KVR Audio

matamoris · Post by **matamoris** » Fri Apr 06, 2018 3:16 am

Has anyone bought USQ-1 yet? I'm wondering how it sounds.

Saw · Post by **Saw** » Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:08 am

I bought it yesterday.
The sound is excellent, the controls are comfortable.
Very like the built-in presets, but the possibilities for сreate their your own are really limitless.
I recommend !

SLiC · Post by **SLiC** » Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:41 am

I also bought it yesterday, it’s very good....an instrument for the cost of a preset pack. Lots of control, nice sounding filter, great fx (the usual UVI stuff) and works great in Falcon.

murnau · Post by **murnau** » Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:49 am

Not so much in sampled synths anymore this days.. ..maybe a mistake i don't know.

sqigls · Post by **sqigls** » Fri Apr 06, 2018 7:43 am

I miss my SQ-1, so i'd consider this. My first hybrid

Is the filter modelled? Used to really piss me off that it was impossible to do a filter sweep the slider, the filter only changed with every note on message. I'm not much into sampled synths either though.

Ingonator · Post by **Ingonator** » Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:11 am

sqigls wrote: Is the filter modelled? Used to really piss me off that it was impossible to do a filter sweep the slider, the filter only changed with every note on message. I'm not much into sampled synths either though.

I have not used this yet but my guess is that they use the filters included in Falcon and UVI Workstation (which both use the same synth engines). The Xpander filter in Falcon might be used for this.

FWIW i currently got both a real ESQ-1 and the free SQ8L plugin (with jBridge to use it as 64-bit) here.

Also got Falcon since it was released (mostly for the synthesis features, not as a sample player) and UVI Workstation (mostly for using the VI Labs Ravenscroft 275 piano in it) installed.

Anyway as a fan of the ESQ-1 i am indeed interested in this sample library. As the ESQ-1 is a synth with a quite complex synth engine USQ-1 does not seem to be really close being a proper replacement for the real thing if you plan creating your own patches from scratch.

What is called "oscilator" in USQ-1 is actually a layer. Doing a layer or split was also possible with the real thing while there the overall polyphony was limited to 8 voices (4 with a layer of 2 sounds).

sqigls · Post by **sqigls** » Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:35 am

ah cheers.
i thought that was the case, i shouldn't be surprised, being a UVI affair.
i reckon i'd pay up to a hundred bucks for good SQ-1 emulation.
It was pretty crunchy and warm, I also had a cartridge and could store SO MANY SOUNDS (for the day)...
was a bit of a uni-dextral programming effort that one. One hand constantly on the slider, pushing buttons with the other... It kinda works, but yeah

actually i've been getting rather similar sounds with the Tempest, except what was the SQ-1, like 8-bit? 12-bit?
Anyway i remember the filter was pretty fat.
I still have it, but it has a cricket bat sized dent in it from a psycho flatmate, and i could probably just spend the 200-300 repair quote on another second-hand unit. I will in good time.

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Fri Apr 06, 2018 2:09 pm

I think nearly all (if not all) of the UVI synths have a sameness to their sound. In a similar way that all Toontrack Kits sound like they've been put through the same channel strip. The UVI stuff actually reminds me of the sound of DUNE (v1).

I was trying not to spend money (not really) but this is currently a bit of a bargain. Does it sound good? Well, yes. UVI make pro libraries. Will you like it? How the f*ck would I know?

JonSolo · Post by **JonSolo** » Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:03 am

SQ-1 was 16 bits. I had the Plus and it was fantastic!

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:52 am

If their ESQ-1 emulation is as weak as their VFX emulation I'll pass. The VFX in the DS-1 collection is a huge disappointment. They totally missed capturing the soul of the VFX. I've owned an ESQ-1 from new and a used VFX both of which I have sold on. If it was a 1:1 clone of the ESQ-1 I might be interested just for nostalgia's sake but samples that don't capture the essence of the ESQ I have no interest in. I listened to the tiny demo on their site and was left unimpressed.....

SLiC · Post by **SLiC** » Sat Apr 07, 2018 6:45 am

murnau wrote:Not so much in sampled synths anymore this days.. ..maybe a mistake i don't know.

Well this synth was a wavetable synth (digital waves on a chip) through analog filters and via etc, so sampling the waves is it realy an issue and they use VA filters etc.and some great fx, Sample based or VA, if you are dong it in the box it’s all digital...all that realy matters is do you like the sound!

ians · Post by **ians** » Sat Apr 07, 2018 7:51 am

I have to say I really like it. Dead easy to get new sounds and you can get polyrhythmic stuff out of the arps and mods. Made 6 new patches in a matter of minutes. I don’t know the original or care if it sounds like it, but for the intro price it’s a bargain. Well done UVI

Ingonator · Post by **Ingonator** » Sat Apr 07, 2018 8:04 am

As already mentioned i got both a real ESQ-1 and the free SQ8L plugin but i just decided to buy USQ-1.

Not because USQ-1 is a proper emulation of the synthe engine of the ESQ-1 but because it sounds great as it is while the raw sounds were created on and sampled from a real ESQ-1.
Overall it seems to be more like using samples of vintage hardware but adding something new to more or less craete a new instrument from that.

While editing the presets is not really close to a real ESQ-1 or the SQ8L plugin (actually it is far from that...) USQ-1 offers quite a bit of options to create your own patches. Some of them were not possible in the real thing which also includes the effects as the hardware had no effects at all.

So far i did only spend a little amount of time with this loaded in UVI Workstation but later i will also load it in Falcon and of course also compare to both my real ESQ-1 and the SQ8L plugin (used as 64-bit via jBridge).

Anyway as alraedy mentioned i do not really see USQ-1 as a proper emulation but as a kind of new instrument based on samples of ESQ-1. Maybe that is a more proper way to look at this.

beely · Post by **beely** » Sat Apr 07, 2018 8:53 am

Ingonator wrote:Overall it seems to be more like using samples of vintage hardware but adding something new to more or less craete a new instrument from that.

Yes, that's what all the UVI stuff is - a bunch of well sampled patches from the source synth/s, with a nice GUI (they always have great graphic design) based on the original's look and feel, and a bunch of options on top of those sampled presets to give you some flexibility (additional filters, envelopes, arpeggiators etc).

I think the UVI products are good, they look and sound great, but I've always felt they are/have been overpriced in general compared to what you can get out of them, and the amount of preset content, compared to the file sizes, are less than you might expect.

However, at more reasonable price - like this introductory price, then they are a nice self-contained taste of the original synth, albeit more limited than an emulation would be, and nice to have around.

legitimateson · Post by **legitimateson** » Sat Apr 07, 2018 9:05 am

I am considering this synth for the introductory price. How is it on it’s ambient pads and warm pads? Soundscapes? I need those punchy 80s synth sounds with a few modern sounds. Any advice would help. Thanks.

UVI USQ-1