Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those meaningless debates about the sound of a vintage hardware synth versus its software counterpart. It is about, what feels best when tracking. We discuss.

Virtual instruments have come a long way in the last 20 years, with great offerings from specialist brands like Spectrasonics, G-Force, e-instruments, UJAM, Arturia, Softube, and Synthmaster, there’s a veritable feast. It really is a great time to make music, they offer an incredible palette of sounds, features, and sound quality… what’s not to love? Even the virtual instruments that come bundled with our favourite DAW offer some really useful content to add to our latest creation.

However, the keyboard players in our team often choose to use their hardware keyboards, and record the audio from them, rather than use a virtual instrument to do the job.

For example, when tracking pianos, organs and even strings, they will lay these down from the synth, rather than using MIDI and a VI. We ask them why they choose to do this.

Russ Hughes

I’ve been playing keyboards for as long as I can remember. I got into music because my Dad played the piano. We had a piano in our house and I would hear him playing old jazz standards and want to be Dad. So as soon as he left the room I would jump on the piano and try and be him, I was about seven at the time. Fast forward to my teens, in the early 1980s and MIDI and synths were really becoming big. I remember a friend had a small Casio VL-Tone VL-1, it was a tiny thing with terrible keys. However it got me into the synth bug. Soon I was working in the keyboard department of one of the largest UK music stores, selling all the Yamaha DX line, every Roland you can think of, AKAI, EMU, Moog, Ensoniq, you name it. From there I started programming for different artists… the rest they say is history.

I recall when the early miltitimbral sound modules came to market, it was like a dream come true for those of us using MIDI sequencers to write and record. However, compared to even the most basic VI found in a modern DAW, they were much less powerful in terms of sound and features.

As the years have rolled on and I’ve used DAWs to make music, I’ve gathered a huge collection of virtual instruments to help in the writing process. They offer me an unparralled tool box to help me create virtually any sound I like. If I need a piano, then I can use something as simple as the Air Mini Grand (vastly underatted) to one of the e-instruments collection. If I need a bass then I can grab Trillian, MODO or EZ Bass. If I need synths then I can use Omnisphere, U-Synth, Arturia, or KV331. There’s even a great collection of free synths too, like DEXED, to give me some of my first love, the Yamaha DX7. It’s simple, just connect the controller keyboard and knock myself out.

So why do I find myself gravitating back to recording the audio off my Roland Juno DS? It’s not the sound, or the features, most of the VIs have far more power and flexibility.

I think for me, it’s about the immediacy of recording from a synth, that I don’t seem to feel when recording with a VI. Perhaps it is as simple as the latency? However, when I first got the Roland Juno DS88 into my studio I plugged it in and it felt different, not only the feel but the sound. Everything just felt so much more solid than when I do the same thing with a VI. So when I need to track things like a piano, or organ, for example, I choose to track them as real audio. I know by doing this I miss the chance of being able to do things like quantize and fix bad notes later, but I still choose this. I think I give a better performance.

Is hardware better than a VI? No, it’s different and it’s a difference I prefer. Perhaps it’s tapping into my earliest memories of getting into music, I don’t know, but it does feel most natural for me.

On the point of losing the power to edit a live performance. The good news is you can have the best of both worlds. I set up a Keyboard+ track in my DAW. For this example I’ll show you the track preset from Pro Tools, but you can do it in any DAW.

Set up an stereo audio track for the hardware keyboard, set up a MIDI track too. Place them both in a folder. I’ve done this in Pro Tools and saved it as a track preset. Then when I record I can capture both audio and MIDI. If I need to go back later and want to change something, I do that and send the MIDI back to the hardware and record a new pass.

Luke Goddard

Like other members of the team, I am a life-long user of real keyboard instruments. Having something that either myself or others can jump on to make music instantly is simply the way I have worked for decades. Beginning with upright pianos and electric ones owned by others, through to a sprinkling of Hammonds, Casios, and the odd monosynth dalliance, the hardware versus software keyboard instrument question is more one of having a reason to replace the physical one with a virtual one, rather than the other way around. Certainly, the only time I will use a VI is when I do not have a sound available on my trusty Nord (which admittedly is regularly!).

As a sound source, the VI obviously has an edge over many hardware keyboards. A seemingly infinite palette of sounds, maintenance-free, without the backache. The best of these can easily beat some of the woeful sounds that players endured before their arrival. Watch any TV programme from 15 years ago compared with the modern show’s symphonic luxury and it’s easy to see why the virtual keyboard instrument rules the roost in many composers’ toolkits.

For all of their undeniable advantages, however, the software instrument lacks the key ingredients that, for me, every instrument must have: immediacy, fun. Great sounds certainly don’t hurt either. Powering up and logging in, and launching software is already a part of everyone’s day, but sometimes I just want to play. Although I’m not a prolific songwriter, sitting at the keys for me should still be as easy as picking up an acoustic guitar. With suitable monitoring in place, playing keys can be entirely divorced from a computer-based workflow and that’s the way I like it. When recording, I will sometimes take the MIDI as well, but I can’t remember the last time I ever had to go back to re-fire any sounds. Pressing some buttons and playing seconds later with fantastic sounds, without any distractions is now a reality thanks to my modelling and sample-based red beast by the wall, and it’s what keeps making music fun.

So which is better? For me, on balance a great hardware instrument is unbeatable. I have no reason whatsoever to break that relationship.

Julian Rodgers

I’m in the same camp as Russ when it comes to tracking keyboards. I’ll draw a distinction here between a part and a performance as I have no issues at all with creating programmed synth parts using a virtual instrument and an Instrument Track in Pro Tools, it’s an ideal way of working and whether I am drawing in parts onto a piano roll or inputting via a MIDI controller, the results are fast and predictable.

However the same can’t be said for a performance. Good performances are about taking risks and although a DAW can resolve any mistake, the best performances are the ones where the mistakes work out well. Latency kills this and as it’s not unusual for me to want to add additional keyboard parts relatively late in a production this is a worst case scenario for a computer with limited native processing running a session which might have grown considerably since the first instruments went down.

I have a Nord Electro which I bought for live use but has proved extremely useful in the studio too. I’ll return to that but before I had the Nord I had a couple of M Audio Axiom keyboard controllers, I have two because the 25 note model I bought years ago is useful to quickly drag up on the desk and input a part but for VI’s which use key switching for articulations a larger keybed is desirable, I added a 61 note model for this. However I have also had a Roland digital piano in the studio for some years. I wanted a Roland because of all the weighted hammer action keybeds I’ve tried theirs is my favourite and I chose a piano over a controller because I wanted something with built in speakers. I have it in the studio as an instrument more than as part of the studio. As an instrument I wanted something which is on the other side of the room and you can just turn on and play. No computer, no monitors. Entirely separate. The idea was that I would play more, without tinkering in the studio interrupting me. In the same way as I can sit on the sofa and play an acoustic guitar, I wanted something similar for the piano.

It worked and I played far more than before. However, with that hammer action keyboard I soon started connecting it up to the computer via USB. Immediately the latency of the, admittedly better sounding, Piano VI made things just that little more uncomfortable. Being a piano rather than a controller keyboard I found I preferred tracking with the track in Pro Tools muted and using the local sounds via the built in speakers while tracking. The built in speakers  don’t sound as good as my monitors but al least there’s no latency.

The Nord has extended this further because the sounds are great but the choices on an Electro are limited. This might sound restrictive but actually, in most cases it’s liberating. Instead of losing myself in option paralysis I simply find the best choice from the ones I have available. If I want a Wurlitzer I have a choice of two loaded on my Nord. If I had a real one I’d have a choice of one. Choose one and start playing…

In Closing

This isn’t about right or wrong, more about what works best for you.

How do you like to record keyboard? Let us know in the comments.