I used to be hardware only, then I moved from one continent to another and had to leave all my hardware behind.  At that point, it was time to go software only.  Soon, I'll get my hardware back, but I won't be using it for tone generation any more, just control.


Really lookin' forward to gettin' my WX5 back for that.

Hardware Fascist right here. If I ever hook a computer up to my stuff, it will be a Commodore, and all it will be is the clock. Modern processors have lazy, wandering clocks, and you can *TOTALLY HEAR IT* in a lot of "bedroom producer" work. I would have to spend too much money to get acceptable pad latency out of a modern computer, and staring at a laptop sucks. Buy a MPC 2000XL MCD. It's drag-and-drop to SD card, and sounds *almost* as nice as the 3000. I found mine for $350. I record to a Boss BR-800, 64 virtual tracks for $300. Buy some headphones, its a $700 studio. The only thing great about software production is that it is easy. Really easy, as compared to coping with antique hardware UI limitations.

But I think limitations serve to empower and free you, once overcome.

Counterarguments welcome dudes!

As Maor said, and idk if this is what he meant, but for me hardware is mostly for education. I have a few piece of hardware I play around with for fun and also for inspiration, but mainly just to learn every aspect of my craft. Music production is an endless rabbit hole and hardware is definitely part of that, but I don't think you need to use hardware at all. You can achieve amazing sound quality with just plugins.

However, it's true no amount of digital plugins will give you that analogue funk and soul you get from a piece of hardware, no matter how hard I try

Spire is the best softsynth I've ever heard. The only reason to use hardware is to save on CPU usage.