What does “cheating” mean? Who are you cheating? When I put music on, if it moves me, it moves me, I don’t worry too much about what exact VST the artist was using at the time. If I’m trying to replicate the sound, I’ll no doubt put some thought into it, but whatever method that artist used to make the sound I like was the right method, because I like the end result.
This conversation always reminds me of the joke:
- You’re using drum loops? Dang, that’s cheating.
- You program loops, but use sample packs? Dang, that’s cheating.
- You synthesized your own drums, but don’t even play a kit? Dang, that’s cheating.
- You recorded your own samples of you playing your drum kit, but you didn’t even raise goats so you can manufacture your own skins? Dang, that’s cheating.
Some artists like to use self-imposed limitations to trigger creativity, so maybe VCV offers too many choices and to bring focus you’ll do a patch with no poly, or a patch with only 84 HP of modules or only 3 “brands” or whatever, but at the end of the day the listener probably won’t care if you use 10 modules or 100 if it’s making music they enjoy listening too.
Why would Andrew go to all the trouble of adding Polyphony if we’re not supposed to use and enjoy it?