Poll: Hardware or Software. Which is most fun to play?

[MrFigg]

Well, another morning has disappeared into a haze of noise with me in the cellar playing loud guitar through a myriad of guitar pedals and generally having a good old time. After years and years of not bothering with "real" amps and effects I'm back on the hardware kick. All those Kuassa plugins have taken a back seat to the real stuff and I'm loving it. Now I'm not a synth guy so a MIDI keyboard into a computer and some plugins does me and I'm happy but at the moment playing my guitar through a load of gear has just taken over from code.
So, what do you reckon? Hard things you can hold in your hand and play with or soft things you can twiddle and...sorry, I won't go there.
Hardware of Software...what's most fun to play?

[motuscott]

Wires and membranes into bits and PCs

[RobC]

Are you kidding? I may be the most minimalist guy, when it comes to studio setup, but:

I could kill (a mosquito for example) for even just a basic hardware studio with cheap effect processors, VA synths, drum computers, etc.

Edit: actually, having midicontrollers of devices like subtractor, and playing that into Reason would be the next best thing.

But having a dedicated hardware would be the coolest. : )

[PhillipOrdonez]

Hardware always wins in terms of fun.

[mcatalao]

Hardware into software is in reality, hardware in to hardware that runs software!

Anyways, i like the touch component of music, so in various ways I play hardware into software, i rarely input stuff into reason with the mouse.

First and foremost I play wind instruments and piano, so all my midi recordings are being done with a keyboard (I use a Roland RD88, great touch, great keybed, and it has plenty sounds that will allow me to have a small footprint if/when i have to play live).
Then, also for midi inputing i also use an AKAI EWI USB, that being a wind player, it allows me to have such a big dynamic range and convey a multitude of emotions in a single not, even with a midi instrument. I also have a korg padkontrol, but i seldom use it, i like ganging in the piano keys for drums!

Then i also play flutes, bagpipes, thin whistle, a bunch of world pipes, and a bunch of percussions, like portuguese frame drum, darbuka, djembe's, and any orff making noise thingy. Everything hardware into software. Oh and i also play melodica (i have a beautifull hammond melodica that i absolutely adore it's sound!) and a bit of harmonica too - i have an old Hohnr Larry Adler chromatic harmonica that sounds amazing though it's older than me! It was a gift a friend of my grandfader. Small things make people live in our thoughts even after their gone more than 20 years ago! I'll never forget the weekends in their house, eating sweet potato and playing with their dogs. And later when I turned 18 he gave me his harmonica!

And finally, touching has a big component in my mixer, and i loath depending on a mouse for mixing. So i have big sort of custom 24 fader console based on Behringer BCF2000, and a BCR2000, wich allows me to control an infinite array of mixer channels, and any reason device as long as it has faders, knobs and buttons. Of course, modesty appart, i am a remote file wiz and all these devices have custom remote sections for the bcf and bcr2000.

[Re8et]

Back 2000 to have a pc with Reason 1 was the ultimate deal. Cables within a virtual environment? Big deal.
Carl Cox hated Vst back then and so he does I believe today.
I never had that kind of money (808-909-etc etc), my first drum machine was the a korg bought in 2006.
It's not more fun than Reason. It's faster to setup. It has all the controllers right there.
Electronic Hardware is more immediate if it has enough controllers than a soft counterpart.
Classic hardware is unbeatable
A guitar, a Djambè. Drums. Nothing can beat those classics.
Drum D-Pads or midi violins, bass, could make an argument at being the best of both worlds.

[rgdaniel]

I would have voted for hardware until about 10 years ago, when my joints decided they'd had enough of me pounding away on hard rubber drum pads. (More modern e-drum kits are less impactful, more bouncy and realistic, but not in my budget, and probably too late now, and proper real drum kit not an option any more). So I now happily embrace the low-impact alternative of "in the box" music making.

[huggermugger]

I'd say hardware is more fun to play with in terms of physical interaction. But software is way more fun to play with on a mental level.

[RobC]

I'd say hardware is more fun to play with in terms of physical interaction. But software is way more fun to play with on a mental level.

Depends... For example, the way Rebirth worked, kind of gave you some mental work; and I bet it's the same with those devices as a hardware setup. The whole sequencing was a challenge, yet I remember bringing pretty cool songs out of it. Though I guess it's not like playing an instrument. Rather like DJing experience (tinkering with knobs and buttons, etc.), but with music production.

[raymondh]

Hardware is more fun. Software is more productive. They both sound great!

[miyaru]

Beside I love DAW’s, I also like “real instruments”.

I play bassguitar, a little guitar and a bare minimum at keys. And I love to do it, together with Reason and Ableton.
Sometimes I do not use any real instruments, but then again I use them a lot in other songs.

Playing real instruments is good fun!!!!!

[Jac459]

I'd say hardware is more fun to play with in terms of physical interaction. But software is way more fun to play with on a mental level.

Thanks, I didn't know how to say it.

[DaveyG]

Hardware is more fun apart from the time you spend trying to locate the annoying hum, or the duff connection, or trying to mix balanced with unbalanced, or trying not to cry when you find the perfect cable and then discover it's a few inches too short...

[dioxide]

Hardware is more fun because the interface is designed specifically for the underlying sound engine. Modern MIDI controllers are mostly bad which takes away some of the joy from jamming with software – early 2000s was much more innovative when it came to MIDI controllers but mostly manufacturers have given up now. Still though, I prefer software over hardware for anything other than just messing around.

[wowhow]

I've always played with software but I recently got a hardware synth and I was just amazed at how much intuitive physical control you can get with hardware ; it's like having macro control over many parameters - by just controlling all kinds of parameters at once- without having to map a macro control. I do enjoy how much precise control you can get with software though - not to mention the ability to save the settings.

But yea, getting some hardware reminded me that I can jam with the parameters in software instead of trying to set all the parameters before playing the synthesizer.

[MuttReason]

Hybrid for me. Some hardware gear going into my DAW (Live with Reason as RRP) plus some instrument plugins and Live stock effects.

Some hardware is just really hard to beat when it comes to tactile control. For example, I find it so fast to create rhythms from scratch on my Roland TR8S. Redrum can get close (it’s been one of my top 3 Reason devices ever since I first bought Reason v1) and of course Drum Sequencer into anything from Umpf Club Drums to the Reason Drum Kits RE is super powerful. But there’s still something about pressing a switch and turning a knob on hardware.

Other hardware IME can be less engaging than software. Setting up a modulation matrix in Thor or Europa is (for me) more intuitive than the button and rotary combos needed to set up modulation sources and destinations in my ASM Hydrasynth (which despite that remains my favourite hardware synth I’ve owned for many years). Plus nothing beats the variety of software synths modelled on hardware… still find it incredible that I can have multiple Oberheims and Moogs and Prophets etc etc all laid out in my DAW and sounding very very close to the real thing.

Upshot is I’ve ended up with a mix of hardware and ITB. I would mostly use Reason as my DAW with hardware if it were not for the daft limitations in Reason that mean no multiple MIDI Clock ports and no potential to adjust timing per hardware device for MIDI latency. Ableton Live does all that do well so Live it is as my DAW with lots of Reason RRP instances alongside the hardware.

I am also ITB only when travelling with my laptop in which case it’s Reason DAW plus MPK Mini mk3 and MIDIFighterTwister for onscreen knob tweaking.

I also have a MPC Live 2 but bit of a love hate relationship there at the mo… love the approach, not loving bugs and workflow oddities in latest OS. It’s being neglected a lot at the moment and may end up on eBay (or possibly not… I’ve a feeling I’d regret selling it).

[bxbrkrz]

Yeah for Reason! (as a recorder).

[rsnsnds]

Hardware is most fun to play, software is most probable to help you actually finish a song

A mix of both is the best solution to have fun finishing a song