Arturia - opinions?

[Nannerfan]

Is it worth getting the V-Collection? Or is there one that just sticks out amongst the rest?

Also, do you find them to be authentic?

[Solderman]

I can only speak for Minimoog V and Jupiter 8V.
Just sticking to the monosynth emulation with no effects and no multi-voice unison or anything, Minimoog V sounds very Moog-like and does some killer bass. Like alot of VA's, it sounds alot more well-behaved and not quite as powerful in the extremes of the spectrum, plus I thought the fast-decay envelope behavior was way off of the real Minimoog I once played.
Jupiter 8V to me is alot closer to the real thing, including envelope behavior, tone, intermodulation with detuned VCO's and alot of other things that aren't easy to emulate in software.

Only thing I think Arturia dropped the ball on for JP8V was voice tolerances. The real JP8 I owned had plenty of subtle offsets per voice in everything from VCO detune, to frequency cutoff to envelope shape. This made playing 3 or 4 note chords more interesting, since they were not all in perfect tune with one another. Dual mode, stacking the same sound twice, always made a richer, ticker version of it. JP8V sets every voice to the exact same settings on the front panel down to 5 decimal places. Stacking two of the same sound in dual mode just causes ugly phase cancellations. Arturia also forgot to set Upper and Lower to separate audio channels, so dual and unison modes can't do that nifty "wide stereo" trick, by hard panning Upper and Lower left and right.

[CS_TBL]

Authentic? That's an endless discussion about emulation, digital, analogue, software, hardware, mouse, knobs etc. etc. etc.

Bottom line:

Do you like what Arturia sounds like, in its own right? If yes: go get 'em. If no: don't get 'em.

[Nannerfan]

Thanks guys... I was afraid this topic was possibly done to death and mods were going to jump down my throat.

Authentic.. I guess I just mean. If you had a patch on the actual machine.. would it come remotely close on the software? Wasn't really saying the sound quality or anything.

btw - I'm most interested in the CS-80V and Moog Modular V.

[Dustin]

Arturia's softsynths are fine emulations of their respective instruments. Their method of copy protection is somewhat questionable, but I suppose that sentiment is as subjective as the softsynths are themselves.

My own experience with them is limited to the demos. Solderman nailed it right on the head regarding the JP-8V and it being "too" finely tuned.

I do appreciate the luxury of polyphony on the Moog Modular V which is my favorite of the bunch. The only bone I have to pick with Arturia lies with the excess features that they chose to implement. I will always regard them as an unnecessary expenditure of development resources.

[Nannerfan]

If the CS-80V can do the solo sound in this track... I'm sold.

[Dustin]

Before you commit entirely, consider the ME80 by the folks at Memorymoon. I am very impressed with it, and heartily recommend all three of their offerings.

http://www.memorymoon.com/me80.htm

[Nannerfan]

Thanks!! that seems more my style actually.

Reminds me of the Elektrostudio VST's.

Edit: oh wow! Love the brass sound at 42 secs. I'm sold.

http://www.memorymoon.com/demo/china-ME80V3.mp3

[Nannerfan]

Aww man.. the Memorymoon rules too!!
Love the soft-core lead sound..

http://www.memorymoon.com/demo/longrecall.mp3

I love this forum. Thanks so much.. never knew of these before.

ps- seems like the Messiah is the weakest link,,..

[Ashe37]

I have both the Moog Modular and Prophet V softsynths from Arturia and like and enjoy them both. Authentic? I dunno. Useable and enjoyable? Sure. I think the earlier comment about JP-8V may be true in the case of these as well, where the 'tuning' and sound on these is a little too stable for the synths they are supposed to represent.

[gunnare]

Thanks!! that seems more my style actually.

Reminds me of the Elektrostudio VST's.

Edit: oh wow! Love the brass sound at 42 secs. I'm sold.

http://www.memorymoon.com/demo/china-ME80V3.mp3

Hello!

The brass patch at 42 sec is "Georges flutestuff" and it is played by Georges Poropat, with some Cubase reverb added. The envelope is controlled with aftertouch, so the patch in itself may feel dull unless you play it with aftertouch.

[Nannerfan]

thanks for the info!

I really dig the vibe. I love ditties.

Got a decent link to a some complete/offical works?

[trevordutton]

Plus one for another satisfied Arturia customer. I've got the whole bundle and really enjoy each virtual synth, for different reasons.

[meatballfulton]

Having played with the demos for quite some time:

-- CPU intensive: Jupiter 8V hit 100% on one laptop with 2 notes, that same laptop was handling entire songs in Reason and Live.
-- Somewhat samey sound...this is most obvious if you explore Analog Factory which includes all the sound engines.
-- You have to like the whole idea of soft clones. Do you want a Jupiter (or Mini or CS80 or etc.) but can't afford one or are you just looking for some analog-ish polysynth sounds? I find the emulation concept limiting.
-- Patch cords on softsynths are beyond ridiculous.
-- I hate dongles, YMMV

My personal opinion: if you just need a library of analog sounds to draw from and don't want/need to deep program your own, get Analog Factory (3500 presets) for $100 at NovaMusik.

Tip: the more recent demos (like JP8V and Analog Factory) are not time limited, they just don't let you save your edits and have a much reduced preset list. You can use these as long as you like in your tracks (you just have to render the audio if you're not using a preset) which is a good way to really spend some time with them and see what you think.

[D-Collector]

-- Patch cords on softsynths are beyond ridiculous.
-- I hate dongles, YMMV

+1

I have tried Jupiter 8v and CS80v and found that they are indeed CPU hogs with a sound that is left behind by other softsynths of less fame.