THE DIFFERENCE: Hardware Vs. Software (video)

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biggs901

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I found This Video on youtube, He's speaking the truth on Hardware Vs. Software, good vid
 
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I sort of disregarded a lot of what he said (which I was already questioning in my head) when he talked about forcing unquantization after the fact. (as opposed to recording them that way)

not that I was looking for valuable information, but it's an interesting video, and a good number of people on here need to watch somethin like this.
 
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That was good to watch, some1 with an un-bias opinion on the whole software vs hardware arguement.
 
What's his point? I mean, really... Is it that software is better than hardware? Or vice-versa? Or is it that either one can be used to arrive at a desired sonic quality? I think this sh!t is so full of contradictions... It's a like one of those talk show hosts who go off topic and ramble on just b/c it's their show and they can say whatever.

But I appreciate his passion.

Cheers
 
there's no contradictions.
What he's saying is that software isn't better than hardware and vice versa.Those pieces of gear weren't made for hiphop initially.
Then he's right on the money when he talks about 9th wonder.
Yes,he uses FL but he samples from vinyl and knows how to use the fx to create that early 90's vibe,he doesn't uses stock sounds nor sampling mp3's.
And with using stock sounds,it takes a lot of time tweaking to get that typical hiphop sounds but that could still be dope though.
I know that Mannie Fresh was using the Eps 16+ and the sp-1200 for that Cash Money sound.
He's not exactly accurate but he makes a good point about un-quantizing...
The Late Dilla would never quantize his beats,just make them sloppy like Black Milk is doing now.
Madlib and Mf Doom are doing the same...
great vid by the way!!!
 
Look, all I'm saying is if anyone believes that any recording equipment (whether software or hardware) is going to achieve the ultimate quality in sound by itself, without any sound processing is fooling himself.

He A/Bs 2 different beats from 2 different formats... How can you get an accurate represntation of the differences/ nuances in these beats? Even if u use the MPC, you're still gonna have to use additional processing to fatten/ warm up your tracks...

Therefore, his video, while passionate, isn't necessarily enlightening; particularly when he's simply expressing his opinion, based on his experience. He said he felt his own tracks were missing something, or lacking a certain something, which, luckily for him, he found in hardware. That's good, but it only applies to him and isn't necesarily universal.

Peace.
 
He seems to be misinformed about the warmth issue.
mpc=clear, transparent.
Average joe budget soundcard=clear, transparent.

He admitted using stock drumkits in Reason, and building his own with the mpc....So there you go he just defeated his own argument right there.

Work twice as hard with software to get the sound of hardware?....Hardly.

The mpc is the worst example somebody can use for "warmth".
Emu, and Ensoniq yeah, but not Akai.

Akai has always been the choice of musicians who wanted the most transparent convertors in a hardware sampler.

Now emulating a convertor that wildly colors the sound takes some work to emulate with plugins, but to emulate the sound of a newer mpc only requires the simple operation of recording into a $100 soundcard. Not very hard to emulate a transparent convertor by recording into one is it?
 
Mattman04 said:
He seems to be misinformed about the warmth issue.

He admitted using stock drumkits in Reason, and building his own with the mpc....So there you go he just defeated his own argument right there.

Work twice as hard with software to get the sound of hardware?....Hardly.

The mpc is the worst example somebody can use for "warmth".
Emu, and Ensoniq yeah, but not Akai.

---------------------------------------------------

No man...this guy is right on the money about everything... He has a way better argument than any of us...myself included... Software isn't necessarily inferior, kids like me just push out this junk on FL studio and reason and call it hot.
He even called out all the cats justifying fl with 9th!!! 9th knows hip hop...he gets his sounds from VINYL and get that hardware sound. Hes right man...so for all yall using FL studio...get a moth@ f***ing turntable.

The mpc beat had more warmth than the reason one he played....you can get that warmth in reason, you do have to work harder man....i have software (FL 7) and I know man.

He didn't say one was better than the other, he just really dignified his point.

BTW He didn't contridict himself...its called an "EXAMPLE" and he used em before but now he doesn't.
 
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Comparing Hardware to Software is just being idiotic as a producer and the bottom line is hardware and software are meant to talk. Discrediting one over the other is just rediculous. There are practically NO all hardware or all software professional recording studios. It is the balance between the two that makes a facility pro.
 
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Sorry ben I did a comparison test with my mpc, and echo card.
Both are transparent it takes absolutely no processing to make a sample sound like it was recorded into a mpc.

That's really my whole argument.
The guy makes a few good points, but is misinformed, or just translates his opion wrong in a few spots.

But for real there is no mpc sound. It's a frikken crystal clear box.

Now ben if your computer has a stock soundcard I can see where your coming from since those are not the best convertors in the world, but step up to a Echo Mia, M-audio 24/96, or emu0404, and you'll see my point.
 
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@BenL - If you can hear the difference in "warmth" in the video, then you need to exercise your ears my dude. They were both recorded into the microphone of a piece-o'-**** handycam. HARDLY a scientifically accurate/unbiased experiment. There are a bunch of FL users on here who own turntables and sample from vinyl (I, myself, have 3 different ones).

And he's far from "on the money" about the **** he's saying. He makes a bunch of assumptions which, for the most part, aren't true about cats who know what they're doing. When he starts talking about how niggas shift their drums, I was like "oh, this nigga is misinformed". You want sloppy drums? Don't ****ing quantize. Want MPC 60/1k/2k/3k timing? Use the inferior 96 PPQN instead of the superior 960 PPQN. And stock sounds? I have yet to use any sounds included in FL Studio. I feel sorry for cats that do... Including duke who made the video. They're missing out. He buys drums and uses stock sounds in Reason and then knocks the quality? All his fault my man. He could have built drum kits for Reason. He CHOOSES to buy drums and use stock sounds.

I won't even expand on the "warmth" issue any further. Mattman covered that better than I ever could.

Furthermore, while I like Reason very much, it's not exactly the best piece of software to use for sampling. FL Studio puts way more tools at your disposal for sampling, right out of the box... Though I'll readily admit that the included instruments are subpar (to me, anyway... I'd much rather use Reason's instruments when composing). But hey, that's what VST's are for.

If his point was to use facts as a basis for his opinion, then this entire video is flawed, to be honest. All he did was tell us, in his own words: "I like the MPC better than software, but you shouldn't knock software because it does everything the MPC can do." I do like the fact that he's passionate abou his beliefs, and actually made an attempt (however contradictory) to show difference between the two.

-AD
 
The real bottom line between software and hardware?

Automation

Those who use software want two things, power for the money and ease of use.

Users of hardware want that classic sounds and feel of something tangible under your fingers.

The trick to it?

Learn how to meld the two together.

Power wise? pc's will surpass hardware.
And when you put it together right, it will be of great quality!

Hardware gives you everything right up front without the problems that pc's still have.

One of the things you need to look at that I love to do.

I take each piece of software and for a month or two str8, I like to use only that piece of software till I learn it in and out. What tweaks do what. How to make it do things it may not have been designed to do. etc etc.

I am a proponent of software myself.

But the trick is to make it do what the hardware does with the power of the software. imho.
 
no people,
he doesn't talk about the Mpc bringing warmth to the sound,from what I remember,he mentions 9th using Fl but samples from vinyl not mp3's or stock sounds.
That gives the warmth whether using the Mp or Reason and whatnot.
He loved and mastered Reason but was bored and got himself an Mp.
I'm not sure about when he talks about un-quantization if that makes sense.
But his point,whatever the option,sample from VINYL and build your own drumkits...lol
 
Ummm...that's ten minutes of my life I'll never get back.

1. Sample drums from Vinyl if you want that...that applies to both hardware and software. MPC's do nothing to add for this. I do only occasionally. I prefer layering clean acoustic drum samples with my ELECTRONIC drum synths for more THUMP and KNOCK and CRACK...I'll take THUMP and KNOCK and CRACK over barely noticed warmth any day of the week personally.

2. No sampler in ten years gives any warmth/color to the sound that I am aware of...and I've owned plenty in that time (and before). The 1000 certainly doesn't.

3. Good drummers aren't "off beat" (his exact words), they are like clocks. Off beat isn't natural, it is bad drumming. Ultra-tight quantize isn't the answer, but swing quantize gives it natural "feel", not "off beat".

4. If hip-hop never left that "grimy real traditional classic hip-hop blah-blah" sampled looped/sampled drum sound that was dominating the eighties and very early ninties...it'd be a tiny footnote of a genre by now (by all standards...sales, lawsuits, etc). That's the truth whether any "die hard" wants to admit it or not. Every genre needs variation and evolution or it diminishes. Real instruments and "digital techno sounds" saved production. If there was still only one "flavor" of beats..no one would still be listening except a few die hards and 90% of us wouldn't be making beats...and that would be bad.

P.S. Did anyone ever consider that musically, his Reason beat was ten times better than the MPC one (which we know he still uses Reason as a sound module)?

Glad he's happy, could've saved a ton of money and started sampling from Vinyl for Reason a long time ago, and then bought a pad controller to play his drums "off beat".

What a moron.
 
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trusty,
that was a pretty condescending post.I'm not defending the guy,but in records of the 60's and 70's,there were mistakes here and there,it was more about mood and feeling back then abd that,s really lacking in today's music.
Again,I'll take Madlib and Dilla(r.i.p),their composed beats are as dirty as their sampled beats.
Yes,evolution is needed but knowledge of classic hiphop is the foundation.If a budding producer understands what Marley Marl,Ced Gee,Paul C,the Bomb Squad(and many more)'s approach,terrific results could be made with real instruments and stock sounds regardless of one using Reason or a sp-1200.
 
Pimpmatik said:
trusty,
that was a pretty condescending post.I'm not defending the guy,but in records of the 60's and 70's,there were mistakes here and there,it was more about mood and feeling back then abd that,s really lacking in today's music.

Sure, but "here and there mistakes" weren't as common as you are suggesting, Actually, mood and feeling while playing on beat was extremely natural (and normal) for the very talented drummers in the era (most records were pretty flawless). He said "off beat" when he should've said "swing". Sounding off beat is quite the opposite of sounding "natural". Off beat sounds off beat.

Pimpmatik said:
Again,I'll take Madlib and Dilla(r.i.p),their composed beats are as dirty as their sampled beats.
Yes,evolution is needed but knowledge of classic hiphop is the foundation.

I don't dispute that, but that isn't the issue though. This guy gets a mpc (a 1000 at that), some vinyl, and thinks all of a sudden he's sounding classic? And my only point was that hip-hop would be dead if it never evolved from that foundation. And that is that truth.

Pimpmatik said:
If a budding producer understands what Marley Marl,Ced Gee,Paul C,the Bomb Squad(and many more)'s approach,terrific results could be made with real instruments and stock sounds regardless of one using Reason or a sp-1200.

I agree, but I also think that if another budding producer completely cared less what they were doing back then, and decided to find their own path they could also yield terrific results as well. I am not disputing your point on that though. I am disputing this guy in the video. An mpc (or even sampling vinyl) doesn't give anyone a connection to that era either...so his point is lost and he would also probably be lost if he didn't have a sampler that had 128 MB of RAM and waveform display.
 
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