Arturia: Are they that bad?

[IncarnateX]

Come on Trimph1, you naughty old troll! You know they suck big time and just want to stir up the few brainwashed fanatics for some action

Don't know whether Arturia is a bad company but as far as their synths go: Older stuff; only the minimoog v is really cool. Rest is not bad but not particular good either in my ears. New stuff; iSem and iProphet are high class. They are definitely the best synths on my iPad and I got a lot. Haven't tried Matrix12 on pc but I guess it's in the same league.

[Robmobius]

They are just, the middle of the road for me. Not bad but not particularly good. If you compare them to the best soft synths they fall quite short.

I've never been tempted to buy the all bundle. Despite the price falling like rocks.

I have SEM - Which is okay, decent enough. I don't really use it any more. I've got better stuff for bass.

Solina is pretty cool. I still use that...

[trimph1]

Come on Trimph1, you naughty old troll! You know they suck big time and just want to stir up the few brainwashed fanatics for some action

Don't know whether Arturia is a bad company but as far as their synths go: Older stuff; only the minimoog v is really cool. Rest is not bad but not particular good either in my ears. New stuff; iSem and iProphet are high class. They are definitely the best synths on my iPad and I got a lot. Haven't tried Matrix12 on pc but I guess it's in the same league.

Just reminded me...got to check Matrix12 out.

[masterhiggins]

I despise them as a company. This stems from personal customer service (or lack thereof) experience. Other than that, their products are average.

[electro]

Beatstep pro looks brilliant for the price.

Overall V Collection 5 is a good value but the more recent Arturia emulations since the SEM V seem to be more precisely modeled than the older synths.

[Meffy]

Their customer service really has changed for the better lately. I'm not the only one who was pleased and a little surprised.

Disclaimer: I rarely have much bad to say about any music software I own. Generally I research the heck out of things before buying, and if I don't like what I learn, I don't buy. So take my opinion with a grain or two of salt.

I learned synthesis on a Moog Modular III, minimoog, and ARP 2600 in the early 1970s. I never pushed the filters to extremes (didn't know it could be done) or any of the other edge-case techniques that the virtual ones can't handle. To me the sound is most of the way there, and I can adapt my patch diagrams from those days (drawn on papyrus, yes) without much trouble.

I usually prefer GForce's minimonsta over the mini V, but both are very good. Newer synths can come closer to the authentic analog sound, I've no doubt. But these fit my needs well enough and — this is the clincher — I could afford 'em.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[4damind]

For some reason Arturia has not so much interest to improve existing stuff (or they are really small and it's more a problem to have not enough developers)
It needs years to put this often used request for larger GUIs on the todo list... now in 2016 with the next V-Collection it's confirmed that we will see larger GUIs.
People often say that Arturia is a bad company because some of their older emulations are not really 1:1 emulations. We know all this stuff like "all Arturia synth sounding the same" and we know this tests and comparisons...

They making good stuff and many people like their newer synth and also the hardware. I prefer some Arturia synth over the "better" emulations from the competitors and cannot say bad things about the customer service. I don't think Arturia is a bad company but they could be a lot better

[andrew732]

Like many have said, the Minimoog V may not be realistic, but personally, I think it has a fairly distinctive warmth that I can't quite get with anything else, including Diva and Monark.

[goldenanalog]

Their Origin's cool - it has issues, but Arturia was kind enough to post the Origin's complete service docs online(!) so that the enduser with the wherewithal and/or proficient instrument tech can fix whatever:

http://forum.arturia.com/index.php?topic=83531.0

Take a look at what they're sharing - as an 'O' owner, it's a Godsend -

[Orbit-50]

Like many have said, the Minimoog V may not be realistic, but personally, I think it has a fairly distinctive warmth that I can't quite get with anything else, including Diva and Monark.

I totally agree with you. It's funny, one day I decided to produce a song using just Arturia. It sounded totalyy different than anything else I've ever made with anything else. It's exactly like you said. There was this warmth to it that I found completely awesome. This is coming from a guy that could give two shits less about "analog warmth". At that moment I realized the true value of the Arturia stuff. I have a lot of respect for what they've achieved with their software line.

[jdoo]

One thing I forgot to mention is the Analog Experience The Laboratory 61 I have. As a controller - it has been rock solid. Excellent feel, aftertouch that is predictable and plenty of controller knobs and sliders. It was easy to map my primary synths to, and has been a great (home studio) controller for the past four years. It weighs a ton, and I haven't ever taken it to a gig to play - so I have no idea how it would hold up as a traveling controller.. but it's set the bar high, for what I'd expect in a controller...

[david.beholder]

Yes, they are bad!
All Arturia synth sounding the same - generic 10 years old SWVA. And even corporate heads understand it so they are oftenly selling V-collection for half price.

Frankly for $200 you could get 1-2 synths from U-he, Tal or other companies producing 1000 time better emulations of analog synths.

[ontol]

[Ingonator]

With certain Arturia plugins like e.g. Modular V and Matrix-12V there do not seem to be any other emulations of those synths and with Prophet V and the SEM there only seem to be SynthEdit and/or free options available.
At the moment there does not seem to be another option for the Prophet VS as Augur was discontinued.
Other free Prophet 5 emulations are not really better IMO and Pro-53 never really was a more proper emulation anyway. Besides that Prophet V also includes the hybrid synth (modules of teh P5 and VS) which is unique and really cool.
Concerning SEM Diva has the indeed very nice Uhbie filter but this does not mean it is a proper emulation of the whole SEM units.

In cases where the Arturia plugins lack like e.g. with the low end i just add a Bass boosting FX (e.g. Waves OneKob Phatter or a nice EQ) and then they sound great in the low end to me (indepnedent how close tehy emulate the real synths...).

Same about using other external FXs like e.g. Reverb, Chorus, Delay, Phaser, Compressor etc. which in many cases i prefer anyway, not just with Arturia plugins.