I think a lot of people try and match settings on emulations and when they hear the differences, decide that something is either a good or a bad emulation, but that’s often a mistake. When I’m matching sounds, the first thing I do is make sure levels and filter settings are as identical as I can get them. I use cranked resonance to and a spectrum analyzer to make sure I have things as tuned as I can get them. Often I find that the differences that seemed huge end up being tiny or nonexistent.PAK wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2024 9:18 pm One thing possibly overlooked, on the Roland plugins, is some of the controls are bi-directional. Filter LFO, ENV-1 and KYBD etc go from -128 to 128, and you have to ignore anything below 0 to stay within hardware range.
Things like high / maximum resonance vary between hardware, and Roland’s approach does seem more towards ideal calibration specs rather than any individual unit. But differences shouldn’t be huge..
If anyone can name a specific Factory preset (Edit: I see A-72 and A-46 were mentioned) )
A-72 aka "6-4 1984 Pluck Sweep" - Roland requires you turn the volume up towards the mid 50's as it starts quieter than Softube. It's also duller - turn the VCA Tone control up a bit to compensate. With those tweaked VCF Res (set a bit higher on Roland) and Kybd adjustments should definitely get you fairly ballpark. Softube's used a slightly different shaped KYBD curve which, if you match the upper keys, means Softube's tends to let a bit more bass through on the lower notes. The release holds a little more on Softube's too, so you'd have to raise the release on Rolands slightly to try to match.
Based on A-72 I'd still say you can get 'em pretty close and where neither is vastly better. That said I prefer Softube's, on that one, slightly
I also don’t totally care about accuracy. It’s not like I’m going to buy a Juno 106. Been there, done that. To me, there’s nothing interesting about a vintage synth beyond some nostalgia. Something like Roland’s or Softube’s software is perfect for me when I want a little bit of that classic sound but also something that goes beyond. Frankly, neither go far enough, IMO, but they’re still useful. Not every part requires a modulation monster. As long as a synth sounds good to me, I’m in, regardless as to how accurate it is.