A lot of it also depends on the effects Starkeeper. Dry, raw samples usually aren't going to sound particularly good until you apply real time effects to them. Today, with the advent of faster computers, it can be done.

I find the analog modeling synths I have to be sonically superior to the Motif ES and it's AN150 analog modeling plug in, for similar synth renditions. One of the soft synths I include in that is the freeware "Crystal", which outperforms many of the commercial offerings out there.

Musiclabs will be releasing a new guitar emulation software that appears to riv al the megavoice type technology found in today's top end synths. I never like making judgements based on demo's, but if the ones I heard are a fairly accurate gauge of what this software will sound like, it will easily rival anything currently available in hardware.


I'm only now getting my feet wet with wavetable type synths ( which are based mainly on digital samples, as are most of today's hardware synths ). I'm quite satisfied with the Motif's acoustic instrument emulations, but I certainly don't object to having additional quality soundsets as well. Where the Motif ES and pretty much all romplers I have played seem to fall short for me is in the synth sounds area. I played a Roland V synth the other day, and it sounded great to me. It's a real contender vs the Moog voyager, Novation K station, etc, and I think it really puts Roland back on the map. On the other hand, RGC's Z3ta and Pentagon softsynths sound just as good to me, if not better, and at a fraction of the cost.

AJ


[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 01-26-2004).]