Hardware vs. Software - The eternal battle.
Who wins?
In the past 10-15 years music technology has made some huge leaps both in hardware and software. DAWs have become incredibly capable, plugins have been able to replicate every type of instrument & effect, and hardware instruments have seen many innovations and improvements. Music gear is more accessible than it ever was, and nowadays, anyone can have a fully capable music studio in their home.
All these advancements have given people all around the world the opportunity to record their own music, experiment with new instruments, and release albums. The term “producer“ has a whole new meaning since it now includes a teenager with just a laptop with a DAW & plugins and a professional producer with a fully-fledged music studio filled with outboard gear.
And now that all of us have used and tested both software and hardware instruments, effects & utilities for music production, the question still lies. Which one is better? Hardware or software? While there is not an objectively clear answer, I’ll try to lay down my thoughts and answer this question for myself and possibly you.
Recording - An undisputed winner
The area where the answer is the simplest is DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation). DAWs revolutionized the way music is made and since they are accessible to everyone a whole new generation of producers & artists has emerged and started recording their songs on their laptops just by using their DAWs. A DAW is essentially a digital representation of a music studio. It is a recorder and a mixing desk, it has software instruments & effects and can become the host for every type of music gear. But for now, we’ll just focus on its recording capabilities.
In a DAW you can record unlimited layers of sounds, arrange them, edit them, and create a finished track. Its hardware counterpart would be a digital recorder or an analog tape recorder. Tape recorders were used for many years in studios and it was the standard for music recording. They had limited channels where you could record and everything was printed to tape. You could not really edit it or re-arrange it so you had to do a perfect take of a full song to consider it done. While it’s definitely a fun and challenging method to make music, nowadays it does not make a lot of sense to use a tape recorder as your only way to record songs. A digital recorder is somehow similar, just with more tracks and still has a lot of the limitations that a tape recorder has.
So, in terms of recording your music, a DAW, which is of course software, is a far superior solution. And even though the DAWless movement still has a lot of fans, it’s just a fun way to jam and record demos rather than an actual way of recording release-ready tracks.
Utilities - A huge gap
Another category that still has a big gap between software & hardware is utility gear (or at least I call it this way). If you’ve ever visited a professional studio, you’ve definitely seen those rack-mounted effect boxes that are pre-amps, saturators, compressors, etc. Although there are lots of home studios that also have those types of outboard gear, it is not a very common hardware type of gear for most artists and producers.
These types of effects have a very specific usage and their effect is quite subtle to the untrained ear. And plus, these are very expensive pieces of gear that you’ll need to be fully committed to investing in and that’s why most people tend to use software versions that cost way less or are even free. There are not many people who can hear the difference between an outboard vintage compressor that costs over 2K to the stock compressor in Ableton so spending that amount of money doesn’t make any sense.
Mixing & Mastering
When it comes to mixing a song, 99% of producers do it in their DAW. Especially in Electronic Music where a song may have more than 50 or even 100 tracks, it’s impossible to mix all those using a mixer. You could group things and fit them in 24 - 32 tracks (depending on the mixer) and mix them there, but that’s not something common. On the other hand, Mixers are still a very popular type of gear but their main usage is to enable you to connect multiple instruments when your audio interface doesn’t have enough channels. You can also apply some basic EQ to your sound but most producers prefer to record their signal dry and then EQ it using plugins which is more convenient, not destructive, and more precise.
For Mastering, most people just use plugins. There are tons of mastering plugins out there that get the job done perfectly so fewer and fewer musicians rely on expensive mastering gear. Plugins like Ozone have become industry standards and have taken the place of multiple hardware processors so to take the step and invest in outboard gear for mastering means that you take this extremely seriously and you know what you’re doing.
Effects
Now let’s go to the fun part! Effects! If you’ve followed us for a while, you’ll know we love effects pedals and we’ve featured a ton of them on our website. Effects are an essential ingredient in your sound design process and can make or break a patch. The market is flooded with pedals and, of course, plugins so you need to justify your need for hardware effects. To better sort this out, let’s analyze each option!
Software
Software has much fewer limitations compared to hardware resulting in more features and options. On a single plugin, you can find tons of algorithms, deep controls, and a plethora of options to customize your sound. Plus, you don’t have to “print” the effect on a recorder sound. You can record your synthesizer and then comfortably try any effect you want. There are lots of quality software effect plugins that offer you the flexibility and options you want without having to use a huge pedalboard. The convenience of using software effects is undeniable and can improve your workflow and its speed.
Another important thing is that software effects are way cheaper than hardware ones. For the price of a budget effects pedal, you can buy a whole suite of effects and have a complete effects library to work with. There are also hundreds of free software effects that are actually very useful and well-made so if budget is an issue, you can certainly get a really good collection of effects without spending any money!
Hardware
On the other side, there are hardware effects. Those can be guitar pedals or rack effects. I, personally, use lots of guitar pedals and I’m a big fan of hardware effects. The reason? I find it easier to just choose the effects I want, set up my sound, and just record it. I don’t want to spend lots of hours trying out software effects, testing out presets, and getting lost in the countless possibilities that they offer. And that’s a common issue for lots of producers. Once you have a solid collection of pedals you enjoy, you can dial up a sound you like fast and actually listen to the end result while you record it.
Another crucial factor is the sound. Analog pedals cannot be replicated with a plugin. And that’s a fact. But even digital pedals have their own, specific sound. So, if you use them for your productions, you’ll eventually get a sound of your own that stays consistent and becomes recognizable. Most software plugins have a very basic and vanilla sound. It’s just a delay or just a reverb. While a pedal has its own character with its flaws and its strengths, and the journey of finding your favorite sounds on it is very rewarding and educational. Plus, having a hardware unit on your desk or on your pedalboard enables you to tweak it and play with it until you find the settings you want. This way you can get more creative and use sounds you wouldn’t normally do with a plugin.
Lastly, there is latency. If you’re playing live shows it’s almost impossible to have zero latency in order to be able to use software effects. So in this case, hardware effects are the way to go!
But that’s not the case for every pedal and rack effect out there. There are lots of cheap pedals that also have a very generic and plain sound that doesn’t really deserve your attention and you’d be much better off with a plugin. For example, it’s more efficient and smart to spend less money on plugins.
Synthesizers & Instruments
And finally, our last category. Synthesizers! Nowadays soft synths are something every producer has even if we don’t really use them that much. There are some original ones like Pigments by Arturia, Serum, Massive, etc., and hundreds of clones of vintage synths. A lot of the things that apply for effects apply in this category too but in the case of synthesizers, you’d definitely need a MIDI controller to use them. You don’t have to, but it’s a pain not to have one so we’ll take that for granted.
Software synthesizers have come a long way in terms of sound, features, and overall quality. The sounds you can get out of some of them are amazing and they also are a lot cheaper than an actual hardware instrument. However, let’s not forget that synthesizers are complicated instruments to program and require some knowledge and skill to do found design on them. And it’s such a struggle to do this on a software synth. I find it almost impossible to program and tweak a software instrument mainly due to the limitless options and features they have. We actually have an article that focuses on that exact topic here.
Again, an analog synthesizer has that little extra that a software synth does not but we can say that in terms of sound, soft synths are in parity (or even better) than hardware ones. But when it comes to workflow, there is no question that the tactile approach you have on a hardware instrument cannot be replaced by any software, even paired with an amazing and hands-on MIDI keyboard. And while the sound may be great, hardware synths have a lot of soul and character in them that software ones lack.
I’ve gone through the phase of only using hardware synths and a few years later I decided to include more and more software ones only to eventually come back to hardware-only setups even though I was sacrificing a lot in terms of features and endless possibilities.
The one area that I find very handy to work with software is sample libraries. It is practically impossible to have instruments like violins, cellos, flutes, etc., in your studio let alone to know how to play them. So, for those types of sounds, I still use some sample libraries to get the job done. And the main difference is that with sample libraries you don’t have to tweak and program them. You just open the ones you like and start playing them. With synths, you want to create your own presets from the ground up and have your own custom-made sounds to play with.
Yes, synths are expensive. But if you love making electronic music you’d definitely enjoy having a few hardware synths in your setup. They may be more limited than their software counterparts but their unique character and hands-on approach make up for that.
Conclusion
As the years go by, more and more things become digital and get replaced by software. But arts have always been about the artists and their tools and making music on a laptop just doesn’t feel right. It is not accidental that all popular electronic music artists have these huge studios with tons of hardware gear. It’s because they love working with their hands and physically touching their instruments to make music. That connection will always be special.
So, if you love making music and even if your budget is very limited, try investing in some hardware instruments and effects. You’ll immediately see the effect they have on your workflow and music-making process. That doesn’t mean you’ll make better music, but you’ll certainly have more fun! And that’s what matters in the end!
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