So this is of course very cool, but I would say that one of the main appeals of a hardware modular is the tactile nature of it. It feels very different to experiment with vs plugging virtual cables in software.
are designed such that you can easily assign fine-grained inputs on the controller to whatever software parameter you like. Traditional modular required you build a lot of things you'd expect from a physical instrument incrementally, and there's some interesting music that comes from that alone, but it's a real joy to have something you can use to construct, say, lifelike vibrato that responds to multidimensional inputs, without a shitton of work.
much more cost-effective too. you can use a single $300 controller and software to make the same shit that'd require several discrete multi-grand dollar setups if fully implemented in hardware
Yes, this is where I came from. I spent a great deal of time building stuff in Reaktor/Max and software is still useful for some things. However dedicated hardware (which granted is an expensive hobby) wins on intangibles like happy accidents, touch and feel, muscle memory. It feels less like working with a computer and more like experimenting in an audio laboratory.
I think with instruments it’s more about what keeps you in the creative flow than anything else. At least for me hardware has been 10x more productive than software in terms of actually making music.
