The Logic Off Topic list

>From: Tony Thompson <tony@...>
>  >  > Slightly (un)related... something I've been wondering about a lot.
>>   > Why is it that 99% of all VST synths seem to be emulations of really
>  >  > old gear?  Hammond B4, mellotron, Rhodes piano, Clavinet, old digital
>>   > gear like the PPG Wave, an endless array of analog synths, etc -- the
>>   > list goes on ad infinitum.
>>
>>I hear what you're saying here, HJ, but many of these sounds have had an
>>appeal which is more than just nostalgia.
>
>I know -- like I said, coming from the 70ies myself, I know all about
>drooling over photos of Moog Modular systems, the love for Hammonds,
>Mellotrons and the like.  It's just that there's been so many more
>interesting instruments since then...  And what do we seem to want?
>Mini Moogs and analog step sequencers...

Some theories:  Recent hardware synths are easy to come by therefore 
why emulate one when the real thing is probably sitting right there. 
Older stuff on the other hand can cost a fortune and is probably 
broken to boot.  Older stuff had more unique character, if you 
emulate a nice moog type thing its more clear what you are doing than 
if you emulate the latest Roland that sounds like the latest Akai 
that sounds like the latest Yamaha.  As has been pointed out 
emulating a recent synth would probably be far more CPU intensive. 
Older stuff usually had few voices as did the first virtual synths.

The evolution of virtual synths it seems also virtually emulates the 
evolution of the hardware synthesizer. I expect this trend will 
continue and within a couple of years when the next generation of 
3,4,5 ghz Macs and PCs come out there will be parity.  I'll betcha in 
5 years virtual instruments will have so totally surpassed hardware 
ones that, although people will continue to use hardware, it will be 
more out of a sense of retro aesthetic than anything else


>  >even more often to quirks of sound due to the hardware limitations
>>of the time (hence the to me unfathomable interest in Mellotrons,
>  >which I can't really get into at all).

Hendrik Jan Veenstra wrote:
>:-)  There's something about a melltron that no symphony orchestra
>has.  An absolutely wonderful sound.  I'm not sure I would seriously
>use it myself though, nowadays.  That's probably my whole point...

Mellotrons have a wonderful way of being very present in a rock mix 
without overpowering it where real symphonic instruments might tend 
to either dominate it or at the other extreme sound like "background".