i love yoou
oh hi!! thank you for your comment, love your videos!
I grew up using digital synths. Today I am designing both analog and digital synth circuits/code for hardware mostly. The key difference between digital and analog in terms of sound becomes ever smaller (unless we are talking about wild feedback-patches on a modular synthesizer). What is a difference tho, is the one between a plugin and dedicated hardware synths - regardless if analog or digital - on hardware you have the advantage that you usually have knobs that allow you to directly interface with a parameter and they are right there without you having to set anything up. This can change how you interact with the thing and therefore change what you make with it (not automatically leading to better results, but it is a different experience and that can have an impact on how you do music). I still use a lot of software synths if I am working on a sound design, but hardware can be more in the moment if you are in the rehearsal room with other musicians.
Ah yeah, and certain filters still sound better in analog, e.g. I have yet to hear a convincing emulation of the Wasp Filter - but there are also digital things I have never heard in the analog world and would not like to miss.
Sorry, u should quit your job. The difference hardware digital software digital is not the knobs .
Thank you. I just figured analog people didn't want to get software lol. And it looks cool in a room.
@@marskat131 Please tell us what it really is then, I'd like to know
@@marskat131 you should quit commenting on TH-cam
Same point on my comment, and this vid is a good example, it's fulll of digital clickz lol. And just to say, if they decided to leave the new synclavier regen at 50hz max, it's for a reason and i love it, it's not about analog and digital, each is usefull, it's about good hardware, real instruments on one side (and i wont go about the ethical part of the buisness huh), and crappy plastic, not durable, not reparable, or digital clicks and/or a dehumanizing relationship with a computer, wich is the less intuitive way to make music whatever genre....
Something I do with all of my patches by default is to assign a value between 0.1-0.5 to the random column on the matrix for filter cutoff, oscillator fine tune, oscillator position, envelope attack and decay times, and amplitude. This means that every time you hit a key, you get a slight variation in the sound. I based on this on how the vintage knob on the P6 / OB6 works.
The major limitation is that each parameter is taking the same random value on each key press, but I find if I vary the modulation amount from -0.5 - +0.5, it adds a certain something.
Then you just need to add some saturation and/or tape emulation down the chain, and it usually sounds pretty good. I don't most people could tell the difference on a recording between a well-made VST patch and an analogue synth. I use analogue gear myself and I mostly keep it around because I like the device, more than because the sound is inherently better.
For me, using hardware (analogue or digital) is not necessarily all about the sound, but the immediate access to ways to edit it. Clicking around on a screen VS just moving your hands and adjusting physical dials and switches, is two very different ways of working.
The stock analog instrument in ableton and has an "error" setting in the main area you can turn up to do this as well.
@@KimStennabbCaesar For me it's about the specific synth itself. Just like Serum doesn't sound like Omnisphere, a JD-990 doesn't sound like an OB-X. They just all lean towards different characteristics because of their capabilities, limitations, workflow, as well as type of synthesis.
@@ivansoto9723 Yeah, I agree with this statement.
@fisle that's what I do on most patches - there's almost always slight movement of the filter, and tuning, and pitch, and those are modulated with separate things (different LFOs, cycling envelopes)
minifreak makes this easy
Nice video! You’ve got some really cool sounds here
Well, I have an impression that some of us think that analog sound is just a messed dirty sound with added noise ... There is something in analog synths that to me simply cannot be emulated with any plugin or digital synth ... At least not just yet, but i am not saying we're not close, and also that it is bad, it's just the taste 😊
Great video, really love Wavetable. Now I love it more then before :) Thanks!
Interesting video, thank you. I agree, many digital synths and VSTs or AUs can be used to create lovely analog-sounding sounds. And people don’t necessarily need an analog synth.
The difference with analog synths is that the “warmth” happens more or less by itself. (If the synth has been designed to have “warmth” at all, that is.) It is possible to add lots of analog-y quirks to a digital synth. But it is really hard to replicate the ease and directness with which an analog synth can produce them.
Yes, analog quirks are instabilities and noise … and distortions. But there are also other subtle effects. Such as the subtle beating that multiple voices can have, which can be very characteristic for a synth. Or the subtle idiosyncrasies in oscillator waveforms, that end up in the overtone spectrum. And because everything is based on voltages and currents, there can be cross-influences across components. Something can change subtly when a key is pressed, for example. Everything is somewhat connected (although designers tend to try to isolate the components, but there is always a bit of a remaining influence between them). So, the artifacts can also synchronize in analog-typical ways. - And the typical analog artifacts appear by themselves.
I believe that all of these idiosyncrasies can in principle be replicated with digital synths. But it is not easy. And the digital synth needs to be able to support all these. And the sound designer needs to try to avoid the digital artifacts as well.
Analog artifacts can depend on lots of different things. But analog equipment typically behaves “smoothly” … and that usually means that the artifacts sound “warm”. Digital synths have long learned to simulate analog distortions, where they are prominent enough. (Digital artifacts, if not created intentionally, tend to behave “abruptly” … and that typically sounds “harsh”. But digital synths have learned to avoid these in many places, except when desired.) The remaining difference is that analog synths have smooth / warm artifacts even where digital synths do not simulate them. The sound designer can try to put them in, with some success … but it is really hard to do it in exactly the way analog equipment would do it … because it varies in idiosyncratic ways, and everything is somewhat connected.
I have many plugins for my DAWs. But whatever I use, I find it really hard to replicate the sounds that people create on analog synths. (It doesn’t matter whether I use many parameters on a capable digital synth, or if I use a digital “clone” of the synth.) The differences are clearly audible even on youtube videos, and the sound has a different character. So, yes, it is easily possible to create analog sounding sounds. But the sheer emotion that a beautiful analog synth sound can evoke is hard to replicate. And no, I don’t own any analog synths … I cannot afford them, nor do I have enough space. But the cravings are there.
Some people experience the character of a sound very consciously, even the more subtle parts. Others may not hear the character as clearly. But however much we hear it, it still influences us. The character of a sound makes us feel a certain way.
All that being said, there are a few VSTs that go a long way to simulate analog sound. For example, the U-He synths: Diva in particular. The approach is to simulate the voltages and currents in the analog circuits of a synth. Thereby simulating all the analog artifacts along the way. And it sounds amazing. - Note that Diva is still limited, because as far as I understand, it uses shortcuts to simulate the circuits, to cut down on the enormous CPU processing costs of a full simulation.
Some others use similar approaches: for example, the Yamaha AN technology is modeling analog circuits.
All in all, I believe the main message of the video is fair: creating analog sounding sounds on digital synths is possible, and those sounds can be lovely. But I think it is also fair to say that analog synths are valuable for their effortless yet subtly complex analog character. - Would I pay 10k+ for them? Nope. Not unless I was super rich. But I do value them.
Really loving these videos lately. Keep 'em coming!
Use what you like, it all sound truly amazing today. Hardware or software. General music listeners out there don't care how you create.
the real word
even the free vsts nowadays are amazing. I use vital a lot and i genuinely like it more than serum.
@@C1c4daI've tried creating the same patches in Serum & Vital. And I gotta tell ya, Serum has a warmer tone than Vital.
I usually create simple analog synth inspired patches. For other sounds like growls and stuff, it didn't matter much.
But recently bought Diva (blackfriday sale) and now I primarily use Diva for analogue inspired patches. It's beautiful.
Anyways everything has its own strengths and weaknesses, I guess.
Truth of the Matter
Yea, but there is more than the hard facts that need to be taken into account. I am an irrational and emotional being. My Moog Matriarch makes me feel special and inspires me. It is an actual physical instrument that I form a bond with. I am proud of it, it is mine. It has a smell, it gets dusty. I know how the knobs feel, I know where they are, and I build up muscle memory with it. I like grabbing patch cables and move my arms and hands around to experiment. Hear the little click when the patch cable goes into the socket. All sound generation happens right there in the electric domain. All of this for me is a pleasant and positive experience. As I often say, I LOVE PLAYING my Moog. When I step into my studio and I see it standing there, I want to fire it up, get a sequence going and experiment. I cannot not feel any of these things that I described here with a plugin on my computer screen. And the feeling is all important. The fact that inspiration starts flowing.
I have never tried a blind test comparison between say Native Instruments Reaktor Minimoog plugin, and my own Minimoog style oscillator and filter of my Matriarch. I think Reaktor sounds damn good. I absolutely think it is possible that I would not be able to tell the difference between a plugin synth bass, and a synth bass from my Matriarch. So I guess you title holds true: you don't need fancy analog hardware synths. But I sure as hell believe that getting a fancy analog hardware synth is a fantastic addition to your music making, and will inspire you for the rest of your life
By the way, what I can most certainly tell apart in a blind test is Ableton Wavetable vs Native instruments reaktor. When you want something to sound like an analog synth, wavetable is never ever going to get you there. It's not build to sound like that. None of the sounds that you make in this video sound analog. It all sounds digital as hell. Never ever would I hear a sound produced by ableton wavetable and think 'ooh, guy has an analog synth at home'. Wavetable to me has this property of always sounding very much digital. Which is a feature, not a bug. Serum can sound more analog than Ableton wavetable, for that matter
true no cap
true I did a test with my moog grandmother vs serum with the wavetables so aka you right and also modular synth are away more powerful then software synths aka No limit for modular hardware no cap @@isaacnewtech
I finally learned how to make one of the osc’s in wavetable actually sound like noise instead of a single cycle wave from the noise. Very helpful, thank you.
Very good demo! My main inhibition to using software synths for analogue tones is that most don't oversample at a high enough rate to do audio-rate modulation of anything besides oscillator pitch, and even then it's not consistently good. (Xfer Serum and the u-he titles are some notable exceptions; REPRO and Hive are pretty good at it.) I discovered a whole new world of textures with my Moog semimodular, but they are more like aliasing mush when I try them in software - which is so unfortunate, as I prefer softsynths for easy patch recall, portability, and DEFINITELY cost.
You should try VCVRack, its software architecture is built so that audio-rate modulation is the default to any module.
Additionally many oscillators made in there are written to generate waves via oversampling.
It's definitely one of the closest experiences to analog synths I have tried and considering most of it is completely free is insane.
Reason has amazing sounding synths and mixers. Run it at the highest bitrates and samples per second (whatever your sound output supports) and it starts to sound analogue...
Love the editing, so clean
love your style of video. so good
In a mix. Most if not all people wouldn’t even pick if it’s analog or not.
And that’s the truth :)
Absolutely true, those old 80’s analog synths actually sound much cleaner than what was done here, they sound dirty like that when theyre played on a cassette tape, but thats cause theyre on tape being played thru a cheap walkman. Theres gunna be noise and pitch warble with that. Analog can be extremely stable and clean, actually, my analog electrosmith 3340 oscillator is much more clean sounding and tracks pitch significantly better than my digital 2hp sine oscillator. Production quality is probably the biggest factor there
John maus said this . Spent years building synths and he said in the end you can’t hear it
even with the raw signal, if you're decent at sound design and aim for a "analog sound", no one can tell a high quality digital synth setup from an analog one. modern digital synths can sound really "analog" and modern analog synths can sound really "digital".
Its not about what you can hear in a mix. Are you serious? Contrarian TH-camrs always love to pull that one out there. It's the sound characteristics intrinsic to the weird interplay of analog oscillators. Not the "warmth" something easily lost in a mix.
I just got into EDM making and was a bit puzzled that I heard people talk about synths being somewhat complicated. Then I realized that my degrees in engineering of course made everything almost "intuitive", but if you haven't taken x classes in signal processing, filtering and mathematics, it might feel at bit more mysterious at the start...
Funny. I like Voice Table in TAL products. There are times of randomisation for osc, envelopes, filters, etc.
But real deal is FUNNY to tweak and it affects your inspiration.
This was delightful, seeing the thought process behind it, all the individual steps explained and to top it all of this clean look that just makes it easier to follow. What a treat, thank you very much for sharing. I would love more of this pls.
Finally someone put it into video/words very well. I always thought of analogue gear in the modern age as kind of... Dumb. Unless you're a hardcore enthusiast and have the money, there's is NOTHING special about analogue except that it's prohibitively expensive.
you are the coolest tysm for this !! super helpful for a novice wavetable user :)
i highly recommend taking some stereo pink noise and slowing it down until it’s completely inaudible, layering whatever sound with that, running that thru distortion, and then highpassing it
easily the best tutorial i've seen (about pretty much anything) and i don't even use ableton. if only all tutorials could be as clear and helpful as this one
I use mostly hardware due to IT being my day job. I cannot click 1000 times like i used to. Started getting into Ableton more. Hybrid is where it's at for me. For edge and grit... unstable sounds it would not hurt to just buy a single analog filter or module to run sounds through. Get the best of both worlds. Looking forward to more videos!
Same here I click all day at work and after work making 'music' with hw is more appealing.. Excuses (: but good ones.
same and I started with Ableton and a laptop and got tired of working ITB all the time as it felt like my day computer job. Playing with hardware is more enjoyable and feels like instrument versus computer programming. Mixer recorders make life easier now to dump audio to an SDCard and import to your DAW as well.
@@GuitarsAndSynths I hit legit burnout around 2020. I am self employed which means lots of overtime with no overtime pay. Between that and events in my life something just snapped. I can no longer retain information from a screen. I feel sick at my desk. I look at code i have written and emails and it looks like it was written by another person. The burnout is a legit concern for anyone. DAWs can do so many amazing things i feel i am missing out. Hopefully i come out the other side of this and can leverage these tools better.
I love the style of the editing here! it's so clean!
This why i love sound designing !! I need to really work in it in order to master it ! Thanks for this video bro
I’m not an analog purist but I do think there is something distinctly different between this and true analog, probably just overtone and physical wiring shenanigans, I use both whenever it is necessary so I have no real bias, just observations.
Play a sawtooth at around 20Hz with no filter. Compare e.g. Ableton Wavetable vs U-He Diva. Then compare to a hardware synth with real analogue sawtooth oscillators. It's not the random drift you got with 70s era synths, rather that _no two cycles from the oscillators are exactly the same despite having approximately the same period_. That's something that wavetable synths can't replicate so easily. I haven't done this for a while, but it was fun to make a track using my Bass Station II as the only sound source.
I most make music in the DAW, but I enjoy playing with my analog toys sometimes. I think they do sound just a little better than my plugs, but I cant usually be bothered recording them. Vintage synths evoke a strong feeling if nostalgia too, for those of us old enough to remember when they were new.
Wake up babe, new phritz video
just discovered ur videos today. instantly went to spotify and listened every song from u. ur now one of my top fav producers lmao
Excellent tutorial. I decided to avoid GAS when getting back into music during the lock downs, and do all my sound design with virtual modular (Cherry Audio Voltage 2). That gives very close parallels to hardware sound design.
The one thing I missed was the physicality of twisting knobs and 'playing' the synths. I purchased an akai midi mix (great value) but still wanted more. I purchased an electra one (beautiful and very funtional device!) but it still left me feeling divorced from the synths. Then I got a Faderfox pc 12. Its awesome! All the knobs i want!. My dream midi interface to give a me that 'last mile' feeling would be a faderfox pc12 with 14bit midi / midi 2. In short, for me, analogue synths are not just the sound, but the tactile feel of playing with them. So gimmie lots of sensitive knobs to play with and I will be a happy man!
absolutely brilliant
This is my first time looking into synthesis and all I can say is this is all beautiful XD
I am always overwhelmed with Wavetable this video made it understandable. Thanks!
Great tutorial, I’ve never used Ableton or bought a software instrument but have owned lots of vintage synths and samplers. Really interested in Ableton but also looking at arturia v colection that I can use with logic which I have used for many years. The sounds you created, sound much like my old ensoniqs. Thank you, feel happy to have let them all go and ready to start a new journey with software
always excited to see new phritz videos :]
great video. i made all of my sound design with wavetable. it's a great synth. Need to upgrade to live 12 now
that pre-last polyrhytmic patch and melody was just stunningly immersive. cool tutorial
Some nice sounds. A lot can absolutely be accomplished by way of understanding how to get "that sound", if that's your bag. For me it's not the only the sound(non-linearities) that keep me from selling of my gear. It is the way each of them inspire performance not only through control but also the quirky(non-linear) way those controls combined with human performance, make the sound respond (their personalities). That said, I will never part ways with my computer or my myriad of digital plugins (and a few synths) which also have their own personalities. Also, analog filters are Truly lovely in the way they respond to material via various ways of modulation(s). They have a "character" I can't get with Cytomic or U-he's awesome models, but again,... I love All synths. You don't need analog hardware but if you love synthesis, well,.. I absolutely highly recommend trying that wonderful drug and decide for Yourself ;)
Great video, great patches! - With regards to the SMP filter: Andrew Simper of Cytomic created these filters (for The Drop) and licensed the (custom) MD versions to Ableton + he said this about the SMP filter on KVR: "SMP = Custom MS20 Rev. 2 / OSCar"
All this work just for ableton to release drift, which is designed to sound analog and get you there faster than wavetable.
amazing tutorial regardless. Very deep understanding of synthesis demonstrated here.
That was an incredible video. Thank you!
been using ableton for 8 years and had no idea there were different filters in the stock plug-ins, i was freaked out by the acronyms so always left it😭
great vid, awesome sounding presets too 🤩
ever since I started "making music" and designing sounds I was fascinated by the amount of things you can do with Wavetable, and as I became more and more invested in the hobby I started to move away from basic Ableton devices thinking they were "too simple" or "too default-sounding" and that I needed to buy expensive shit just to achieve decent sounds, but this video has reminded me why I love stock plugins so much :) thank you!
You don’t need fancy fucking anything. Nor money. Just set a limit of options from a universe of free shit available today, then CREATE.
Terrific. Clear and concise. Great format
There is a HUGE difference between manually creating analog and proper analog synths... but also you can do a TON with good software. I have a Moog soundstudio, and it just destroys other digital tone generators in its depth and interestingness in playing a single note... with some exceptions. I put it next to some of the Arturia Collection, and the Arturia Collection holds its own. *Absolutely* you don't need all hardware synths. On top of this, as others pointed out in the comments, some of the new replicated hardware synths are as great as their super costly predecessors. But I'd argue that to have a few (inexpensive) hardware synths is really useful for two reasons:
- they really DO sound better often - but you definitely don't need ONLY hardware synths
- there's nothing like the tactile feedback of a hardware synth to juice creativity. I - and many others - find that there's nothing as inspiring as turning on one instrument and jumping in.
Most of that comes down to being semi modular on the Moog Soundstudio though, not from being analogue.
For it to be truly fair you'd have to compare it to vsts with lots of possible modulation. Theres even modular vsts by now.
true no cap
I like that this has no talking and is straight to the point and efficient without any filler bs
One thing that I find really contributes to the "analog" sound are the waveforms itself. Since they're synthesized with circuitry, they have a certain sound or warmness to it, I sampled my SE-02's waves for use in Serum and it already makes a huge difference for emulating an analog sound in software, even without all the modulation. Still, great video!
love this kind of editing, great job
Beautiful tutorial on sound design! Love it!
Best use of Helvetica on YT. Cuts through the crap and focuses on the sound. 👍
There’s no right or wrong, but all I know for me is that I tried to make digital work, but in the end it’s physical boxes that actually made me want to make music and jam out. I know I could do way more in a DAW and I do a hybrid at times, but for a quick jam nothing beats a hardware setup.
the warmth of the pitch is not just a simple vibrato with a geometric shape at constant speed , but with random variations , it must be alive.
For pseudo analog synths one guy was suggest a LFO with a mix triangle shape + random S/H .
For the natural "drift" of the voice i have seen 3 S/H random wave at different speed , for a good natural variation.
We can do it with a Gauss Band modulation too.
When there is a good variation we can see on the specter slight variations of the level of high harmonics.
For a polyphonic synth the real trick, even on modern analog synths which are too straight , is the Voice Component, variations of parameters by voice : pitch, filter, envelope, etc.. where every voice act independently , at different speed.
For exmeple filter sweep instead of being synchronized for every voice, has different sweep speed for each voice, giving this organic sound we like.
And the overdrive is important in the sound of analog synths, it give them all the meat.
The best mono synths like the minimoog, etc.. have an over-driven sound.
Everything you demonstrated is correct.
But I will also say that there is something in the harmonics of an analog oscillator that doesn’t exist in digital oscillators. Maybe they can’t replicate the higher frequencies because of the nyquist limit, or maybe the single cycle waveforms are just too boring when repeated hundreds of times per second.
I tried for years to get that Minimoog bass sound on VST’s, but when I finally heard it on the real thing (or even the Behringer model D), I instantly knew that was it..!
Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I’m a lifelong synth lover who bridges both analog and digital, I’ve had a pretty juicy career as a music producer, and there are some things digital does better, and some very minor things it can’t.
The most useful 7 minutes for today! Thank you.
I love your video production! Thanks for sharing your knowledge! :)
good quality content here ! very informative, no bulshit, and highly usable !
Really cool tutorial, thanks !!
Spent years using soft synths. Bought a couple of hardware synths and my productivity x10d overnight. The thing is, it's not about the sound at all. It's about workflow and how I personally enjoy to interact with my synths. I realized I hate virtual instruments. I hate to program synths on a screen, recording midi etc - so hardware synths changed everything for me.
If you love soft synths use soft synths. If you love hardware, use hardware. It's really as simple as that. Nobody who listens to your music will care what instruments you used to make it.
Both types of synths are great. but different though. you can't reach the same feeling of the analog with digital or reach the flexibility that the digital has with the analog instrument by itself.
agree no cap I use both
0:30 I noticed the same thing on my Reface Cs. It's a virtual analogue and when you modulate the oscillators pitch with a very slow, very subtle LFO it sounds much nicer!
I work 90% itb and use almost entirely digital synths. This video is a great example of why analog is better than digital in certain cases. That being said, I have wayyy more soft synths in my workflow than hardware.
Twiddling knobs on a computer to dial in imperfections vs just jumping into sound design and being creative. Musical expression happens in the moment and having a physical tool to use cannot be replaced by a digital synth. I map macros and values to an external midi controller but that is just time spent not playing and not being creative. Being able to play and change values at the same time is so much more engaging.
Secondly, non linear breakdown of signals intermodulating is unique to the composition of alloys in each analog synth. I don't have to twiddle digital values to create unique imperfections.
Thirdly, anything involving continuous time domain functions has literally an infinitely higher amount of resolution than a digital signal. I have yet to hear a digital lfo modulate a parameter without getting audibly step-y at higher frequencies. If anyone can show me a soft synth with the same degree of resolution as a vco I will eat my cpu.
Both are good! If I want raw clean sub bass no fucking way am I using an analog synth. If I want to be inspired and use smooth lfo modulation you bet I am on analog.
love the format!
I love your minimalistic video style!
Love the song at 6:01
beautiful.
I really appreciated this tutorial and I signed up to your patreon for access to these presets.
What an amazing video!
While most of this I knew, some details were made clearer and a few things were new to me.
Having said that, this video made me look at some of your other videos and I enjoyed them so much, I made a Patreon account just to subscribe to you! Great stuff. I can’t wait to explore all you have there.
i have been using ableton for years and this video gives me what i need to know about those acronyms on drive choices lmao
This is amazing, instant subscribe.
You can’t replace the random amplitude sound waves analog creates.
Very inspiring! Thank you
I don't know wavetable but the best type of analog sound (in my opinion) revolves around assigning random pitch (just a tiny tiny bit) to every key pressed. You can do it in serum by plugging in NoteRand1 in Matrix to Osc or Master pitch. It will give you the real deal :)
Yupp!! You could also achieve this with stock plugins and a midi shaper (or follower, don’t remember) mapping it to a shifter (cents)
Perfect demonstration!
lovely video
I really like those sounds at the end
5:27 sounded a lot like the outro for Squarepusher - Goodnight Jade for a few seconds there
Digital is good but it has this scalable tak sound when you twich the knobs and listen carefully because of the sampling rate.
Analog is like a real vobration infinite as long you have electric current.
I love the feature Error on Analog and Drift on Drift which give them the "Analog" feel.
The strongest thing about physical device is actually the tactile workflow, which enable you to experience in a intuitive and fast way, also the instrument design itself can guide you in a meaningful way.
another characteristic of analog is the phase drift that happens between two oscillators run at the same time, very noticeable in unison on bass notes.
when is pikmin 5 coming out?
Thank you for the video💯
These presets have a really cool Boards of Canada kinda sound to them. Great tutorial!
For synthesis you can get great results in software but recently I tried the minifreak for example and there's nothing stimulating programming the software version Vs the hardware, I guess there's a whole psychology behind it too. I'd say I'm a kinesthetic learner and sound design/synthesis didn't click with me until I got a real synthesiser and I'd used software synths, I really loved Arturias CS-80 but hardware helped me learn within weeks.
I can't go back now, plugins I love for FX and also sampled instruments with great UI like this here but I'm forever down with hardware now. Digital or analogue ☺️🤟
Nice patches btw! You don't need pur
Amazing tutorial
The other day an analog purist explained to me that digital synths could not compete with the warmth and punch of the Waldorf Wave.
The filters are analog dude
@@jacobkell9244 The rest of the synth isnt though. It literally works by having the oscillator scan digital sound samples
I've seen people do the same with the PPG Wave. Which is literally one of the first digital synths. I think alot of people easily confuse wavetable sounds with subtractivie analogue sounds due to Wavetable also being subtractive.
An old e-organ is analogue, but additive so sounds way different from a subtractive analogue synth.
You should maybe add, that you added Unison. I think many people didnt get how you achieved the Sound at the end, since that is the most viewed spot in the video.
I use digital +90% of the time but I do think my analog synths have a very particular sound to them that I really like. Sure I can recreate the sound of the screaming filters from my MS20 with some distortion and some tweaking, or I can just use MS20 and get the sound instantly.
But that is about it, to me it is just a type of instrument. These days digital is so good, you can get way more out of a Push with Live than any hardware synth ever made. We haven't even scratched a fraction of a percent from the surface of what is possible with a modern computer and high tech control surface.
amazing and simple !
Some crazy Boards of Canada sounds right there at the end. That's freaking neat!!! 🔥
Would love to see a "Coca Cola vs. Pepsi" style test with analogue vs. digital synths, see if people can really tell the difference 😂 Great video though, I think wavetable is an underrated VST, can produce some great sounds!
if you cant tell the difference between cola and pepsi your tastebuds dont work
@@Trickey2413 💀
I love the comparison Videos that loopop does on the Juno and Juno Boutique. I found the nuances there were quite defining
I recommend the video "U-He Repro 5 vs Prophet 5" by Marius Leicht. He makes the exakt same sounds in Repro 5 and on a real Prophet 5 and compares them. It's crazy how identical they are, considering the price difference.
Once an analog synth has been digitally recorded the sound is no longer analog.
I spent ages in puredata, learning about synth components (osc, fitlers, lfo, wavetables, fm/am, etc), but it took ages to get a sound. So I'm spending more time in the DAW, and it's quicker. BUT, even now, the mouse clicks are getting in the way - going from the MIDI controller to the mouse, and back. Feels unnatural working this way to get to a good sound. So, I guess my next step is getting an actual synth. I love the chunky sounds of the analogue Moogs, but something like a Polybrute looks like it will be very quick to work with. Shorter hand travel from keys to knobs, and back. (Yes, I can map MIDI knobs to VST parameters, but meh, haha)
You could be surprise how well a full digital synth like the synclavier sound and it's just FM partial with additive layering with sampling and resynthesis function, Arturia made the new interface more appealing for sound design and it's able to work in high res 24 bit the original hardware coud'nt , real analog gear play in a different scale for example a perfect square waveform is almost impossible to record or replicate in any PCM converter, only analog synth record on tape or DSD recorder are able to replicate the result. By the way software replica are almost 90 to 98 % to make a great job.
Great video!
Thanks ! I learned something