Way back when, watches used to be mechanical because there simply didn’t exist a technology that was portable and rugged enough to be carried around. Eventually, with the advent of digital watches and now smartwatches and phones, there is no practical reasons outside of very niche circumstances to use a mechanical watch (and for status reasons). So now watches are split into many markets, the two relevant ones to this discussion being digital and mechanical. And even within the mechanical watch market, watch makers have to set a very hard technological cap to not ostracize themselves out of their chosen market. So my question is this, are pure stand alone music devices a…luxury item now? Everything a digitakt can do technically any daw can do, much like how a fancy analogue chronograph watch can tell time, and you can set a stopwatch and all that, but a cheaper and more accurate digital watch with a companion app can do the same thing faster and better. Is it just about the “feel” at this point. Is the future of stand-alone “performance” devices going to be glorified midi controllers? Can you even justify paying for a digitakt 2 if I told you right now you can have a device that has the same workflow and does a trillion more things and better but at 100$, all you need is your phone nearby. If your rebuttal to that is something like “well I want to get away from a computer”, doesn’t this just lean into the fact that stand-alone devices have gone the way of don’t need just want? And will manufacturers lean into that tho? Imagine a would where you only have Beringer producing “novelty” hardware synths and Teenage Engineering releasing a 5k OP-2 for influencers to flex. Would love to hear your thoughts.
No.
Lets be honest here. Electronic hardware is a niche product. The mainstream will use latest technology and thats digital software on a phone pad or computer.
So it wont go away. It wasnt a niche but now is.
Given the sheer number of new companies and products in electronic music, compared to say 20 years ago it would seem the market is expanding.
Given also the reassuringly increasing number of people ditching their smartphones, and the interesting fact that many of them are younger adults, it is reasonable to assume that hardware instruments will continue to have a place.
Also touchscreens for making music are shit 
That might be, but:
How many people roam this planet, and how many have synth hardware.
Its niche as it is.
Sure it will be there, but we are nerds.
Definitely so. It’s also connected to status. It’s much more well perceived when you’re a content creator and looks much better on Instagram stories and such. It’s all connected to the current trend of Picturesque Culture: where it’s much easier to sell your activity when it’s instagrammable than when it’s not.
I despise this culture. There are a lot of musicians I like that don’t look good or have shit rigs that wouldn’t have stood a chance in this current era. Not everything has to look good. Especially music. It’s sounds, people.
To some extent it has a better utility value than a mechanical watch (as mechanical watches all produce time with questionable precision, but hardware synths are sometimes unique in their sound, or have some characteristics that are hard to emulate).
But you definitely don’t need them to do music, whatever the genre you’re in. Except if you want to exist on social networks. Then you need them.
No you dont.
You need pot plants, action figures, curious amusing objects, ‘randomly placed’ cables or a pen, occasional dogs, soft lighting, and annoying thumbnails.
Free cactus with every forth hardware purchase
Well, this is debatable for both the amount of features and price. For 100$ you can’t buy a computer, a DAW and a very decent audio interface (yes, the DT(2) does sound really good as an audio interface too). And is it so much better when a device can do a trillion more things? And that you need your smartphone to operate it?
I personally do not want to use any touch device with all kinds of technology that sometimes isn’t working (wireless, bluetooth), which includes a one time released app that won’t be maintained. Or when developer x/y/z randomly stops supporting a subscription based app or when the app isn’t supported on new shiny phone x.
There is so much more to music hardware than amount of features vs costs. Reliability, focus and dedication are just a few of them, just like “the workflow”. Therefore dedicated hardware (like musical instruments) are not “obsolete” because other (cheaper) technologies exists.
If you get enough subscribers you cease to exist.
Makes you wander why they do it.
Hardware as any thing in the music world is all about THE WORKFLOW, in my opinion.
I meant more like your phone does the computing but you have the physical midi interface in front of you
is the piano like a mechanical watch?
k, so (to some extent) early electronic music instruments allowed us make sounds in a new way… unobtainable without hardware.
this is (to some extent) is now possible to with a computer / tablet… so true, for some, this is now a ‘luxury’ item.
to this end the future will bring better soft synths, and importantly, better (more integrated) midi controllers - roll on midi 2.0 (and in particular MIDI-CI)
however, a musical instrument is not just about the sound, its an experience.
for me ‘good’ hardware. synths these days are more about instrument design, they have limitations, they have a focus.
I think the Expressive E Osmose (and also Haken Continuum) is a perfect example.
the sound engine cannot do everything, and many just use its ‘presets’. so its not everything.
however, it has a character, its something you ‘just’ play.
yes, you can do this with a controller + computer, but the experience is not the same.
is that a luxury? yes… but I dont think it’s as ‘niche’ as a mechanical watch.
all that said…
a lot of electronic musical instrument (including Osmose) are computers + controller 
also (midi) controllers are becoming much more integrated with software (Push3 / Maschine / Arturia Astrolab), as I said above midi 2.0 and CI are going to continue this.
such that controller + a (hidden) laptop/tablet will act pretty much as a hardware instrument. ( * )
(this ignores SoC development e.g. dedicated raspberry pi + controller = instrument)
again… the difference, for me, will be focus…
hardware should not try to be everything, rather it should proudly embody a synth designers vision.
some will love it, some will hate it.
the lines are so blurred now.
( * ) ok, this is (currently) a bit of a romantic view.
laptop + audio interface + controller + cables is often quite a mess.
wireless is also tends to have irritating latency.
that said, ‘dawless’ setups with multiple synths/gooveboxes have their own cable salad too.
Here’s list of reasons why I don’t use my phone for making music, and most of that would be even more true for people who have to earn their living with their music:
- licensing: none of the software you “buy” for a phone is yours. There is no guarantee that you will be able to reinstall the software on the same phone or even on another, that it will still run with the current version of the OS, you can’t even backup the software. Hardware? Well, it just sits there and waits for you to turn it on again. And you can buy it used, and sell it again. Software? not so much.
- backups: losing your work is a major pain in the ass on mobile platforms, especially combined with the licensing problem described above. Extracting individual files out of an iCloud backup is impossible. If the new version of an app does not import older files, you’re fucked. You’re dealing with proprietary formats, exporting and importing is often only possible for audio, but not for project files, backup is an afterthought in most cases. Hardware: depends, but typically pretty simple (sysex dump/project files).
- complexity of setup: people who have tried running more than one app for a piece of music know that this is a major pain in the ass on a phone (even with the various tools out there), it is slightly less painful on a tablet, but it is a major waste of time making stuff that way. Hardware: connecting a lot of stuff to form a more complex instrument is IMHO a lot more more manageable, because you actually see how things are connected. And you can change it on the fly, with the right hardware even with (more or less) total recall
- interface: people have pointed that out already, a good hardware setup is basically a custom-built instrument, and the way you interact with it is an essential part of that instrument’s design. For simple stuff, a phone might be fine with a hardware controller
- learning/experimentation: it’s easier for the brain to remember things related to their position in space. A hardware setup builds on that, you have 3d things, with buttons in a specific physical location, they might do a few different things, but not a million possibilities, like a screen or programmable controller. So it’s easier to learn what is where, and that makes it also simpler to perform and experiment.
If you can do your music on a phone, by all means, do it. I use mine for recording my hardware, and for a few other things. I also spent a lot of time with iPad music apps, and I could not finish more than a couple of mediocre tracks. I was way more productive with a laptop, or with hardware. YMMV.
Is music hardware like mechanical watches?
Of course not. If they were then they would all be powered by internal batteries and we wouldn’t get shamed for asking which synth is the best to take hiking or scuba diving…
To start with the mechanical watch analogy, there’s the assumption that the only purpose of a watch is to tell the time, in the same way that the only purpose of music hardware is just to make music.
For watches, there are plenty of reasons to still use a mechanical watch:
- simplicity (you look at it and see the time)
- stability (it doesn’t crash/freeze)
- longevity (you can likely pass a good watch to future generations, most digital tech is obsoleted quickly)
- no battery life to worry about
- repairable
- status (as mentioned in the original post)
- personal pleasure (there’s something nice about using something that’s handmade and about supporting the creator)
- distraction free (you won’t be tempted to check your email on it)
- resale value (if you look after a good watch, you can likely sell it for little loss)
Many of these are apply to music hardware too:
- simplicity (press button, make sound, vs. boot PC, start DAW, configure plugins, etc.)
- stability (no driver issues and hardware compatibility to worry about)
- longevity (many synths are still working decades later, most PCs/laptops have a much shorter lifespan)
- status (sadly this is still true in some cases)
- personal pleasure (many synths are more tactile, have nice displays and physical feedback, also nice to support smaller makers)
- distraction free (compared to a computer where the internet is always a distraction, along with update pop-ups, virus scanners, chat popups, etc.)
- resale value (for some hardware anyway, PCs/laptops lose their resale value very quickly past a few years old)
I don’t get these types of comparisons, questions and discussions, what’s the point? to say something like:
no, they are alternative do other ways of making music, it might be more or less expensive but it costs what it costs
not really, you don’t have same interaction with daw vs digitakt, not the same process, not the same flow.
sure I can justify if that interests me, unless that phone would be blackberry with physical keyboard, physical encoders and 1/4" outs 
what if I don’t want to get away from computer, I just want an alternative method making music outside keyboard-mouse-clips-arrangment-timeline-audomation-freeze-tracks realm, and I will pay good money if it works good, so what’s wrong with wanting a device that offers an alternative? maybe it will open a new world of possibilities for you? maybe just by embracing a certain workflow you’ll get inspired and start creating things in a way you wouldn’t be able with the depths of apps/daws/whatever, is it not justifiable?
love that term, but the instagrammable tables didn’t come from people playing synths they’ve been around way before, it was just adopted as these types of aesthetically-oriented videos appeal to a lot of people
I wouldn’t say no to a good video, I’m not talking about instagrammable videos though, I’m talking about art videos that blends with music, stuff like autechre clips, or even the boards of canada videos, royksopp, you know, art stuffs, like that guy sinteru doing PureData videos over model:cycles/syntakt, hollyyy… there are not much of these around unfortunately…
…it all ends with circles of people singing together at campfires, while some hit accoustic drums and others play accoustic guitars anyways…
in short…all goes in circles and it always ends where it started just to start from scratch again…
from big bang to big bang, as i like to put it recently…
If you do the comparison against regular quartz watches, then most of these are moot points. Even a Casio has a great longevity and a battery life you’re not going to worry about.
As for stability, repairability, longevity, I don’t think they’re especially good for mechanical watches (having had some from the sixties). Most are very vulnerable to shocks, the wear of components is a real issue (and then the sourcing of NOS components is a problem). There’s a reason why some astronauts now wear GShocks instead of Speedmasters. It would be irresponsible in our day and age to rely on tech so fragile.
Then again the comparison with hardware synths stands: the less you use them, the better the longevity. They’re so beautiful under their decksavers…
Time is a flat circle