(March 31, 2016 at 8:57 am)Alex K Wrote: Looks like there was this initial enthusiasm about simulating "real" instruments electronically, but from a modern perspective, this idea is really outdated. We can have a much better recreation of instrumental sound with digital sampling and signal processing. My Digital Piano recreates a Kawai Grand with meticulous detail down to sympathetic resonance. No need to synthesize a bad approximation using a handful of oscillators.
One has to view the "mogue" as an instrument in its own right - one would set it up to fail and not do it justice at the same time if one thought of it as a simulator of real instruments, as some people apparently did back then, when its real strength is the generation of completely new sounds. The fact that it is analogue makes it sound "organic" enough so it has the charm of a natural independent instrument rather than a cheap knockoff as with later synthesizers specifically designed to (badly) imitate real instruments.
Completely agree.
I actually really hated the digital synthesisers that came afterwards. The synth sound in 80's pop music always sounded terrible to my ears. But the moog never did. It actually sounded like a proper instrument. And it's a relief that synths nowadays are now good enough.
