[LAU] Off-topic: "A look at how the Behringer Model D compares with the Minimoog"

[Brent Busby]

robertlazarski <robertlazarski at gmail.com> writes:

[...]
> However imho, the magic of analog synths, compressors, eq, effects, and
> real piano comes alive before hitting the converters. After the converters
> so much is lost.
>
> IOW a double blind test of two of these synths in the same room before the
> converters, is the only way I would try to compare these things. Like in a
> music shop back in the day.

I think you're not giving converters these days enough credit.  I have
an RME card, but really these days even the cheap ones are sounding
pretty accurate now.  And I'm pretty hard to please when it comes to
analog tone, but even I can't complain much.  (Now, get me on the
subject of how everybody seems to be ditching high performance
dependable PCI-E cards for USB stuff, now that's another story.  At
least that has nothing to do with converter quality.)

I think the reason you get more of an impression of what an instrument
sounds like when it's you playing it in your studio, rather than on
someone's recorded music, is because you can play it by itself, with no
effects, and completely control what you're wanting to hear it do.  When
you listen to someone's song or demo, you've got their mix, their
effects, their playing, their patch settings, maybe even other
instrument tracks in the same mix crowding it out.  You never really get
to hear the instrument.  It's different when it's you driving.  You can
hear every little nuance, and you even expect to hear it, because you
played every note yourself.

So you can come away with the impression that the recording lost that
experience, possibly because the converters weren't good enough, but
really, you were never going to get that experience from listening to
someone else's track.

> That being said, I have no doubt the Behringer D is a huge step up from the
> plugins - best I can tell that is good enough reason to buy things for most
> people.

I have the Behringer D, and I have found it to be pretty good at
Minimoog bass.  On the highs, it really doesn't sing like the real
thing.  I've found that Synthesizers.com modular gear actually does have
a very Minimoog quality to it (oscillators and filters both), so if you
want that sound, it may be worth considering that for about $4000 or so
(just a little more than a real Mini costs), you could have something
with a nearly indistinguishable sound that's way more patchable and
expandable than a Mini, and also not forty years old.

-- 
- Brent Busby	+ ===============================================
		+ "The introduction of a new kind of music must
-- Studio    --	+  be shunned as imperiling the whole state, for
-- Amadeus/  --	+  styles of music are never disturbed without
-- Keycorner --	+  without affecting the most important political
-- Recording --	+  institutions."    --Plato, "Republic"
----------------+ ===============================================
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