(Gearwire's Dan Agosto muses about rediscovering the hardware synths in his studio space)

So lately I've not been populating the virtual synth rack in my DAW as deeply as I used to. It's been a while since I've fired up the hardware modules in the studio I share. But now all of a sudden I can't stop using them.

They are all ROM-based and not highly programmable but the high number of available patches they provide coupled with fact that I found patch organizers to download for them has made finding sounds that fit a snap. This may be a surprise to those who have seen the list of plug-ins that I've loaded the PC we use on Gearwire Crosstalk. (Yes, it is ridiculous.)

Now perhaps I am a little burnt out on plug-ins. However there are some very tangible benefits to using outboard hardware tone generators:

• Hardware won't slow down your computer
• Sometimes, a plug will crash or freeze, hardware almost never does
• In the case of samples, load time and patch changes can be made more seamlessly during playback

Some of the less tangible benefits can actually be introduced from the inconveniences caused by using external modules. Let's say that you have completed a piece composed entirely of MIDI and now you want to mix it down and burn a CD. On some of the tracks you used virtual instrument plug-ins, on others you used an external tone generator. On the tracks where you used plug-ins all you would normally have to do is highlight your tracks and bounce the mix down. With hardware, you need to record the audio from the synth into your computer. Although this is an additional step, it allows for two possible advantages in the work flow.

First, this extra step presents us with the opportunity to use some of our dusty old hardware signal processing units. Instead of plugging it straight into your audio interface you can get some grit on it with a compressor, warm it up with a filter, perhaps some spring reverb, or any myriad of things you can think of. Maybe you want to go really crazy and plug it into your amplifier so you can mic it up (FYI, if it is a guitar or tube amp turn down the output volume of the synth, or even better get a re-amping box before doing this).

The second benefit to your project is the fact that you are actually recording into your audio interface. Unless you have a synth hooked up with a digital connection like S/PDIF the sound has to go out of the tone generator, into the interface, and then get converted into digital data. Each of these steps will do something to the sound. Whether or not these are good things depends on your taste and the quality of the components in your interface. One thing is for sure, the sound is being recorded, not calculated by a computer as with plug-ins. As long as your interface is decent enough this little bit of imperfection that is introduced helps the track "sit" a little better in my opinion. What this means is that it meshes together with the other elements of the mix in a more pleasing way. Although it may seem esoteric to some, this is what is referred to as "magic" in some circles.

Just this weekend I was demoing a rock song and instead of firing up the old drum sampler plug I decided to fire up the older synth rack instead. For a little back-story, I am not what you would call a solid drummer. Since I am making demos for a band with a solid drummer I prefer to sequence the drums and of course I want it to sound good. My rack is populated with a few 90's era synths in the same genre as the Emu Proteus, which means they all have samples stored inside internal read only memory. Each is hooked up to the MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV for MIDI routing. The audio of each synth goes into a dedicated MOTU 828mkII so there is no patching necessary but I can patch out if needed.

The results? While looking for sounds my setup allowed me super simple patch and synth selection without the trouble of loading between patches. I ended up using an acoustic patch from a first gen Yamaha Motif Rack. Unsurprisingly I felt like the PC, a healthy 2.1GHz single processor, was also a bit more peppy than usual. Since all the computer had to do was send out MIDI it had plenty of processing power to spare for recording and playback of live tracks as well as dealing with my standard effect sends.

As far as sound, it was just as convincing as any of my software drum samplers (of which I have more than a few). As anybody who regularly sequences drums knows, there are ways to make samples sound more realistic (alternating samples during a roll is one of many). I found that the steps to do this with the two main models that I used (the other a Roland XV-5050) were at least on par with the capabilities of most samplers. As for the magic? Well, I must say after recording the audio from the synth into my sequencer it needed neither eq or compression to sit just right with the other instruments. I felt like I was able to mix the drums louder than I usually might without masking the other instruments or needing additional signal processing in comparison to the samplers.

Now, I'm not even near giving up virtual synths. I'm not even on the same planet as that idea. The convenience they provide is inarguably valuable. However, I know there are a lot of you out there with tone generators just collecting dust while your computer is chugging away trying to keep up with all the VI's you have running on it. I also know that there are plenty folks out there who have never touched a tone module from the late 80's or 90's era FM or ROMpler units. To the first group I say plug those old units in and remember how things used to be not all that long ago before the VI revolution. You won't regret it. To the second group I say get on ebay, and purchase a unit from one of those other guys that isn't taking my advice. There are lots of Yamaha's, Roland, Emu's, even some Waldorf's all waiting to be snatched up in the used market for ridiculously low prices. Do a search for "tone generator" or "synth module" on the 'bay and you will see. While the cheaper ones may not be as realistic as the Motif in I used in the example above they have a lot to offer. They use the same MIDI controllers as your soft-synths so you probably have most of what you need to run one.

For more info on my synths, and to sound off with your synths or opinion on synths visit this thread in the Gearwire Forums.