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Looper's Delight
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This kind of reminds me of the whole vinyl vs. cd debate of years past. Virtual Instruments and hardware are different, and in some ways hardware is better, but vitural instruments, have _so_ many advantages. I think Anderton is right that there is something fundamentally different about virtual instruments that does make them disposable. I sold my hardware to pay for my software--but I'm not going to be able to sell the software later to buy something else. Stylus RMX, for example, specifically prohibits resale in the license agreement, and there just doens't seem to be much of a resale market for software. Maybe software will become "collectable", but it would have to be in a different manner than hardware. I can imagine a future for "boutique" computer builders who would construct systems that run or emulate old operating systems for people who are attached to old software. I think there is some of that going on now amoung people who collect computers. While this disposability is somewhat worrying, is it a big deal? I don't think so. Virtual Instruments are so cool in so many ways, I'm happy to live with the trade offs. For someone with limited money and space (like me) I think they are a boon. And, the financial investment in software is comparitively small, so designers can make really cool, strange stuff that could never be "built" for a reasonable cost. If you haven't checked out the plug-ins at http://www.xoxos.net/ by all means do so. "discipline2" is a very cool delay (sort of looper?) described as "discipline2 thanks to brokengadget for the inspiration. take signal, delay, no feedback.. feed output of delay thru other delay.. repeat for total of five delays. add a randomised switcher to select taps, sync it to the beat, make it stereo. here is your sound, your sound, sound, here, here, sound, is, is, your, sound, is your.. disc2 adds a q-style probability clock so that randomisation sequences can be repeated" And it's free! I've been using discipline2 with Mobius and it's crazy. I could have never put together a rig like that with hardware. On 10/27/05, Kelly Coyle <kellycoyle@charter.net> wrote: > I find Anderton's article interesting in that it made me think about > my own patterns. VSTs are about perfect for me because I'm really > whimsical about electronics -- nothing lasts too long -- but > reasonably loyal to strings. Keep the Tele and trade the Lexicon. > With a VST host, whenever I'm bored I can change everything out for > new, free or nearly free, stuff. (Although I'll probably pony up for > a commercial delay plug...) I doubt that I'll get particularly > devoted to anything enough to worry about 2030. The main downside for > me is that the resale value of the Receptor (or a laptop) will be > pretty much nil after a year or two, whereas I've never really lost > money on rack gear or pedals (since I rarely buy new). But I have > rationalized this as follows: for a couple-three hundred dollars a > year (as my VST player degrades) I get pretty much infinite plugins > to goof around with. Most of the "fun" plugins aren't so deep that > you need to devote a lot of time to them anyway. > > Although, in the same breath I will admit I was looking hard at the > Eclipse. I don't know if that's the sort of "instrument" you spend > years and years with, or whether it just baits you into saving for an > H8000. Maybe when my day job improves! > > -- Art Simon simart@null.net http://art.simon.tripod.com http://artsimon.iuma.com