If generated in real time but with phase reset for each note, it will work just like a sample.

When the generated sound plays with freerunning oscillators, the sound is different each time so you do not hear the same overtones.

When the sample plays, you hear all of the overtones as the same exact harmonics are played over and over. When retriggering a sample really fast then retriggering a sound generated in real time, you will hear that they sound different even though they are making the same sound. If the phase does reset (and there isn't any other modulation that doesn't reset), it's just like using a sample! It honestly doesn't matter what you use to generate the sound as long as the oscillators are free running and the phase doesn't reset each note. When generating a sound in real time, I've used both analog and digital drum machines as well as VSTi synths.

So this is something I've been explorng myself recently using Renoise, specifically between generating synth percussion in real time vs using a one-shot sample of the same synth sound.

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