Why do so many big producers use only hardware?

H

Hologen

Guest
Since we're in a digital age and DAWs are what it's all about now, why do so many artists still use hardware exclusively? I can't think of many examples off the top of my head but two guys that I'm really into lately, Tiesto and Simon Posford only use hardware. I'm sure many of you can think of many others. Simon does this crazy "psychadelic trance" but really it's hard to classify at all, it's just a kaleidescope of music. His stage name is Hallucinogen and he is the main guy in Shpongle if any of you are curious.

Also, if any of you know that type of psychadelic/goa trance stuff, do you think it is even possible to tamper with that type of music in, say, FL studio? Even with the right plug-ins and no more hardware than a MIDI keyboard?
 
Or would something like Ableton Live be better for something that? I played around with my friend's Ableton for awhile, seemed like it had a lot of potential for weird ambient type stuff but it also just seemed counter intuitive to me.

The dust brothers use Ableton and I even found and played around with one of the sounds I recognized from the fight club soundtrack hehe so that was kind of cool.
 
FL was first created as a trance/techno type program...it kinda evolved into the all-in-one it is now.

I'd like to think that producers that use "only" hardware are very few and far in-between, and the ones that do 1) have the money to afford hardware expenses and 2) didn't hone their skills in the software era and want to stick to what they know.
 
That's probably true, but when you say they had more money I can't help but think there is a reason why they would choose to spend more money on that. But I think it's like you said, mainly just the guys that have been at it for a long time, way before DAWs

I also wonder if it's just more fun to be more actively engaged in something more "real"? Something you can touch.
 
The main argument that I can understand and somewhat agree with for only using hardware is ZERO LATENCY.
 
At the end of the day, when you're tired and high and don't have time to check and see if you remembered to set all the polyphony correctly to save resources, and turned off virus protection to conserve resources and also remembered to update every DAW \ Host \ Plug-in you own because your OS just install a gang of update. At the end of the day hardware works the same way without updates every time you use it.

STABILITY. That's why, is you have the money, hardware is still the business.

and latency. 8ms is killing me. I just can't feel it unless it 0ms. But software is the place to do post production. Just not pre, for me, anymore. :cheers:
 
Last edited:
A lot of people simply use what they know and like, for others its a workflow thing and a lot have switched over to daw. A lot of people combine both for the best of both worlds. Theres nothing wrong with hardware and there is nothing wrong with software newer doesn't mean better.
 
I think there are two main reasons. 1 most of the larger artists came up on hardware as they have been in the game since before DAW programs were so easily usable on home pc's and even macs. and even when they were the vsts were very basic. but now they got loot integrating hardware synths and what not is much easier when you have dough for lots of patchbays great preamp I/O etc.
then there is the issue of sound. most dedicated boxes that are worth anything sound great and have no latency...
i came up on hardware and have had to make the transition from hardware to software, but in order for me to do it "properly" for my work flow I had to invest in a large I/O and powerful mac in order to continue my original workflow (which was almost a waste considering once I really got into software i now find my self using hardware less and less).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top