Would you have different synths without internet ?

[KBD_TRACKER]

Ideally this is addressed to the "older" set of VSE posters, that is people who can compare before vs after internet. (but younger people are welcome ).

I was wondering what role has internet in your gear acquisition decisions .

For example would you have chosen the same gear without music gear forums, "professional" and/or "users" youtube reviews, etc. etc. ???

In the old days besides (rare and often belated) specialized paper-magazines articles, the main avenue to evaluate a synth or piece of gear was to actually try it in store, or when possible, through the opinion of a trusted friend who did buy or try the gear, or else listen to a band using that gear.

Not so much anymore, we now quite often rely on strangers to tell us about the desirability of a synth or other gear, and this actually might lead us to purchase it without having ever touched a single knob ...

On the other hand internet has made very easy and very fast to resell a synth if disappointing. And I suspect that pre-internet times musicians probably were more likely to stick with and get the most of a piece of gear. (In that sense buying a synth was more like marriage was, before divorce got easier and easier).
Also to complicate things, internet has contributed to both the increasing rarity of brick-mortar music stores and the appearance of online sale boutique-synth outfits.

But for those who can compare (ie the older crowd, but also anybody else interested in this, ) I was wondering if internet-related media have allowed you to get "better", or more satisfying, or just different gear (if that, in what sense ?) than you used to in pre-internet times.

[Hybrid88]

I know for a fact I'd have far, far fewer synths if I didn't discover VSE

In fact probably different ones too, I used to only like modern gear. How things change haha

[Black Tomorrow]

I'll rephrase your question. Would I have different synths without VSE? Y'all have cost me a lot of money over the last 8 years But seriously, if not for this site, my knowledge of synthesis and the sheer number of synths out there would be lacking.

[Pro5]

I'd have less I have to be honest. I've had around 50+ by now

I had a handful of synths before I had the net (Juno 6, TG-500 - nothing special) then once I discovered VSE I had to try out all the synths that caught my eye (many I knew from my childhood in the 80s/early 90s but obviously couldn't afford new or as a kid) and it's been a pleasure! I don't like to horde so have sold the vast majority but through that process I've written songs because of synths I've owned (so am thankful to them) and have learned what I really enjoy in a synth (my keepers).

[loungedumore]

Yes . No internet would equal no eBay and the insane inflation of prices for many used synths would not be a hindrance to my gear lust .... As that was there long before I even had dial up

[Bitexion]

VSE was POISON when I "discovered" vintage synths. I wanted one of everything, and bought way more c**p than I'd ever need. Which lead to an apartment stuffed with keyboards that never got used.

[fh991586]

I'd only have a Korg Kaossilator, because I saw it tried out in a local tv show 5 years ago. Otherwise, I don't think I would have bought one single synth, because there were none in my environment, and I wasn't looking for it as a hobby: I'm mostly a book collector from the heart.

But I've been dreaming for years before that to get a Jupiter 8, solely to put on a wall as a display. The difference today is that I now know I can't afford one (but if I ever could I'd play with it).

[CS_TBL]

Hard to tell. Because internet becoming mainstream went nearly hand in hand with the rise of software synths, which more or less pulled the plug for any more hardware for me.

[Bitexion]

I kind of discovered synthesis through the tons of pirated VST synths I downloaded from torrent sites.
Then I found VSE, and wanted hardware versions of all the ones I had as emulations, like the Minimoog, Prophet5, Jupiter8, CS80 etc, none of which I could afford..and it went all downhill from there

[bluntedcircuit]

I definitely wouldn't have my esq, and it's hard to say if id still be into music all these years later as I am definitely one of those people who learned what's what with freeware/torrents as a teenager.

[megamanx]

I would definitely have less synths, but probably cooler and cheaper that the ones I own.

[ninja6485]

I started with the idea to collect the gear listed on the back of a spice lab album, naively thinking this old stuff would probably be cheap and outdated by now. Boy was I wrong! Without the internet, who's to say a pawn shop wouldn't have had some of the stuff I would have been looking for, and maybe they would have been naive themselves about the value! I think I would probably have fewer collectable pieces, although some of them came via local connections... I think I most likely still would have the s2000 though!

[synthparts]

Well the "internet" actually goes back to the 70s. I was buying gear on rec.music.makers.synth and the Compuserve MIDI forum in the late 80s. If you mean pre-WWW yeah I'd probably have less but then again the pawn shops and used music gear stores I used to get stuff from would still exist and have a lot more gear...

[Virgule]

I knew about Hyperreal in the mid 90s but VSE was one the first website that actually helped putting a face and name to synths I was looking for around '96.

It definately helped as I knew nothing about those products, having no keyboard-orientated friends, at all.

[Solderman]

I actually have 3 different ways to answer this:

1. In 1996, I had a very basic home studio setup in my dorm at Hurlburt Field Air Force Base. I had made a few songs and was very enthusiastic about making music. I even had one analog synth, the Akai AX60, bought from the same music store I got everything else from.
   Then on late shifts at the squadron office, I started browsing the Hyperreal Music Machines site and learning about synths from the Analogue Heaven mailing list. 2 months later, I'd bought a Oberheim OBXa off of the Harmony Central For Sale Ads board. So I was victimized by GAS before I even had a PC in my own dorm room and now had a synth I never had even thought about getting before.
2. Continuing from #1, once I did get my own PC and an internet connection less than a year later, it became so much of a distraction that I practically stopped making tunes altogether. This led to getting a Kurzweil K2vx to try and make up for lost time, and I was also playing in a band, but my own personal musical output has never been as frequent since.
3. Because of Youtube and coincidentally this forum, I discovered Brandon(Z on VSE) lived only a short distance from my house, and I got to finally try out many of the synths I'd dreamed of playing for years. Based on that, I've been able to make better decisions about what synths to buy or even still dream about.