The not legendary Alesis QS! The original 7 was my FIRST pro level synth when I first started. Took that thing back in a few days because $1000 for a “beginner” was just too much.
Anyway, I plug the thing in and I put my headphones in…and I was SHOCKED! This synth has 16mb of sample data…But it sounds better than Halion in every single way.
With buying all the synths I have been purchasing to compare to SKYFALL in the coming Synth Wars, I realized one thing…
There currently is NO SOFTWARE SYNTH that sounds better than even an old hardware synth like the QS. Not Sample Tank. Not Roland Cloud. Not U-He. Not a single one sounds better.
Why is this you ask? You were asking that. Admit it.
Here are the 3 main reasons in my humble opinion.
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Budget!
There has to be an exceptionally large amount of markup on hardware synths that people buying software wouldn’t tolerate. Having this level of profit enables you to buy the best recording engineers, have the best DAC on the outputs…etc etc. But MOSTLY it gives you the ability to hire: -
The WORLDS BEST sound designers. This is the main issue here. The sound designers that work to make the Montage M’s sounds are levels above a small company’s ability to compete. These dudes are Jedi Knights -vs- Me and You looking like a bologna sandwich.
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Mastering and Mixing
This is HUGE. When you listen to those hardware synths, they sound powerful. Deep bass. Not tinny. Dated, yes, but they sound like somebody went though those samples and mixed every single impurity out of the original waveforms.
Anyway, I just wish that the gap would close. 3k-4k for the best sounds is just nuts to me.