My adventures into virtual synthesis and effects.
I have been experimenting with computers as sound making instruments since 2002.
I am currently using NI Reaktor, Propellerheads Reason, CoolEditPro, Stylus RMX, AAS Tassman , a bunch of freeware/shareware such as Triple Cheese and String Theory, and various plug-ins. (2025- Reaper, Ableton Live, Omnisphere, Zebra...) I'm particularly pleased with physical modeling software synthesizers. Tassman, Reaktor PM stuff, sounded great to me. (added Plasmonic, Outersect Modeler, and some newer stuff).
I dont like 16bit/44.1k digital CD audio qualility. I can hear the difference between 16bit/44.1Khz and 24/96. I mostly use 48Khz/24bit, and, unfortunately mp3 for some internet. mp3 and streaming are the absolute scourge of sound recording, imo.
I'm using PCs with windoze XP (7 and 10 now) as they are cheap. I mostly buy them used, then slap a new hard drive (SSD) or two in them. My main desktop pc (the Dragon) is a cheapo Gateway with an AMD6000 (a 3Ghz processor) and a Native Instruments Kore V1 audio interface. my newest laptop, portable noise-maker is Dragonfly, an HP with a core duo processor, 2 hard drives, and a strong constitution. (Update 2025, the HP really sucked)
In the interest of actually creating some music i try not to spend too much time doodling with new softwares, if i was just learning to play the violin i wouldn't play the, say, the clarinet, or harpsichord all the time. I consider each piece of software as a complex instrument that will take time to master.2007- Since i originally wrote that last sentence i have purchased Native Instruments Komplete, Ableton Live, the full AAS modeling suite, and Camel Audio Alchemy. So now i am experimenting with Absynth and Kontact and Battery and FM8...etc...so much for mastering just one or two softsynths.
Wow, it's now 2023, a decade and a half have passed. Just after that 2007 update i found an opportunity where i had a four bedroom house to occupy and i built a large electro acoustic jam room which had two homebuilt modulars, piles of old synths, and piles of weird noisemaking stuff and two computers for generating sound and one dedicated to recording it. I'm now back to mostly all virtual synthesis as my hardware is sitting in a storage unit. I'm using three laptops, one old Win 7 (which now functions only as an instrumant, which does internet, music, and other computerly, duties as well as some audio. I have a Win 10 i5 desktop waiting for upgrades, and an i3 waiting for Linux Mint. For virtuals i'm still using everything above plus a few more (Kaivo, Omnisphere, Zebra...) In about 2010 or so i did go back to using what i have instead of buying the new, shiny, shiny. I haven't bought a synth in years (I was given Zebra as a birthday present in 2022, and bought Pigments because the GUI is superb for my workflow).
Generative audio is all the rage now, when i started doing it there was no term for it. We did it with modular (1980) and called it "autopilot." With Reaktor and VCV Rack it's easy and fun to build large generative system. People have also been doing it for years with Reaktor and Max. The Reaktor UL has plenty of weird and wonderful examples.