Analog vs Virtual Analog vs Software Synths - What's Right For Me?
Analog synths? Virtual Analog synths? Digital? Virtual synths? There's so much out there, and so much contradictory information, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed right now.
If you're new to synthesizers, or music production in general, and have been browsing forums and Facebook groups, you might be feeling a little lost right now. And that's normal. There is a lot of info out there, and no two synth users will agree on exact definitions of anything.
But we'll try and simplify a few things for you as best we can, and help you find the right synth type for your music.
ANALOG
The grandaddy of synthesis, and the original gold standard by which most synthesis forms are judged.
At its core, analog synthesis is little more than sound that’s generated by running an electric current through a circuit that directly outputs the voltage as a musical note.
Variances in tone, timbre, etc, depend on the circuitry used, the specific voltage, and even the operating temperature of the synth.
Purists and many live performers tend to like Analog synthesis because it tends to sound “warmer” or “fatter” than other kinds of synthesis.
While the terms themselves are subjective, and somewhat vague, there are common elements of analog synthesis that yield those descriptors.
One key element of analog synthesis is that the sound is generated by direct application of electric current through physical wires. Analog circuits, especially in older synths, tend to behave a little unpredictably, and variances in temperature within the synth can affect conductivity of the components, and the action of different components.
The most obvious effect this has is Tone Drift. Old analog synths, and even a few newer synths, will drift ever so slightly in and out of tune over time, and this tonal fluctuation lends a more unpredictable, natural musical quality to sounds.
And in a similar vein, analog circuits are also prone to mild signal distortion, either from deliberate pushing of the sound past its limits, or because the circuitry is behaving oddly under heat.
That subtle distortion, known as Saturation, adds additional harmonics into the sound, creating richer, more complex tones with no additional work on the musician's part. It's a close cousin of the grit and power an electric guitar undergoes when it is run through overdrive or distortion pedals - albeit in a more understated way.
The saturation of analog synths generally tends to occur in the midrange bands, so brands like Moog are highly prized for bass sounds because the lower mids feel richer and heavier, and fill out the bottom end of mixes better.
So analog synthesis lends itself to live performances and sounds where a more “natural” or “real” feel is desired. That's why Moog, Oberheim, Dave Smith Instruments, and 80s Roland synths were popular and prized in the rock and funk genres for decades.
On the flipside of that coin, analog synths tend to be more expensive, because more components are required to manage the different aspects of sound generation and manipulation (and that's just for monophonic synths. Polyphonic analogs get really expensive really fast).
They also tend to be more limited in modulation options and available oscillator waveforms, and the variety of sounds you can make on them is a bit more restricted. And that previously-mentioned tone drift can become problematic and require frequent re-tuning to stay musically-useful, particularly in studio settings and in genres where perfect tuning is necessary for the duration of 7 minute songs.
Analog Synthesis
Pros: Richer more natural sound, easier to make basic bread & butter sounds with
Cons: More expensive, more limited in options and capabilities, tuning sometimes required
VIRTUAL ANALOG
Born in the 90s, Virtual Analog synths grew out of the digital synthesis revolution of the 1980s, and tried to emulate the tonal characteristics of traditional analog synthesizers, while using digital circuity and code to generate audio signals. For manufacturers, this drove down the cost of production substantially, and opened up new possibilities in the realms of polyphony, effects, and modulation capabilities.
Once freed from requiring dedicated chips, capacitors, and circuits for each individual voice, companies like Clavia, Roland, Yamaha, Novation, and Access took the new DSP chips available to them and created synths that roughly approximated the sounds of classic analog synths, with the polyphonic power and flexibility of the novel digital synths popular in the 1980s.
With Clavia leading the pack in the mid-90s with the Nord Lead series, other music gear companies quickly jumped on board, and entire genres sprung up to take advantage of virtual analog’s popularity.
Early virtual analog synths tended to sound more bright and airy and rough compared to true analog synthesizers, but for many producers, this was a good thing. And the ability to make big complex sounds that mimicked some of the better tones from monophonic analog synths made them immensely popular in the burgeoning Trance, Psytrance, and Drum & Bass scenes.
Another facet of Virtual Analog that has made it desirable is the constant reliable tuning of VA synths. As everything is digitally-generated and controlled, environmental factors don’t influence the tuning of a VA synth. So there’s no need to wait 5 minutes for your Nord to warm up to stay in tune!
Over the ensuing decades, VA technology has slowly closed the gap on the difference between Analog and Virtual Analog sound quality, although there are still some noticeable differences between the sounds.
Another major draw to VA synths is the frequent inclusion on onboard effects, equalizers, and special settings, to further enhance the sound. Roland, Novation, and Access were early pioneers in including high quality effects in their early VA synths, and the JP8000 Chorus, or Virus Phaser, became as much a part of their sound as the actual oscillator code. Those effects often became a part of the synth’s draw, further fueling the popularity of VA synths.
An interesting development that has cropped up in the last few years is digital and virtual analog hybrid synthesizers that utilize true analog filters, to add additional richness to an otherwise flat digital tone, and it is making some waves in the industry as producers start to take advantage of these new component combinations. Waldorf and Novation have been pioneering in this territory (the PPG Wave of the 80s was an early hybrid synth in this terrain), and other manufacturers are picking up on it and running with it as well.
Virtual Analog Synthesis
Pros: More available polyphony, onboard FX, lower cost, more modulation options
Cons: Not as “rich” sounding as Analog, more complicated to design sounds on, still has polyphony limitations
DIGITAL SYNTHS
As the heading implies, Digital Synths are entirely software-based internally, while still running on physical components for sound sculpting and design. While they share much with Virtual Analog synthesizers, there were a few differences between classic Digital Synths and later VAs that makes them worth a separate mention.
Starting in the 1980s, companies like Synclavier, Yamaha, and Casio pioneered a number of digital synthesizers, most notably Yamaha’s DX7, which was a key player in popular music throughout the 1980s.
Digital synthesis in the 80s veered heavily away from emulating traditional analog tones, and new novel forms of synthesis became a fixture of digital synths in that era. Frequency Modulation (FM), Linear Arithmetic (LA), Wavetable, and Amplitude Modulation (AM) synthesis were the most notable forms of purely digital synthesis in this era.
The sounds were clean, bright, precise - often metallic, ringy, and sonorous tones that lend themselves well to recreating piano and bell-like sounds, and crunchy plucked bass tones. They were not intended to sound analog, and it was challenging to recreate analog-type sounds on them. These keyboards tended to be difficult to program, due to the depth of their programming capabilities, and because manufacturers scaled back on external parts to drive costs down. Some of the more famous digital synths of the 80s had sparse, minimal interfaces, that demanded deep menu diving and side scrolling, and most musicians opted to use stock presets instead (which is why so many pop songs of the 80s sound suspiciously similar).
Despite the difficulties inherent in sound designing with novel and unusual sound generation types, they were heavily used, and cottage industries sprang up to cater to users of those synths, and they endure in popular music both in their classic vintage housings, as emulations in newer units, and as modern software synthesizers.
Despite many of the digital and wavetable synths of the 80s being long out of production, you can still find their descendants everywhere - the Waldorf Blofeld, Native Instruments Massive and FM8, xFer Serum, and countless others have roots in the digital synthesis of the 1980s.
Digital Synthesis
Pros: Brighter, cleaner, capable of more complex modulation than Analog or VA, less expensive
Cons: Difficult to design on, may sound too cold or clinical, difficult to make analog-style sounds with
SOFT SYNTHS
The new kid on the block. Softsynths are, as their name implies, synthesizers that do not exist in the physical world, but live entirely as software on a computer as code and graphics. These are the most commonly-used types of synthesizers today, and are ubiquitous worldwide.
They originated in the mid-90s around the same time as Virtual Analog synths were taking off, but because of processing and hardware limitations in PCs at the time, they were far more primitive and sterile-sounding than their hardware contemporaries.
The early 2000s was the era softsynths really came to the fore, with plugins like z3ta+, Nexus, Vanguard, and a handful of others becoming available as computing power and audio processing improved.
Today, there are hundreds of softsynths on the market, doing everything from emulating classic vintage analog synths, to plugins that let you morph and manipulate grand pianos into alien noises. An increasing number even rival Analog and Virtual Analog synths for sound quality and richness, and for most listeners, they may not even notice a difference.
Softsynths provide limitless opportunities for sound sculpting and design, and are usually more affordable than hardware (and more portable).
As their functionality is limited mainly by the power of the user’s PC, polyphony, modulation, effects, etc, what a producer can make with them is almost endless.
Issues that softsynth users most frequently encounter are issues like user authentication problems with licenses (as in cases where the internet goes down, or a server goes offline), or system updates rendering plugins incompatible with their hardware, or a plugin requiring more power than a PC can handle, and causing stutters or system crashes. Sound designing on softsynths can also be more challenging, as one has to work effectively one-handed for all modulation moves, since a mouse can only tweak one parameter at a time, thus slowing down workflows.
Some softsynths may also sound too sterile, flat, or clean, compared to analog or virtual analog synths, and some music producers may find that unappealing (even if those same qualities allow for making a cleaner mix). Developers of the 2010s and onward have coded features into their softsynths enabling users to mimic some of the peculiarities of analog synths in their sounds, and included effects that emulate popular hardware filters, compressors, and equalizers, so the gap between analog and software synthesizers is quickly closing.
And with MIDI controllers becoming ever more sophisticated and control-laden, the ability to control VSTi parameters on-screen using physical controls is now more affordable and easier than ever, further blurring the lines between PC software and hardware synths. This does require extra steps however, so while it adds convenience, it is still not quite the same as dedicated controls on a hardware unit. But for many, this doesn’t matter.
Software Synthesis
Pros: Less expensive, more portable, more synthesis capabilities, more polyphony than hardware
Cons: Occasionally not as “rich” of a sound, authentication or licensing problems rendering projects unusable, CPU/ RAM overloads, more time-consuming to design sounds on, requires additional steps to map parameters to MIDI controllers for hands-on editing
Ultimately, what type of synthesizer suits your needs is up to you. Whether you need convenience, portability, a fat sound, or specific sounds from a certain cherished musical era, there’s a type of synthesizer for you.