I think it all depends on the sound you want to get out of any synth. To me, I prefer an analog synth (such as the Moog Phatty) over a digital synth. What I like about most (if not all) analog synths is their ability to pitch down their oscillators to the lowest note till you hear their single cycles. For example, on the Moog Phatty, if you were to pitch down and play a square-wave oscillator to its lowest note and play the lowest note on the keyboard's lowest octave, then you'll hear the sound in its single waveform-cycle which sounds like deep, fat heart-beat sounds that could blow your speakers. Adjust the pulse-width, then you'll hear every two cycle-beats closer together.

But if you did the same thing on a digital synth, then what you'll hear of its single-cycled square-waveform (at the lowest pitch) are just digital-sounding 'ticks'.

The only digital synths that are capable of producing (almost) fat, heart-beat-like pulsating sounds at the lowest cycles of a square-wave oscillator like that of analog synth(s) are the Nordlead 1 and Nordlead 2, 2x, etc.

In any case, I am a person who loves pure analog sound. And when it comes to digital synths that emulate or physically model analog synths are the Nordleads. No other digital synths (whether hardware or software) in my experience were ever capable of producing sounds like the heart-beat. To me, that is the ultimate test. That is how I test digital synths by pitching down only one of their oscillators till I hear the single-cycles. If I hear ticks, then they're CRAP.

Again, depending on what kind of sound(s) you like. If you like the Roland pads and such, then stick with the Rolands. But if you like real and true analog, then by all means go for the moog Phatty.

I have an old Moog Prodigy, Phatty and Minimoog Voyager. I am able to produce sounds on those analogs that digital synths could never produce. For example, sounds like zaps and clicks!

Here's a link of my custom samples of zips/clicks which I've personally recorded from my old Moog Prodigy analog synth. It is a zip file.

The file contains over 300 one-shot samples of fat zaps/zips/clicks. The soundfiles are numbered. The very first soundfile with the "00" number is the entire continuous recording of all the zaps for you to hear them in one go. And the files numbers "01" and above are sound-files which are the cropped/individual zaps, each one stemming from the "00" soundfile. Each zap are slightly different in texture, as I was turning the Moog's knobs in realtime.

http://homepage.mac.com/cavecybernation/moogzaps.zip

Zaps that good (in my experience) are next to impossible to achieve with digital synths.

Analog = voltage = MAMA-MIA.

Edited by Hashmoder (15/06/11 12:54 PM)

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