Arturia V Collection 9 - Official Thread

[LoveEnigma18]

Great video on V Collection 9 in case anyone's interested!

[OllieBoi]

The thing that is so silly about it all is that it misses the big, gaping obvious advantage of hardware of software - that it is hardware. You can physically grab the controls. That's what software users are missing out on. That's an ocean of difference, not a pinhead of difference. It changes everything about how you interact with the synth, makes you work differently and changes what sounds and ultimately music you come up with. With a very good emulation - which the Arturia MS20 clearly is - it's not some indefinable technical sonic difference, its that music you make itself which will be different.

Actually, I buy hardware synths for their sound and not so much for any tactile experience. At least half of my analog and hybrid synths are rack mount units that I program with SoundDiver in conjunction with my Kiwi Patch Editor programmer that has templates for most of these rack units.

Given that I have over 20 hardware synths, buying racks and rack mount modules keeps everything pretty tidy (but still sounding great).

[exmatproton]

I can imagine hardware synth owners enjoy their hw and want to compare software to hardware to see how much better their hw is. But i really dont care to be honest.

These emulations will get better and better (like we've seen in the past decade), but already superseed hw in terms of cost, flexibilty, function and space. I will never go back to hardware. There is just no real need anymore. (all imo ofcourse, ymmv)

[fmr]

The thing that is so silly about it all is that it misses the big, gaping obvious advantage of hardware of software - that it is hardware. You can physically grab the controls. That's what software users are missing out on. That's an ocean of difference, not a pinhead of difference. It changes everything about how you interact with the synth, makes you work differently and changes what sounds and ultimately music you come up with. With a very good emulation - which the Arturia MS20 clearly is - it's not some indefinable technical sonic difference, its that music you make itself which will be different.

Actually, I buy hardware synths for their sound and not so much for any tactile experience. At least half of my analog and hybrid synths are rack mount units that I program with SoundDiver in conjunction with my Kiwi Patch Editor programmer that has templates for most of these rack units.

Given that I have over 20 hardware synths, buying racks and rack mount modules keeps everything pretty tidy (but still sounding great).

You know what? I too have hardware synths, some of them analog (and pretty famous BTW), have programmed them extensively, and I am really happy to be able to replace them with software. If you think you are the only one arounf here owning hardware synths, and being able to compare, think again. And if you can't obtain similar results from the sofware you either:

A) Didn't try (or din't try ENOUGH);
B) Don't have the skills to do it;
C) Have a strong prejudice that prevemnts you to achieve those results.

Now choose which is your case. I really don't care. It's fine that you aren't interested in software, but please, don't come here with those "richer" and "warmer" cliches. We are tired of that rubbish.

[Biome_Digital]

Great video on V Collection 9 in case anyone's interested!

His face when he plays my "Mark One" preset

See, that MS20 filter sounds awesome!

[OllieBoi]

The thing that is so silly about it all is that it misses the big, gaping obvious advantage of hardware of software - that it is hardware. You can physically grab the controls. That's what software users are missing out on. That's an ocean of difference, not a pinhead of difference. It changes everything about how you interact with the synth, makes you work differently and changes what sounds and ultimately music you come up with. With a very good emulation - which the Arturia MS20 clearly is - it's not some indefinable technical sonic difference, its that music you make itself which will be different.

Actually, I buy hardware synths for their sound and not so much for any tactile experience. At least half of my analog and hybrid synths are rack mount units that I program with SoundDiver in conjunction with my Kiwi Patch Editor programmer that has templates for most of these rack units.

Given that I have over 20 hardware synths, buying racks and rack mount modules keeps everything pretty tidy (but still sounding great).

You know what? I too have hardware synths, some of them analog (and pretty famous BTW), have programmed them extensively, and I am really happy to be able to replace them with software. If you think you are the only one arounf here owning hardware synths, and being able to compare, think again. And if you can't obtain similar results from the sofware you either:

A) Didn't try (or din't try ENOUGH);
B) Don't have the skills to do it;
C) Have a strong prejudice that prevemnts you to achieve those results.

Now choose which is your case. I really don't care. It's fine that you aren't interested in software, but please, don't come here with those "richer" and "warmer" cliches. We are tired of that rubbish.

You clearly haven't read a word I've said. I said that I would gladly get rid of my hardware synths when there are 1:1 software replacements. For instance, I sold my Roland D-550 and XV-5080 as soon as there were Roland Cloud versions of these instruments (which sound pretty much identical to their hardware counterparts). But there is nothing that can currently replace my two MKS-80's. So those are staying for now.

I also never said that I don't use plugins. (I was just programming an evolving wavetable pad in Omnisphere this evening.) I own pretty much every synth plugin so I am in a good position to judge what sounds good and what doesn't. My hardware typically sounds better and so I use it most often.

[Biome_Digital]

So far, I've noticed general consensus is MS-20 is a winner like GForce's OB-E. I guess we are finally getting to the age where software truly rivals hardware in sound quality.

Exactly, we're finally there !

Oh we are there. The last few years have had some real good software synths.

[LoveEnigma18]

My upgrade price is showing as $399. I own V8 and Pigments. I suspect that it may be because I bought V8 and used the four payments option and I still have two payments left. Anyone have any insight? Hopefully I'll hear back from Arturia.

Might sound silly, but what exactly is the upgrade price "from" being shown as $399? V Collection 8? If so, it may indeed be the case you mention.

Did you get any reply from Arturia support? I am curious to know their answer, as it may be useful to me as well, even though I don't have V Collection 8 or any for that matter.

[gentleclockdivider]

C'mon arturia fix the ms20 vca bug

[wvshpr]

MS-20 is close, but no cigar. The original is more nasty, distorts more and doesn't sound quite as tame and flat. But distortion is hard to emulate.

However, I feel like Arturia is getting better with each iteration. I wish they would focus fewer instruments and take more time to get the sound exactly right. Even the reworked instruments still don't sound right, especially in the bass and high frequencies. Maybe aliasing at play?

[davidka]

I surprisingly enjoyed the Piano V and new Prophet V, too!
Guess I'll have no more excuses and need to spend more time making music.

[ghettosynth]

Come on now, we can all think of those smash hits where authentic resonant filter sweeps were a crucial part of the song

I can, literally, remember being stopped in my tracks on the dancefloor by badly distorted filter sweeps back in the day. I mean this was obvious stuff, long before the advent of good plugins, but in the realm of terrible VA hardware. I have a room full of analog too, that I can't be assed to use these days, but, I don't pretend that my experience is everyone else's. I think that it's reasonable to assume that some people develop serious sensitivities to certain differences that most people don't hear. For example, you will definitely notice DJs stop dancing on the dancefloor when the DJ who's playing slips the records too much and they get off beat. I'm talking shifts so small that they are inaudible to almost everyone else at the party.

While confirmation bias is very real and blind tests can sus this out, sometimes, I'm not convinced that you can easily develop a test for every case and that people who choose to use mostly or all analog are wrong. Maybe it's just ease. The ease of creating something that sounds good to them is higher using analog than it is using plugins. Maybe it's the cumulative effects of the small differences.

Does the Arturia MS20 sound good, sure it does. Arturia has stepped up their game. Do the differences to hardware matter? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. I think the Buchla sounds pretty good too, but, I can definitely hear differences that matter to me between how it sounds in tracks and how tracks sound that I know are recorded with hardware. Is that analog vs digital? Maybe, or maybe it's other factors. Could be confirmation bias, but I'm not yet ready to dismiss the experiences of people who still use rooms of (analog) hardware.

[noiseboyuk]

Does the Arturia MS20 sound good, sure it does. Arturia has stepped up their game. Do the differences to hardware matter? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. I think the Buchla sounds pretty good too, but, I can definitely hear differences that matter to me between how it sounds in tracks and how tracks sound that I know are recorded with hardware. Is that analog vs digital? Maybe, or maybe it's other factors. Could be confirmation bias, but I'm not yet ready to dismiss the experiences of people who still use rooms of (analog) hardware.

That's fair. If people said there's a marginal difference I'd listen to them. I stop listening when they say a very good emulation is "crap". It isn't.

[ghettosynth]

MS-20 is close, but no cigar. The original is more nasty, distorts more and doesn't sound quite as tame and flat. But distortion is hard to emulate.

However, I feel like Arturia is getting better with each iteration. I wish they would focus fewer instruments and take more time to get the sound exactly right.

No doubt. They might have been able to wedge a crowbar in my wallet this time had they updated the 2600 and the Moog Modular instead of stuffing the bundle with Strings or whatever.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Does the Arturia MS20 sound good, sure it does. Arturia has stepped up their game. Do the differences to hardware matter? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. I think the Buchla sounds pretty good too, but, I can definitely hear differences that matter to me between how it sounds in tracks and how tracks sound that I know are recorded with hardware. Is that analog vs digital? Maybe, or maybe it's other factors. Could be confirmation bias, but I'm not yet ready to dismiss the experiences of people who still use rooms of (analog) hardware.

That's fair. If people said there's a marginal difference I'd listen to them. I stop listening when they say a very good emulation is "crap". It isn't.

Yes of course. Emulations of all the big players are excellent and very close these days. Most of the differences come down to very specific things you hear, often in a synth you are familiar with and probably only for very specific types of sounds on those synths. For me, while I think the Arturia MS20 is nice, I still think there are aspects compared to the hardware that Diva did better. Though there are aspects that Arturia did better too. And what I meant earlier was certainly not that emulations are crap (I don't use any hardware synths anymore as I'm happy with software!), just that I still perceive a common weakness across Arturia synths that is hard to put into words, which I don't really notice in Tal/U-He/Software for example. The video someone posted before of the MS20 comparison to hardware was actually a perfect example. And I like the Arturia designs and own the V6! But it's just what I hear.