Digital AND Analog Design with Toms @ Gamechanger Audio | Superbooth 2024

[@davidsharp3110]

Loving this series at Superbooth 2024. The conversation is great to hear from both sides.

[@indietonne]

And Anthony finds awesome people to discuss this topic. Thank you

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

Me too, totally love this channel ❤

[@ChrisMills-AmbientSpace]

Fun topic! I like knobs and am agnostic on the Digital vs Analog argument. What I am seeking is a particular character and tonal quality. And I’d like to be able to introduce a performative element into my own work. As an amateur I can’t justify the expense of gear and have taught myself heaps about signal processing using VCV Rack. The ultimate goal is to keep being creative and to remain curious and motivated to explore. Thank you for the exposure to so many different views, techniques and hardware with your channel. Grazie!

[@RobRippa1]

Amazing conversation love these view points !!! You know if I close my eyes, Toms sounds a whole lot like Junkie XL lol Great video Anthony, thank you for all you do. :)

[@C_F_M]

It's interesting to me that you mention hardware limitations as a benefit with analog gear where for me, I discovered a love for digital using really old and limited hardware for its character 🙂 It's all about doing what you can with what you have, anything you extract music from is an instrument

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

This is the best channel I have subscribed too. Best in-depth deconstruction of great music production, interviews with amazing musicians and song writers and the best debates about music technology and instruments. Bravo Anthony Marrenilli 🏆🎵🎶⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@johnnyrenfield]

Great info 🤘💀🍻🔥🙏

[@trolinjo]

What a great channel,simple but straight forward conversations...

[@olivergonzalez4574]

These interviews about analog cs digital are inspiring. It reminds me the debate between valve amps vs digital effects for guitars. But also the difference between Viv an electric guitar and an acoustic one. Thank you very much, Your videos from SuperBooth are great!

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

Or when Bob Dylan went electric.

[@tom.m]

Very interesting hearing these ideas discussed with someone from such a cool company as Gamechanger. Thanks!

[@gladlawson61]

I started in eurorack and thought analog was the only way to go and after alot of money I found out that it's a combination of both. They both bring character,both have draw backs, both have positives.

[@80sSynthMan]

Love the discussion Anthony! I couldn’t agree more that musicians and engineers need to work together to iterate on prototype instruments. The instrument’s ability to capture the musician’s imagination is paramount. A simple user interface with an easy to understand panel makes a major difference to the instrument’s perceived sound capabilities. Look at the Korg Poly 61. You can get creative analog sounds, but hard to get them out.

[@funkingitup1805]

At this point I think it is safe to say that the MatrixBrute's sound did not capture the mainstream's attention, but I think as far as a concept and interface, it is maybe the best formatted synth interface that has ever been developed. Digital control of analog components with CV capabilities and the easiest complex (oxymoronic I know) patching of any synth with user chosen macros right next to the keys. That is a masterpiece. If we ever some how get that level of interaction in an interface for a wide variety of high bitrate virtual instruments, then the world of synths is going to change. It will take some sort of industry standard, like agreeing to always set the filter cutoff to a specific MIDI or "MIDI 2.0" channel specification. Ultimately, I buy synths like I buy a sports car. I don't care what the horsepower is. I don't care what they said the lateral G-force is. I don't care if other people think it is ugly. I only care about how the sound, motions, and touch surfaces make me feel.

[@Jagjagula]

Would you cover the Christine score? It's amazing! "Moochies death" is such a killer track! John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

[@ezekielchentnik]

better is imperfection, imperfection is authentic

[@MorbidManoeuvres]

side question, just curious do you have/ use many digital synths ?

[@KingMJForeverAndEver]

💐💐💐

[@ezekielchentnik]

limitation is a catalyst for creativity

[@16914]

very intresting and understanding more. good works

[@Clupea101]

Great stuff as always

[@JeffPalmer83]

Even a lot of modern analog synths have digital elements. Like the modern Oberheim stuff: the OB-6 and TEO-5 have digital effects, although they can be bypassed. All of them, even the OB-X8, have digital envelopes. I have an OB-6 and I very much appreciate that the digital FX are there and can be saved per patch, as I use it live a lot. That would be really challenging to replicate with a bunch of analog pedals.

[@rosalindwebb7729]

Fabulous.❤

[@LuigiVincenti]

Great video ❤

[@russ254]

great topic!

[@JeffPalmer83]

Also, Korg has done some interesting synths lately that are fully digital but have a lot of hands-on controls: the Wavestate, Opsix, and Modwave. The hardware was really designed to match up beautifully to the digital software onboard the synths.

[@rosalindwebb7729]

This is amazing

[@theIpatix]

I think focusing on "does XYZ have knobs" instead of "is it analog or digital" is hugely important. There are quite a few analog synthesizers out there from the late 80s, which sound fantastic, but are a pain to program (I'm thinking about you, JX-8P and JX-10, hehe).

[@bcj842]

For those second--layer functions, the ideal design for the musician would be indicator lights or screens telling the user which parameter the pot corresponds to AS WELL as motorized pots or faders that switch to the set position of each parameter upon the switching of the layers. Unfortunately, functionality like that is very complicated and expensive to be practical for the manufacturer. You usually only see this feature in high-end mixers.

[@RobertFisher1969]

Just another point to consider: You could by an iPad, a MIDI keyboard, a Soundforce SFC-60, MIDI interface, and TAL-U-NO-LX. This would get you pretty close to the user experience of a real Juno-60 for significantly less than the price of a Juno-60. (As well as being able to do all kinds of things the Juno can’t.) OK…another one: Which is a better user experience-a Korg Minilogue or a Yamaha Reface CS? If more limited options are a positive, that point goes to the CS. Are more voices a positive? CS would get that one too. No need to wait for tuning on startup or retuning when it drifts? CS. Is no menu diving a positive? CS. I love them both, and for me, it really is a wash…but I think there are many ways in which the fully digital CS provides a better user experience than the analog-audio-path Minilogue. I really think the idea that digital music gear generally doesn’t care about user experience doesn’t hold water.

[@RobertFisher1969]

A huge part of the digital industry has been pushing for better user experiences since the eighties. (Although it started in the seventies.) And plenty of non-digital tech has awful user experiences. (Don’t get me started on the arrangement of settings for an automobile automatic transmission.) As most people you’ve been talking to tell you, the question isn’t analog or digital for music gear but both and has been since digitally scanned keyboards and digital preset management was added to analog audio paths. You’ll find plenty of digital music gear with built-in limitations and good user experience. And we need to push back on bad user experience even when it’s in mostly analog gear. The disconnect between knob positions and actual settings on the Prophet-5 may have been acceptable in 1977, but why is it still accepted today? We have the technology (e.g. encoders with LED collars or scribble strips) to address that but its far too rare, and the underlying technologies could already be better and less expensive and new solutions already developed if it were considered table-stakes.

[@edmc2]

👍

[@dEadnAstyrEcords]

It seems the real discussion is, or should be, about ears, and hearing. Neither, need a brain, you/we, to tell them how to do what they do best. Only, this idea that DA for others. Gets in the way of the real point. Is music D or A. Or, is music just music? As an artist, sound is sound, use it all. As a listener, it's more philosophical. As a Musician, it's personal expression. As a scientist, there are differences, but they're so imperceptible to 99.9% of us.

[@josephramone5805]

Shut up and play your [Synth] - Zappa

[@915Boss]

He forgot to say pause after saying "i like big nobbs" #nodiddy

[@RaquelFoster]

It's funny how the interface is the good part of analog synths, but a lot of the manufacturers don't even get it. I mean I love '90s romplers but they have awful interfaces. And then people started making decent analog synths with awful rompler-like interfaces! Like the DSI Mopho / Tetra. There are so many cool synths with horrible interfaces. It doesn't have to ALL be 1-knob 1-function, but most things should be. And there's a lot of good VA digital synths. I've never heard anybody say anything bad about a Nord Rack. So many good concepts fail at interface/UI/UX. Most engineers/designers/developers in the music industry (or any industry) are completely disconnected from the musicians/producers or whoever is actually using the device - but it's a very deep disconnect where the tech nerd building the interface is building things like you'd build a web app interface because he literally has no idea what musicians even do. I mean his company gave him some free online classes with a Certified Ableton Instructor, and he's a 25-year-old making $200k so he's pretty cocky/entitled and thinks he's a genius, but he doesn't have a clue about performing or producing. He just has this idea that he could probably be Deadmau5 if he wanted to but he'd rather smoke weed and watch gamers streaming on Twitch. So he doesn't know what he doesn't know. That's probably not actually as bad as the super-nerd designer/developer who DOES stream music on Twitch and thinks the Roland MT-32 is the best synthesizer ever made. Everything has some kind of granular/wavetable angle, and your cutoff knob is hiding in a submenu because we had to make room for circuit bent virtual SID chip oscillators. Nerds who have more Microcosms and/or Red Panda pedals than delays and reverbs. Speaking of guitar pedals, those have some of the worst interfaces ever. OMG Meris pedals are so good but the interface is so bad. I don't need 53 different kinds of barber pole phasers on my Polymoon. I just wish I didn't have to remember an esoteric chain of mini-LED-button presses to get to any of the modulation controls.

[@DawlessHouseMusic]

Digital doesn't mean, "fake".

[@ricgl84]

OK, seems like we're getting closer to an honest answer, if the 70s synths sound better because they are made of transistors, today computers are so advance and precise that we can make a clone that sounds equally that no human ear can differentiate between the two and then go further and make a cleaner signal. All those devices in Superbooth are just that, Raspberry Pi with knobs, faders and a screen, sure they sound pretty good, but they are simply computers. Is important to highlight another part of this conversation, this audio instrument market is just a fad, a fad fueling the GAS (gear acquisition syndrome), and us as users should be very aware of that. There is no new instrument/device/module in the last 24 years that has capabilities beyond what a computer could do.

[@darryldouglas6004]

The other consideration is that no two pieces of analog equipment sound the same. Each Moog has its unique characteristics. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that a digital device could emulate an analog device and sound exactly like one particular instrument.

[@ChrisMills-AmbientSpace]

@@darryldouglas6004I really liked the earlier notion that was shared where each instance of an iPad synth would have some intrinsic variation so no two would sound identical, and they would ‘age’ and develop additional character through use and over time.

[@darryldouglas6004]

@@ChrisMills-AmbientSpace Oh that would be awesome. 😃

[@michaelt_tamtam]

"Is it digital or analog?" Yeah man, does it really matter?

[@74goldenjet]

It does matter, as long as digital is claiming to be the same as the analogue when it clearly isn't. The day a digital Jupiter-4 sounds as good as the original, then it doesn't matter anymore. At least to me :)

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

I'm not fussed either way, as long as I can get hands on, I feel like I can express myself better using knobs, faders and switches. I wish/hope that they start making midi controllers that look like the vst that it's operating. Just the panels that we can connect to our keyboards through 5pin midi would be great.

[@roncoots3800]

Analogue = sex with another human being. Digital = sex with a plastic doll. Some people just like plastic.

[@inlasttonowhere4459]

@17:40 that's not true from my point of view. I'm an EE and I strongly disagree with us rushing our designs too quickly?!??? Yea.... that's the "commercial" department lying to you with smiles & trash talk. WE strive towards perfection. Not profit gains.... that sounded to me like "Profit Gains" at any cost. I disagree 🫤