Sampler Wars. Software VS Hardware. |

Sampler Wars. Software VS Hardware.

May 22nd, 2009 by Hexfix93

Shot out battery 3 and kontakt 3 With RME Fireface converters against my Roland s770. I loaded the goldbaby drum kits into the s770 and loaded them into battery and compared. The bass has more mid lows and jumps out of the speakers a bit more on the s770. The snares had this brighter punchier sound on the s770, it cut in the mix better, punches more. The high hats sound more real and crisp and cutting on the s770. So battery 3 just got owned by my roland s770.

Now I converted some Akai strings. From xxlarge best services most wanted 2 string machines akai cd rom. Loaded them into kontakt 3, and into the roland s770. Kontakt 3 sounded thin, annoying, brittle and unmusical and machine like. The Roland s770 breathed this analog hue into the sounds, made it shimmer, the sounds had a lot more air in the top end, the pitching was way better with no aliasing. kontakt 3 aliased big time when playing it live even on the hq settings. The roland s770 really made my akai libraries come to life and sound more musical, more present, more hi fi and more cutting in the mix. Way more bass, mids and treble. It was smoother and musical.

I know why i have not used sampling libraries since i sold my emu e6400. They only sounds usable on a good hardware sampler. Sorry man. Soft synths are toys. The roland s770 sounds like a musical instrument. The filters are shimmery, wet and more analog sounding, the filters in kotakt3 were like sandpaper lofi make the sounds get thin and cold instantly. AWFUL! Software is AWFUL.

The difference is like a moped VS a Ferrari. Moped is the soft synth, s770 is the Ferrari. Holy crap, I can’t beleive I waited so long to come back to hardware. I thought sampling would be fine in the box. one cd drive, less hassle. The problem is, I would record all my analog synths in through my compressors, get them going in a mix, then run battery and kontakt and try and layer stuff and write drums, and even with the gold baby libs, they just didn’t fit good in the mix with battery and kontakt. Instantly, load the sounds into the s770, they come to life, and match the quality of my analog recordings, my analog instruments, the s770 plays nice with my analog hardware in the mix. NO SOFT SYNTHS DO. they never match the intensity of my modular, sh2, revolution or jupiter 8.

Now, thanks to chicken systems and a couple of zip drives! I am able to get great sounds into a great hardware sampler, that sounds loud, big, bassy and cutting and sit right in the mix with my huge analog modular stuff. This is no joke. This sampler is the shit. This is the best $200=s770, $150=chicken sys translator, $50 for 2 zip drives, one usb one scsi, and 15 for a mogaimi video cable that would reach my big tv from the s770. S770 is great, this is exactly what I needed, it plays drums back great, and does amazing strings, it has great filters, and is boundless. I havent even tried osc syncing samples yet, i bet that is cool, or this trick i read about from beer:

“Sound ON Sound – Synth Secrets has the a complete breakdown and re-construction of a lot of the classic sounds. My little trick that works best with a Roland S760 but should also work with hardware is to make use of Highpass Filters ! ( I know that sounds nuts but bare with me )- for the chesty sound you’re looking for you could try using a bit of Noise for a basic waveform then put it through the highpass filter – remembering that the resonance on a Highpass filter acts on the lower cutoff point you can sweep up from the bottom of the harmonic content and focus in on the range you need ( with a snappy EG modulating the VCA ) S760s Rule the roost for this trick – you can make HUGE bass drums with its filters

Just a thought.”

Fuck software for sound generation, synths, samplers. It all sucks compared to good hardware.

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8 Responses

KryonikMessiah23 Says:
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Nice to see you speak some more truth on this shit.
To anyone reading, you can get the killer sampler bryan’s talking about for like……..200$ on ebay.

ScSi zip drives are REALLY easy to get cheap as well.

And you won’t be in the hole much. Only maybe 50-100$ more than kontakt for a much better sound. I have an Eventide and an EMU Emulator myself, and those are way more expensive than what you can get an old, GOOD sampler for.
James Says:
May 28th, 2009 at 3:45 am
I think that hardware provides a tactile means of producing a full “live” and “lively” sound…and playing an instrument is an experience that dragging a dial with a mouse just doesn’t compare with.

But I think that software, rather than being used as a substitute, can layer up really well with and complement hardware. Some people like starting with that “dead, flat” sound and layering it up. The modulation capablities and cost of software are impressive, but very rarely do they put out as much pleasurable frequency as hardware.

I think both have their place… there’s something about the breadth of the Kontakt libraries that is appealing and people who sing the praises of plugins like Gareth Jones or Yello have the experience with hardware to make the most of it, but there’s also something “deeper” sounding about a sample passing through a quality conversion stage or through a lovely SSL EQ or being summed as part of a great software mix through a tube console that I don’t want software to emulate.

Some older samplers have wonderful filters and sequencers in them, and the limitations on their sampling time and the interfaces force you to be inventive. But I would never say no to both…

Perhaps plugin makers should focus more on unusual, modern functionality and modulation capabilities while hardware manufacturers should focus on “deepening” the sound of our mixes and providing us with exciting physical terrain to be creative with.
Hexfix93 Says:
May 28th, 2009 at 3:57 am
Software is garbage. They alias bad, the filters are horrid, they dont sound as punchy, or in your face or full. even with layering. Sorry, i did the shoot outs myself recently and stand by what i say on the sound quality.

we can disagree, but i did side by side tests. I know what i prefer, weather you do the tests or believe me or not, well thats up to you.
Hexfix93 Says:
May 28th, 2009 at 3:58 am
I have not used samplers for years, because everytime i load kotakt or halion or exs and put my akai stuff in them, they sound so lame next to my hardware, and dont fit in the mix well, when i bought my s770 it sits in my mix and sounds good next to my hardware, software never does. never from my experience.
Hexfix93 Says:
May 28th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Software is easier to use, but what is the point when everything you put into sounds like SHIT!
gunknife99 Says:
May 28th, 2009 at 9:04 am
hey it’s me gunknife99 ex housetoy. I like making music and got the acoustic guitar now. Yeah I had a godless life and have recently found strength in eternal faith in God and maybe Jesus. Anyways I have a girlfriend now and basically utilize the usefulness of the internet. I basically want to sell mp3 players for 20 dollars a piece and buy them for 10 dollars off Ebay. Maybe do all kinds of work. Well gotta blaze a doobie now. I’m going sampleless pretty much soon, and keeping it to live instruments and deconsructed sin by NIN. And found his music has nothing but hooks. And one last thing for this post. Do a review on the last three live years of Nine Inch Nails off YouTube. Check out Nine Inch Nails Sin Live KROQ 2005.
Badass
AlexVI Says:
May 28th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
On a more fetishist note, I think the hardware experience of creating music is a way more interesting, independently of the sound quality polemic. It’s a lot harder to program hardware, sometimes also very frustrating but at the end, when the results achieve your initial expectations, you feel kinda high, rewarded. The global groove of the mix is also imperfect, like the human being, something very important with music.
Brian Says:
May 28th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I definitely agree; I got my e6400 about 4 months ago and I love the sound it puts out. I know a while ago you said you were getting a futureretro xs, if you did could you do a review for it?