Word, yeah dude every component in a system has subtle variables and affects the sound / output to some degree and the zeros and ones that make up a host / DAW should be no different to subtle effects of the wood that makes a guitar or the cartridge in a turntable. TBH, Renoise is the first tracker I have ever used and I don’t even regard it is a such, I cut my teeth on an Akai MPC2000 and a Korg prophecy before going all software, I simply regard it as a brilliant intergated sequencer / sampler / etc.
On the subject of the romanticism often bestowed upon the MPC, remember Renoise only constitutes the equivalent of an O/S on such a hardware sequencer/sampler as the MPC or Ensoniq ASR-X. A lot of the ‘sound’ of these things - which operated at 44.1 kHz is due to the fact that you had to put sounds into them through an external source and then route them out to record them via cables / mixer / soundcard. So before the signal even hits the computer or hard disk recorder (remember those?) it’s been through at least two D/A to A/D processes at the point of sampling the source material and then being routed out of the machine itself.
Even Renoise poster-boy Venetian Snare says he 'puts everything through a mixer" to make sure ‘it sounds right’ in the interview D/L in this post (cheers again Bantai!):
I think Richard D James / Aphex Twin summed it up pretty well*:
"some people bought the analogue equipment when it was unfashionable and very cheap though.
some of us are over 30 you know!
anyone remember when 303`s were £50? and coke was 16p a tin? crisps 5p
also you have overlooked A LOT of other points because its not all about the overall frequency response of the recording system its how the sound gets there in the first place.
here are some things which you can`t get from a plugin,they are often emulated but due to their hugely complex nature are always pretty crass approximations…
the sound of analogue equipment including EQ, changes very noticably over even a few hours due to temperature changes within a circuit.
Anyone who has tried to make tracks on a few analogue synths and make them stay in tune can tell you this, you leave a track running for a few hours come back and think I’m sure I didn’t fucking write that, I must be going mental!
this affects all the components in a synth/EQ in an almost infinite amount of tiny ways.
and the amount differs from circuit to circuit depending on the design.
the interaction of different channels and their respective signals with an analogue mixer are very complex,EQ,dynamics…
any fx, analogue or digital that are plugged into it all have their own special complex characteristics and all interact with each other differently and change depending on their routing.
Nobody that i’ve heard of has even begun to start emulating analogue mixer circuitry in software,just the aesthetics,it will come but i’m sure it will be a crap half hearted effort like most pretend synth plugins are.
they should be called PST synths, P for pretend not virtual.
Every piece of outboard gear has its own sound , reverbs,modulation effects etc
real room reverb, this in itself companies have spent decades trying to emulate and not even got close in my opinion, even the best attempts like Quantec and EMT only scratch the surface.
analogue EQ is currently impossible in theory to be emulated digitally, quite intense maths shit invovled in this if you’re really that interested,you could look it up…good luck.
your soundcard will always make things sound like its come from THAT soundcard…they ALL impose their different sound characteristics onto whatever comes out of them they are far from being totally neutral devices.
all the components of a circuit like resistors and capacitors subtly differ from each other depending on their quality but even the most high quality military spec ones are never EXACTLY the same.
no two analogue synths can ever be built exactly the same,there are tiny human/automated errors in building the circuits,tweaking the trimpots for example which is usually done manually in a lot of analogue shit.
just compare the sound of 2 808 drum machines next to each other and you will see what I mean,you always thought an 808 was an 808 right?
same goes for 303`s they all sound sublty different,different voltage scaling of the oscillator is usually quite noticeable.
VST plugins are restricted by a finite number of calculations per second these factors are WAY beyond their CURRENT capability.
Then there is the question of the physicality of the instrument this affects the way a human will emotionally interact with it and therefore affect what they will actually do with it! often overlooked from the maths heads,this is probably the biggest factor I think.
for example the smell of analogue stuff as well as the look of it puts you in a certain mental state which is very different from looking at a computer screen.
then there is analogue tape…ah this really could go on forever…
I’m quite drunk cant be bothered to type anymore…’
so yeah,whatever, you obviously don’t have to have analogue equipment to make good music in case that’s the impression I’m giving,EVERYTHING has its uses .And not all analogue equipment is expensive you can still get bargains like old high end military audio devices,tape machines fx etc just go for the unfashionable stuff.
Richard."
*Original thread has now been 404’d on planet-mu forum