Which Arturia VSTi is still worth to get?

VST, AU, AAX, CLAP, etc. Plugin Virtual Instruments Discussion
Post Reply New Topic
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

In the old version, I can see EXACTLY my keyboard... in the new one, it just a generic GUI which just shows the same number of knobs like on my keyboard. It is much more difficult to find on the screen the knob I am turning.
Okay, why you tweak a knob on the GUI when you have the hardware controller? Maybe i got a wrong idea what you mean?
║▌║█║▌│║▌║▌█
Top

Post

SoundGoddess wrote:~$125 seems like a fair price.
Isn't that like $75 away from the entire collection? :shrug: I'm really on the fence with these Arturia deals.

I actually purchased the SEM second hand and texture-wise, the free OBXD matched it easily so I re-sold it. I was able to replicate it's popular Brass Patch perfectly. However the SEM does have some advanced scalings, modulation, sub-osc, FX, not to mention the arp and file manager, and they add quite a bit to the sound creation arsenal, but I found that when you stripped FX and arps from a lot of the patches, what was left wasn't very impressive at all. I was actually not very impressed with many of the patches included with the SEM, which was my first Arturia synth outside of the iMini on the iPad and the free Mini V they distributed a while back. So the idea of wading through 1000's of meh patches in the entire collection isn't very appealing, although the Analog Collection sounds like it could be more than just that, a kind of mini-Kore suhost for all these plugins; is that what it is?

I tried downloading the Prophet demo yesterday and wasn't able to get a download. I'll try again because I think that the only other one that I'm interested it. I still sometimes dig out the Pro-53 on occasion. I recently got the ME80, which does a credible CS-80 (I'm told...) and now is native 64-bit with a new bigger GUI in improvement phase. I have Monarch, Diva and Bazille, although playing around with a Moog Modular and Arp 2600 sounds like fun, none of the reviews I've read find them particularly accurate.

So there's not a whole lot that has me chompin' at the bit for the entire collection. Dunno... more opinions?
Top

Post

Breeze wrote:
SoundGoddess wrote:~$125 seems like a fair price.
Isn't that like $75 away from the entire collection? :shrug: I'm really on the fence with these Arturia deals.
$75 is $75...I just bought the SparkLE recently so I don't have a lot of extra to throw around...I'm still a bit on the fence with their softsynths, DRM kind of rubs me the wrong way but I've already invested over $400 in Arturia hardware so I feel like the company has a good vibe to it, and I like a lot of the sounds.
~ good luck ~
~ re~member to do good in a spirit of love, unity, compassion, and kindness ~
Top

Post

I hear ya. These issues are always personal... :oops:

A question: the current V-Collection says it comes with "Analog Laboratory" (on 3rd party ad pages and even on Arturia's new deal main page) while previous posts have discussed "Analog Lab". On the new Arturia details pages, it's listed as "Analog Lab". On Arturia's old pages, the two are listed as separate products: is Analog Lab simply a update of "Analog Laboratory" or a different product?
Top

Post

I think Analog Lab updates/replaces Analog Laboratory.
~ good luck ~
~ re~member to do good in a spirit of love, unity, compassion, and kindness ~
Top

Post

Breeze wrote:I hear ya. These issues are always personal... :oops:

A question: the current V-Collection says it comes with "Analog Laboratory" (on 3rd party ad pages and even on Arturia's new deal main page) while previous posts have discussed "Analog Lab". On the new Arturia details pages, it's listed as "Analog Lab". On Arturia's old pages, the two are listed as separate products: is Analog Lab simply a update of "Analog Laboratory" or a different product?
My V3 licence came with both, I dont imagine theyve changed that since the last sale in December
Amazon: why not use an alternative
Top

Post

Breeze wrote: ................
I actually purchased the SEM second hand and texture-wise, the free OBXD matched it easily so I re-sold it. I was able to replicate it's popular Brass Patch perfectly. However the SEM does have some advanced scalings, modulation, sub-osc, FX, not to mention the arp and file manager, and they add quite a bit to the sound creation arsenal, but I found that when you stripped FX and arps from a lot of the patches, what was left wasn't very impressive at all. I........
.......
Dunno... more opinions?
Well, just a few audio demos from our SEMSENTIALS soundbank. ( 170+ new presest for the SEM V made by Nori and the humble me ) While I did try the free Obxd ( and found out it sounded nothing like an Oberheim btw but this is only *imho* ...), I agree that the extra modulations can add a lot to the SEM V sounds.

Nori playing the bonus preset pack
Age of lovers ( All SEM V including drums )
7mn of Leads, Basses, Percs, ARPs
7mn of Pads, Keys, Strings, Synths
As always sound speak for itself, so I think everyone can draw their own conclusions, liking it, or less liking it ( or what we did out of it actually )
http://www.lelotusbleu.fr Synth Presets

77 Exclusive Soundbanks for 23 synths, 8 Sound Designers, Hours of audio Demos. The Sound you miss might be there
Top

Post

valerian_777 wrote: Okay, why you tweak a knob on the GUI when you have the hardware controller? Maybe i got a wrong idea what you mean?
No, I tweak the knob on the hardware, but for some of the knobs which are only labeled 1-4, I need to see on the GUI what parameters they are assigned to.
As I said, it's much worse for people with the bigger controllers.
Breeze wrote: but I found that when you stripped FX and arps from a lot of the patches, what was left wasn't very impressive at all.
Isn't that true for most synth sounds in general? :hihi:
the Analog Collection sounds like it could be more than just that, a kind of mini-Kore suhost for all these plugins; is that what it is?
Yes, kind of.
If you have Analog Lab + some or all individual plug-ins, you can select a preset in Analog Lab, and then open the corresponding synth directly from AL to be able to tweak all parameters.
Top

Post

OK: so you guys are all secretly working for Arturia, right? :hihi:
Lotuzia wrote:Well, just a few audio demos from our SEMSENTIALS soundbank. ( 170+ new presest for the SEM V made by Nori and the humble me )... I agree that the extra modulations can add a lot to the SEM V sounds.
Nice work on many of these patches. A lot more musical than many of the noise-fests in the original bank. There's no question any synth can sound better with the right artistic direction. ;) I was tempted to keep the SEM because of the advanced modulations; ahh temptation...
Novalis wrote:
Breeze wrote: but I found that when you stripped FX and arps from a lot of the patches, what was left wasn't very impressive at all.
Isn't that true for most synth sounds in general? :hihi:
Actually, that was the most refreshing thing about getting involved with the OBXD project: if forced me to work within the limitations of the sound generator and I was quite surprised with the quality of many of the patches in the banks I made for it; it forced me to find solutions within synth parameters alone (panning! who would have thought...) and take advantage of its idiosyncrasies.

We do rely a lot on effects these days. Actually I suspect that at least part of the "vintage" sound comes from the fact that most of these old analog synths don't have any effects giving them an immediacy, focus, and presence that's been missing from a lot of patches ever since hardware synths started including effects (actually why I like the Clavia NL2 and 3: no FX). When I was doing more live work, I used to strip or reduce the mix significantly of any time based effects (delay usually lower, reverb OFF!) which really helped keys cut through a mix, but also revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the patches. On a personal note, this also helps reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the playing... ;)
Novalis wrote:
the Analog Collection sounds like it could be more than just that, a kind of mini-Kore suhost for all these plugins; is that what it is?
Yes, kind of.
If you have Analog Lab + some or all individual plug-ins, you can select a preset in Analog Lab, and then open the corresponding synth directly from AL to be able to tweak all parameters.
Thanks Novalis. What about CPU? If you start using a lot of these engines simultaneously, the CPU drain could be atrocious. Does it handle multi-core processing at all? Actually that's a good question: do any of the Arturia synths do multi-core processing? Maybe they're not taxing enough to warrant it?

Thanks to all who replied to my posts. The Analog Lab kind of seals the deal for me. I was thinking of getting a couple of synths, but the potential of unifying these machines conveniently in one interface, at this price, with UVI Digital Sensations thrown in for free, makes it pretty irresistible for me. Now where are those sales links... :D
Top

Post

Out of all the Arturia synthesizers I found the Prophet V the most appealing because of the Prophet VS emulation. It truly sounds good and the CPU usage is super low! I am giving my copy away to anyone in this thread here.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5852063
:borg:
Top

Post

Breeze wrote:So the idea of wading through 1000's of meh patches in the entire collection isn't very appealing, although the Analog Collection sounds like it could be more than just that, a kind of mini-Kore suhost for all these plugins; is that what it is?
In some respects it is but what it lacks is the ability to import presets so it's limited to the factory banks and (possibly - not sure how many) at least some of the official addons on the Arturia site. That being said it makes the process of finding presets much easier than the original banks implementation for the earlier synths (they changed it in the later ones to something better), and you can also add user ratings which makes it easier to find your favourites, but if Arturia realised its potential to be a full preset manager for Arturia synths it would be more useful.
Top

Post

OK: so you guys are all secretly working for Arturia, right?
Now where are those sales links...
Seems like we did a good job.

:D
Actually I suspect that at least part of the "vintage" sound comes from the fact that most of these old analog synths don't have any effects
This is true, but I suppose that more often than not, synth sounds were beefed up in the studio via the mixing console/external hardware.
On a personal note, this also helps reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the playing...
Absolutely... no difference from guitarists there... :D

Can't really answer your CPU question, I'm afraid...
I haven't used a lot of instances of Analog Lab in a project (just 2 or 3 max), but so far so good.
Didn't notice any extraordinary CPU-usage.

I like that there is also a standalone version of AL, so I don't have to fire up my DAW each time I'd like to mess around a bit with it.

Does anyone know the album "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" by M83?
It was released in 2011 already, but I just recently discovered it.
It includes the major hit "Midnight City".
There are tons of great synth sounds to be heard on this album... it's amazing.
The mix is also superb.
Top

Post

aMUSEd wrote:
Breeze wrote:So the idea of wading through 1000's of meh patches in the entire collection isn't very appealing, although the Analog Collection sounds like it could be more than just that, a kind of mini-Kore suhost for all these plugins; is that what it is?
In some respects it is but what it lacks is the ability to import presets so it's limited to the factory banks and (possibly - not sure how many) at least some of the official addons on the Arturia site.
That's a pretty serious "omission". Are the factory banks coded in some way so they can't be replaced or substituted? This is something so patently useful that it's definitely worth some lobbying efforts.

And so it begins... :box:
Top

Post

V0RT3X wrote:Out of all the Arturia synthesizers I found the Prophet V the most appealing because of the Prophet VS emulation. It truly sounds good and the CPU usage is super low! I am giving my copy away to anyone in this thread here.
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5852063
Very gracious of you. And I will be abstaining from posting there out of the same graciousness. :D
Top

Post

Breeze wrote:
V0RT3X wrote:Out of all the Arturia synthesizers I found the Prophet V the most appealing because of the Prophet VS emulation. It truly sounds good and the CPU usage is super low! I am giving my copy away to anyone in this thread here.
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5852063
Very gracious of you. And I will be abstaining from posting there out of the same graciousness. :D
Not a prophet V fan?
:borg:
Top
Post Reply

Return to “Instruments”