Hardware: works or doesn’t.
Software: relies heavy on hardware, stability of thehardware configuration and the operating system. Due too the fact that OS get updated very often there’s little chance the software or attached controllers will work in >5 to 10 years from now.
Example: bought a lot of apps in the past for ipad. I am now the owner of 5 dated ipads that don’t support the today’s versions of the apps. The ipad’s are fine but not useable in any way.
The audio/midi dockingstation has 30 pin connector. Useless by now. Even the browser is slowed down by update’s. Like a build in timebomb to make devices useless. For the costs of 5 ipad’s i could have bought a quite nice hardware synth (or 2) that most likely was still working and kept a decent 2nd hand resale price.
I like this! Pretty much sums up how I feel on the debate as well.
Same here, I bought iPad apps a long time ago that are not supported anymore, and my iPad is too old to support some of the regularly updated.
I feel like I basically bought cheap wind.
This discussion often focuses on the wrong things IMO
if the goal is to produce music then both are fine and any differences are purely subjective (analog and digital are pretty much the same once drenched in reverb 
)
but if the discussion is about the process of making music then things are very different.
I work in software development so I’m at a computer (3 of them) all day every day and when I want to do something else, my hobby - music, I don’t want to still be sitting in the same chair.
So for me, hardware pushes me out of the grove I feel stuck in and into something else.
For those that produce music professionally, either as a recording artist or a live performer then they have different needs - we’re all familiar with the lameness of seeing someone on stage head down goofing with a laptop.
and then there is cost - apps are cheaper, period - but for the above reasons the cost of hardware/software has to be balanced with these other needs. I could make music for nearly zero money - but I’d be sitting at a computer.
Me neither, but I only have one chair 
I’ve laid my room out so the “work” desk faces one way and the “music” desk faces the other. Different spaces, different colours, different views. I should get a 2nd chair tho’.
No, definitely not. But hardware inherently has more restrictions which, in my opinion (and experience), breeds a mode of thinking that results in stronger concepts and in some cases more refined core qualities since there is “less to hide behind” so to speak.
“Sounding better” is more than just the algorithms or samplerate or quality of whatever… It’s about making an instrument and deciding on how it should sound.
If we look at some beloved software synthesizers and effects we can definitely see that they follow a similar design pattern to that of a lot of hardware instruments. For example, Soniccharge’s Microtonic and Valhalla DSP’s Vintageverb are two great examples of subjectively deciding on a narrow scope of parameters with a clear concept and functionality.
They both also sound great, while they are quite streamlined each function is honed to a level of quality that makes it greater than the sum of its parts, just like a lot of hardware.
Just one piece of the puzzle, but it’s an interesting one.
SW is certainly on par with HW sounds these days, but HW is definitely more fun to play with.
blinking lights
I’ve got both hardware and soft synths. They both rock. They are both totally radical. I have tons of fun and satisfaction using either, or both simultaneously.
I hook up my Elektron midi keyboard to my iPad, use the Elektrons 4 built in midi tracks and sequencers along with its bonus 4 FM synth tracks to run an additional 4 FM voices on the IPad for an 8 timbre, FM polyphonic setup with physical controls and touchscreen interface.
Hang ten. Or hang eight I guess.
I’m not adding anything here productive that hasn’t already been stated better by others, but I started playing guitar in 1995 as a kid and played almost daily (yeah right – but close) until going off to college. 15 years later, I picked the guitar back up out of the closet and fell in love again.
I would not have been able to pick up a VST that I used in 1995 on a Gateway 2000 and experienced the same thing.
That said I have purchased and use regularly VSTs and love them. The comparison to hardware is just a complex thing at the end of the day. Anyway just my input.
Seems an odd question, nobody has to use hardware. If you prefer software, get on with your bad self and be more productive than the hardware set (in aggregate.)
Oh interesting, I didn’t even know they’d released a plugin version.
or:
HW is certainly not on par with SW sounds these days, but HW is definitely more fun to play with, still.
hahah - me too…
I just scoot over and rotate a bit
No CPU overload with HW.
There are a lot of differences, but that’s not generally bad vs good.
IMO there are the following topics, which are interesting:
- sound
- sound design features
- usability / user-interface
- sustainability
Just to make my thoughts clear, why there can’t be true answers for everybody
- If we like the sound of a DX7 we will get this nerver from a 100k$ expensive Moog Modular.
- If we like wavetable or granular sounds, that’s not to get from a Sequential Prophet 5
… IMO everybody has to think and to decide on this by him/herself … and there are no hard pro and cons. There are great machines in the market, mediocre, and crap, but also this depends on the artist’s view.
The only pro and cons I see is about sustainability.
- If we take care of a real hardware instrument, it may last decades, and we can play it for our life-time.
- And exactly this can’t be said for software on a computer. Okay, we could preserve the whole thing, computer, accessories, OS, “floppy disks”
etc. … but I think I’m not the only one here, who has seen software discontinued or not ported to the next OS level.
IMO if we look short term it’s more or less on par, but long term the hardware wins … at least in my world
Depends on your definition of hardware. I have a hardware sampler than can be overloaded if you use too many voices. I have a hardware groove box that overloads with too many tracks/FX running. But these pieces of hardware have processing units inside.
i like having the limits of hardware and limiting myself to one piece of hardware. i get distracted easily and tend to jump around with possibilities on a computer…plus as someone said, I can jump ship and start doing another thing on the computer. I also don’t want to fall into the what if game and spend all my limited time for music trying to figure out how to get the right reverb plug-in or worse, what hardware or software i need to acquire to finish my p e r f e c t s e t u p
nothing wrong with computers though. I admire musicians with the focus to use them and create. just harder for me.
I always wonder - if I went itb, what else would I fill my living area with?
Apparently some people use these things called ornaments… which may or may not cost just as much.
Ornaments are apparently dust magnets just like synths, just they don’t make noises so I don’t see the appeal, personally.
Fantastic answers so far. Thank you all so much.
I also only just realized that I’ve asked this question in a forum dedicated to music hardware! 🫤
Imagine Christmas. Presents under the tree. The feeling when you open your giant box with your new synth, the unboxing, the view, the smell, the feeling of the written download code for the vst instrument.
Maybe…I like line noise honestly [not for everyone]