Why use emulations of classic analogue synths---is it just nostalgia?...

[AnX]

The title instantly made me think of this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcrsEXxnzI0

A great song from an awesome album. Unfortunately, this is the best quality version I could dig up.

load of crap, NIN wannabes, who only got anywhere cos Trent dragged them along.

utter drivel, imo (no wink)

[BONES]

I was never much of a fan at the time but I re-bought the album a couple of years ago when I saw it going cheap at a market and I was actually surprised how good it is. It's nothing like NIN, it's more an American take on Post Punk, which is not something I'd have necessarily been open to back in the day but absolutely love now. They formed the same year Pretty Hate Machin was released, so it's unlikely they were jumping on any bandwagon. If you see what their front man, Scott Benzel went on to do, you'd be even more inclined to believe they were doing their own thing. I much prefer Concentration to anything NIN have ever put out, although their other albums don't come close to matching it. It's right up there with Chemlab's Burnout at the Hydrogen Bar for me.

[Albert.VST]

Haven’t read the complete thread but to get back to the OP’s question, I especially like the emulations of older synths I absolutely couldn't afford to buy in the late 70's-80's-90's. And still can't. So yes, definitely nostalgia.
But also I like new concepts not based on hardware from the past. But for developers to make an emulation (with or without additions or improvements) will mean the potential buyers already have an idea of the type of sounds they can expect of it. Which isn't the case with new concepts so I regulary see hesitation for such new synths (can it sound like ......) which may scare developers to make these.

B.t.w. these hardware emulations/re-creations (e.g. by Behringer) I like as well!

[anttimaatteri]

"Why use emulations of classic analogue synths"

because these old analogue dinosaurs sounded goddamn mothafuckin awesome.

and they are either expensive now or hard to get one. plus its occupying lot of room. nonetheless some vsts sound really close to the original, or good enough or have extrafeature worth negating the not exactly sounding like the original.
i would never buy a vst for "nostalgia". wtf should that represent in a piece of music? like "hey the song is lame bullcrap, but its pretty good nostalgia sounding like an old moog. lets release it!"
no way
and its even worse than the other side yelling like "hey the song is pretty good, but that vst doesnt sound 100% like an old moog"

[BONES]

Really? That's not my recollection of many of them. When you hear them alongside modern synths, I don't think many of them stack up at all.

Haven’t read the complete thread but to get back to the OP’s question, I especially like the emulations of older synths I absolutely couldn't afford to buy in the late 70's-80's-90's. And still can't. So yes, definitely nostalgia.

You don't find them disappointing today? I can really only think of one that has met my expectations - Korg's ARP Odyssey. Others I've tried just make me realise how far things have come since I thought they were great.

[XpanderDude]

I don' have a very varied collection of VSTs, but pretty much everything I've A/B is close enough for my liking. PG8X and JX10/JX8p were close enough that I decided to not keep the hardware around. I had an Akai AX80 (same filter/VCA chip as Matrix 12) which I A/B with Arturia Matrix 12V and I came away surprised and satisfied enough that I sold on the AX80.

Likewise, there are A/B comparisons with the Roland mono plugouts against the real deal which I found to be close enough that I wouldn't seek out a 40 year piece of hardware.

Furthermore, I have a Roland System 8 and an MKS30 (JX3P rack mount) and guess what? They sound so incredibly close, it's almost like you're just comparing two slightly different calibrated JX3p against each other. (when using the JX3p plug.)

I was considering buying a behringer model D, but then I realized I can't automate CC controls for filter cutoff. Same with the upcoming Pro1 remake. Seeing the A/B for the legend/Diva etc.. and the A/B between a real pro 1 and repro 1 made me feel like I'm not really gaining anything in the hardware for sound quality.

[IncarnateX]

you forgot patch recall

That is a true pity to me too but not enough to prefer emulations. Had the Boog for a couple of month, and it is definitely the best sounding bass synth I have had my hands on for my needs in these times where I prefer the sound of hardware. However, the lack of patch memory unfortunately spoiled my great plans with it. Though, I did not go for Moog’s software D emulation (which I find pretty fat and cool) nor Arturia’s Mini when selling my Boog, but Bass Station 2. Even though it is not a Moog synth and DCO driven and not VCO etc., it has 2 oscs and a sub osc that can manage my moogy needs just fine. It gets close enough to get the job done...and with patch recall. No emulation nor clone is really needed for the analog flavors I want.

[vurt]

"you want"
and that's awesome
you've found what works for you.
some prefer the emus, some the clones, some like you something different altogether.

all equally valid choices.

[IncarnateX]

I usually emphasize that my choices are personal with expressions like “my needs” and “what I want”. I am not even going to consider whether I am the only one with the view or it is shared with the rest of the planet. I do not care; I only get wiser from learning about people’s different views and usually do not consider them attempts to say anything universal unless people insist they do.

[BONES]

Yeah, it very frustrating at times having to emphasise over and over again that things are just your opinion, it should be completely obvious. After all, there can't be that many people around who would actually want something to sound like a Moog, can there?

[excuse me please]

Actually it's just Behrlinger trying to kill the VST star.

[IncarnateX]

After all, there can't be that many people around who would actually want something to sound like a Moog, can there?

Well, how many of those have actually played and heard one beyond youtubes, I wonder? At the end of the day this could be a good reason to just use software or just similar synths, they would not have a clue anyway.

Anyway, I doubt there are many among those who really want it for real would be willing to use bass station 2 instead due to lack of patch memory like I do. My “wanting” of moogy sounds seems not that universal to me but rather personal.

[jancivil]

Yeah shockingly enough there will be quite a few individuals on the planet that aren't exactly your mirror, BONES.

[SJ_Digriz]

After all, there can't be that many people around who would actually want something to sound like a Moog, can there?

yeah, the 100s of thousands of songs possibly millions of songs that have featured a Moog left everyone using them wishing they had a casio.

[IncarnateX]

Well, one should consider that people can still give non valid reasons for their subjective opinions like saying “I prefer this because it can do X and others cannot”, while it may not be true that others cannot do X. So, there are still things to discuss but targeting the preference itself like “my liking of red is better/more valid than your liking of green” does not compute at all to me.