cunnilinux himself wrote: I think it's a stretch to suggest that people running hardware analogue modulars don't know how their instruments work. Sure, you may not know exactly how an oscillator produces the sound that it does, but you certainly know the kinds of sounds they can make, and how you can use those sounds and route control signals and apply a whole realm of different techniques to produce different sounds. I don't have an analogue modular, but I do have a very flexible VA synth (a Waldorf Blofeld), and the same applies. Yes, I can dial up a preset, but I rarely do -- I'm always digging in to its features and trying new things to produce new and interesting sounds. Though its UI is relatively limited (it's far from the knob-per-function UI you get on something like a Virus), I find that having a dedicated hardware interface is somehow more immediate and inspiring than using a mouse on a softsynth. Thanks Leigh