Which Arturia synth & Valhalla reverb?

[Aryaroman]

I've demoed few of the Arturia synths. I liked the presets in Mini V, the sound of CS-80 was nice. I still haven't tried Modular V or Prophet V. I need a retro 70s/80s synthesizer sound, like Tangerine Dream but with the meditativeness and softness of Schulze or Jarre. Very retro, but soft and flexible sound that blends in many contexts, progressive Berlin old school/cinematic/hybrid/ambient/80s cinematic score. Something that strikes a balance with both 70s and 80s sound, like best of both worlds.
I know TD used Minimoog and Modular, but Blade Runner was all CS-80.
Prophet 5 was an integral part of Miami Vice's sound. Drive and Hotline Miami soundtracks are more of a modern example of that retro sound. Something unique, yet retro.
I already have Omnisphere 2 but one additional synth with unique sound wouldn't hurt and the Arturia stuff is currently -50%.

I thought I should also get a decent reverb while I'm at it and demoed Valhalla's Shimmer and VintageVerb. Shimmer was fine, but I really like the retro/Phil Collins-vibe I'm getting from VintageVerb in an ambient track, but is it flexible enough for hybrid/orchestral scores or should I invest in another reverb for that?

[Acid Mitch]

YOu can get the Arturia stuff super cheap from jrrshop
https://www.jrrshop.com/arturia

At those prices,maybe you could get 2 or 3 your most interested in ?
CS80 ,Prophet and either Mini or Modular Moog ?

[hivkorn]

the Mini V and CS-80 are really good , but you should ask to yourself(i think) what would be the use of these synth .IMO the Mini V is great for Bass sound and CS - 80 for ' synth ' sound , you could be limited to create synth sound in Mini V and limited with CS 80 to create bass sound.It's just excellent synth but for different use.

For the reveb , i think you should take a look at EOS from audio damage.

[Echoes in the Attic]

For the vintage vibe, rather than Arturia, I would highly suggest looking at Oddity 2. It beats the pants off the Arturia ones imo. Diva and Poly-Ana are also great for well rounded vintage flavours. Diva has many different modelled oscillator and filter sections. Poly-Ana on the other hand is kind of a best of everything, merging the functions of several classic synths (like mixing a moog, an arp, and a CS-80 together).

If you're set on Arturia, don't buy a single synth. The V collection shows up in the market place quite a bit. I just saw the V Collection 4 there for 150. Sometimes V3 is there even cheaper which has most synths as well. But I find Arturia stuff buggy and there's not enough difference in the sounds to be worth having all that I think.

For Valhalla - VintageVerb all the way. Especially for the vintage vibe of course. And yes, people often use the vintage lexicon style reverb for orchestral reverb tails.

[layzer]

dont forget to demo the good free VAs Charlatan, OBXD, PG8x, Alpha3free and Synth1
they just might surprise you.

i laugh at all the people buying that Valhalla stuff when they can
get TAL Reverb2 true stereo verb and ChorusLX for free and sound just as good or
even better(to me)

[rod_zero]

I should also pic Diva over any of the arturia plugs, the only one I like is the Moog Modular because well its modular and it's the only emulation of a MM on the market.

As for reverb I would pick vintage verb first since shimmer is more out of this world kind of sound.

[Echoes in the Attic]

dont forget to demo the good free VAs Charlatan, PG8x, Alpha3free and Synth1
they just might surprise you.

i laugh at all the people buying that Valhalla stuff when they can
get TAL Reverb2 true stereo verb and ChorusLX for free and sound just as good or
even better(to me)

Ok. TAL Reverb is a single plate algorithm. VVV has about 10 algorithms including halls, ambience and other emulated reverb types and a lot more control and quality settings. For 50 bucks, you're getting a lot more than the TAL reverb.

[chk071]

i laugh at all the people buying that Valhalla stuff when they can
get TAL Reverb2 true stereo verb and ChorusLX for free and sound just as good or
even better(to me)

Thing is, the Valhalla verbs are another league compared to TAL-Reverb, soundwise. They're also 10 if not a 100 times more versatile. And Chorus-LX is nice if you just need a Juno-60 like chorus. But if you want to set up your chorus, it just won't do it. You can neither change the feedback, nor speed, nor stereo spread. If freeware, then Acon Multiply will do a lot more for no money.

[layzer]

dont forget to demo the good free VAs Charlatan, PG8x, Alpha3free and Synth1
they just might surprise you.

i laugh at all the people buying that Valhalla stuff when they can
get TAL Reverb2 true stereo verb and ChorusLX for free and sound just as good or
even better(to me)

Ok. TAL Reverb is a single plate algorithm. VVV has about 10 algorithms including halls, ambience and other emulated reverb types and a lot more control and quality settings. For 50 bucks, you're getting a lot more than the TAL reverb.

who gives a F... the plate can be filterd, resized, predelayed ...made to sound like 500 reverbs
whats your point? it sounds amazing. if he tries it, he won't spend a dime on vahala

[layzer]

i laugh at all the people buying that Valhalla stuff when they can
get TAL Reverb2 true stereo verb and ChorusLX for free and sound just as good or
even better(to me)

Thing is, the Valhalla verbs are another league compared to TAL-Reverb, soundwise. They're also 10 if not a 100 times more versatile. And Chorus-LX is nice if you just need a Juno-60 like chorus. But if you want to set up your chorus, it just won't do it. You can neither change the feedback, nor speed, nor stereo spread. If freeware, then Acon Multiply will do a lot more for no money.

another league? GTfO. how versatile do you need a reverb to be? i would still use TAL reverb2 if it only had one knob over vlavala because it sounds awesome. mulltiply? i tired it and it sounds ok, but ChorusLX again simple but sounds thicker.

[JerGoertz]

Arturia stuff has traditionally gotten a lot of flak around here, but I've thought they sound pretty good for the most part. I just picked up the SEM V for cheap in the marketplace, and from my limited experience with it so far it sounds really good. It seems to be the one that even the Arturia haters can love, so you might give that a try.

And this might seem like an odd suggestion, but have you tried the Dominator synth from Computer Music magazine? It has always impressed me as one of the best sounding freebies available.

[deastman]

I agree with most of what has been said so far. I would choose Diva and Oddity 2 over any of the Arturia synths. Modular V is good because, well, its modular, but I would still probably choose ACE or Bazille instead. For reverb, VVV is by far my favorite ever. For orchestral, you might want to consider VRoom instead, but VVV would be my first purchase. Shimmer is extremely specialized, and while it sounds great, it won't be as useful as a more generalized reverb. Free stuff is great, no doubt about it, but there is a reason that people choose different algorithms for different sounds. There is also a reason that Valhalla is one of the most respected names in reverb. And at $50, his stuff is practically free anyway!

By the way, I've just bought Omnisphere myself, and I really think that is just about all you need. If you're just bored and want a new toy to play with, more power to you, but Omni is perfectly adequate for accomplishing the retro sound you seek.

I have The iPad version of the Arturia SEM and Prophet VS. The SEM sounds pretty good without comparing it to anything, but it didn't even sound remotely close to my Tom Oberheim SEM, which in turn doesn't sound anywhere close to an original SEM. I used to own a real Prophet VS, and never liked the sound very much-always so thin and harsh and annoying. Ironically, I like the iOS emulation much better specifically because it doesn't sound much like the real thing.

[db3]

Arturia synths are certainly great value at the moment with 50% off. Most are as little as $43 at JRR. Of those I've tried I like the newer ones the best, particularly SEM V, Solina V and Matrix 12V. The older ones are a bit more hit and miss, but each one has a sweet spot. The CS-80 V has some lovely pads.

[Aryaroman]

dont forget to demo the good free VAs Charlatan, PG8x, Alpha3free and Synth1
they just might surprise you.

i laugh at all the people buying that Valhalla stuff when they can
get TAL Reverb2 true stereo verb and ChorusLX for free and sound just as good or
even better(to me)

Ok. TAL Reverb is a single plate algorithm. VVV has about 10 algorithms including halls, ambience and other emulated reverb types and a lot more control and quality settings. For 50 bucks, you're getting a lot more than the TAL reverb.

who gives a F... the plate can be filterd, resized, predelayed ...made to sound like 500 reverbs
whats your point? it sounds amazing. if he tries it, he won't spend a dime on vahala

I hate to say this, but I used to have TAL Reverb 2. Then I pressed delete. It sounded like a bad hardware rompler reverb I used to know. I prefer SafeReverb any day over it. And now VVV over that. But if it works for you, then all's right.

YOu can get the Arturia stuff super cheap from jrrshop
https://www.jrrshop.com/arturia

At those prices,maybe you could get 2 or 3 your most interested in ?
CS80 ,Prophet and either Mini or Modular Moog ?

Seems they are at the same prices as currently on Arturia's own store.

[Ingonator]

Currently my favorite Arturia/effects combinations are those:

Synths: Arturia Matrix-12V, Jupiter 8V and Oberheim SEM V

effects:
- Reverb: Lexicon MPX Native (got this at a sale for only 37 €) or ValhallaVintageVerb
- Chorus/Ensemble/Delay: ValhallaÜberMod
- Bass boosting/enhancement: Waves OneKnob Phatter
- Phaser (if needed): ArtsAcoustic Big Rock Phase-shifter
- EQ (if needed): Waves Renaissance EQ

Actually i am using those effects mentioend with most synths.

Waves OneKnob Phatter could boost the low end of any synth and works better than just boosting the low end with an EQ liek i did in the past. There is only one knob for the amount but it works nicely IMO.

I also got SKNote Verbtone that is a physical modeled emulation of a real Plate Reverb (modeled based on a custom made Plate).