I recently read an article in the January issue of Keyboard magazine, by Mark Vail who had a conversation with Bob Moog. In which Bob talks about Analog vs Digital sound genration.
I am courious as to what people think about analog sound genreation in general?
in general it sounds better
Well, if the music is good, it doesn’t matter if u use nalaog or digital synth.
Both got good sounds and it is hard to tell in most mixes what kind of synth was used to perform.
But don’t forget the the fun and the diffrent when you produce the music.
For me at least, it makes a big diffrent if i play the bassline with a Voyager or a virus or a Softwaresynth…
To tell you the truth, it really IS a matter of individual taste. I’ve got recordings made by some of my local friends. One group called Quallah Battoo included a keyboarist who used a digital Yamaha module to synthesize bass lines. And, another friend named Charlie Lang used to use a Korg 05r w module for bass simulations on his solo demos. They got the sounds that they wanted, and it works, but it probably also entailed doing more tricks with the EQ than with an analog synth.
Of course, many of my favourite classic recordings, Tears for Fears’ Songs from the Big Chair, Styx’ “Mr Roboto” and “Don’t Let It End,” Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required, Alan Parsons Project’s Stereotomy and the Toto IV album were done with a combination of analog and digital synthesizers.
Analog does have a much warmer sound (the closest digital contenders being the DX7 and its hybrid contemporaries with analog filters), but even the warmth of true VCOs or DCOs can’t be responsible for re-creating a piano sound, or a drum / percussion set. No-one who’s faithful to the sound should ever be ashamed, though. Dr. Moog was right. There’s a lot more that analog can do that digital can only come close to. If it can be helped, digital should probably be most frequently applied in areas where it’s most of use.