Are softsynths now superior?

So, in our view – is it hardware or software that comes out on top? Perhaps the most beneficial result is to explore how you might use both to create real polysynth harmony…

As seasoned music technology journalists, we’ve been very much writing about the separate worlds of hardware and software polysynths over the last two decades. They’ve long been very different beasts in terms of cost, with hardware, and, especially vintage hardware synths being extraordinarily expensive. Software has – with one or two exceptions – always been the cheaper and more practical alternative. The ‘fight’ between the two types of synth has been rumbling for a while, but might we be approaching an amicable resolution? 2024 looks set to be the year when the barriers (and points of difference) between the the two fall.

Roland Zen-Core is perhaps the biggest example of this. It’s a complete hardware/ software ecosphere where you can load classic and modern synth sounds into hardware like the Roland Phantom or Jupiter-X, and take it anywhere, even using it as a plugin in your DAW. On a simpler level, we’re now getting hardware synths released with software counterparts thrown in for good measure; the Arturia MiniFreak is a prime example. You can buy this amazing polysynth as software, or buy it in hardware. Do the latter and Arturia throw the software version in for free.

While this is not completely new (we recall Novation throwing in the software version of its Bass Station in with hardware many years ago) it is the first time the match has been so integrated. These two different versions can be used separately, but together, it’s a joy!

In MiniFreak’s case, for example, the software is opened up and gives you more hands-on access to different tabs, pages and features, but the hardware gives you the tactile control you (might) yearn for. Of course, a hardware MIDI controller can give you the same effect, but the marriage here is perfect; no messing around with assignments, just synthesise, create and make tunes.

The interesting thing here is that the two synths sound identical as they’re both digital and use the same algorithms, so you might think “well, I’ll just use the software then”. But the price is not that great between them – the software costs around €150 and the hardware around €490 – thanks largely to the fact that hardware processing costs have fallen.

In fact, there has been a recent resurgence in hardware polysynths because those prices have fallen, not to mention that this new generation sounds a lot better and have far more hands-on controls than the not-so-easy-to-master digital synths of the 1990s. This means that we’ll probably see this marriage of the two synth types extend to many other brands as more digital polysynths come out.

And then, of course, there are the companies like Native Instruments who are exploring the opposite direction, where keyboards integrate deeper with software. We’ll likely see its latest ‘Kontrol’lers become more independent from the software they master, effectively becoming hardware workstations.

Either way, the days of us simply comparing hardware synths with software synths are probably numbered. And who wins? All of us.