When it comes to music and audio software, I always thought that there are two groups. The first group is always on the cutting edge, never missing an update. The second group finds something that works and stays with it as long as possible, even if it means using obsolete computers to run it. It turns out there’s a third group as well – those that love and seek out “vintage” software programs.
Vintage software users believe that the peak of music software came in the 90s and early 2000s, and that using those ancient packages is still the way to get the most unique sounds.
There’s even a Facebook group that’s 30,000 strong, as well as an archive/directory (complete with a vintage UI).
There’s a great article about this on Music Radar, that goes in-depth on the subject if you’re interested. One of the things I don’t see mentioned anywhere is the hardware to run these programs and plugins. That in itself must be quite a chore to track down after you’ve found something that you’d like to try.
The Collector
I have a friend who’s been the keyboard tech to a superstar artist for 30 years, and he’s a great musician in his own right. Because of his proximity to the star, he’s been given a lot of software and hardware over the years.
He still has every single piece, every single box it come in, and even the packaging. It takes up a very large part of his otherwise modern studio, and is a place no one would dare enter except to marvel at it all from the doorway. It’s like looking into an old music store that closed, but nothing’s been moved since.
When I read the above-mentioned article, I couldn’t help but think that my friend may have been right all along by keeping it all, even though his friends went as far as to hold an intervention in an effort to get him to clean house (he didn’t).
I guess it’s really true that what’s old is eventually new again. Vintage music software proves the point.
