My choice of going to all softsynths happened for a few reasons.

First, I'd like a roomful, but I cannot afford to buy every piece of hardware I've ever coveted. I have many softsynths
( mostly commercial with a few good free ones to boot ). I think if I add them all up, I spent less than I would have on a Voyager.

Second, space considerations. I have enough room in the home studio, but not when I have other musicians, their equipment, and a full drum set.

Last, I have a working knowledge of electronic repair, but I have not worked much with synths. I also have no desire to repair things any more, particularly synths. A lot of the vintage gear out there needs some work, and if it doesn't now.. eventually it probably will.

So.. I went to softsynths. Not a perfect solution at all vs hardware, but certainly the right choice for me. I live with the controller issues, and really, for simpler things like the Legacy Poly6 or MS20, almost any controller that has some assignables will do enough to keep me happy.

It's not only about vintage and analog emulations for me. Some of the sample sets I have easily outperform anything comparable in my Motif ES.

Again, the x factor for me being FL studio. It makes it so much easier to configure and save. It has it's own "midi learn" function, which saves a lot of time. You just pick your parameter, call the midi learn function up, and by touching the controller you want to assign to your chosen parameter, it sets itself up automatically.

Yep, given the choice, I'd rather have the resources and space to acquire all the hardware I want. Sincethat isn't happening anywhere in the forseeable future, softsynths are my next best option.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 01-28-2005).]