| Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Hands on! Great to program if you have a knob for each parameter Real-time performance editing Looks great! Sounds better (yes they do!) Don't crash (often) No latency (yeah!) Smells nice! |
Expensive Repair costs Takes up space Harder to transport Some are hard to keep in tune Backing up patches is a pain |
| Plug-ins | Cheaper No repair costs! Portability Upgradeable Software often offers features hardware can't Web collaboration Easier to create and backup patch libraries Patches saved with projects Stays in tune Setup and patches are saved with a project/song Don't take up much space! |
Emulations don't sound like the real thing(?) Using the same CPU / DAW and DACs for all your plug-ins makes everything sound ... well ... kinda 2-dimensional Programming with a mouse sucks Latency Crashes You better have some CPU horsepower! Host software incompatibility problems Software/driver conflicts Latency!! |
Plug-ins vs hardware synths
We often receive emails from people who want to know which is best, software synthesisers (plug-ins) or hardware sound modules and keyboards. We're sitting on the fence for this one but here's s few thoughts to help you decide ...
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