{"id":87,"date":"2021-08-12T01:22:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T01:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/?page_id=87"},"modified":"2024-03-17T09:16:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-17T09:16:20","slug":"arturia-v-collection-and-keylab","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/arturia-v-collection-and-keylab\/","title":{"rendered":"Arturia V Collection & Keylab \ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is the old page for versions up to 8.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I once compared this software collection to the Smurfs<\/a>. Let me update that slightly… It’s still the Smurfs, but with a hell of a lot of Gym hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

HISTORY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Arturia\u2019s V Collection<\/em> has both the pride and misfortune to be one of the first to emulate known hardware. 200X era computers were not up to the task, and the required compromises pleased no one. My first virtual Jupiter 8<\/em> choked on a few notes, with no great advantage over no-name VSTs. The hardware Origin<\/a> was needed to handle the polyphony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things have improved. It\u2019s not that the collection has completely nailed authentic sounds but is able to work in a mix as the hardware would \u2013 not as an emulation but a substitute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VERSION 5 introduced \u2018circuit modelling\u2019 with few details. Likely that they had something \u2018near enough\u2019 in the past but reached the luxury of the real thing. If you compare to Roland’s ACB<\/a> you\u2019ll see it can\u2019t be nearly as hard on the CPU yet I don\u2019t hear a profound difference. The Jup8<\/em> can produce many more voices than any of the Roland synthesisers, so Arturia\u2019s TAE<\/em> will have a different use to Roland\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interfaces scale in version 5. The improvement is more significant than you might expect: the Modular V<\/em> is for the first time usable \u2013 I\u2019m not exaggerating \u2013 I\u2019ve only now made sounds, and enjoyed using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The big addition for 5 was supposed to be the Synclavier<\/em>. Frankly there\u2019s a bunch of VSTs that do that sound (for example Morphine<\/em>) and have less hopping between virtual wood grain and virtual green screen. Not dismissing it, but the highlight for me has been the Piano<\/em> and the Farfisa<\/em>. The modelled piano proves that NI\u2019s endless array of sampled pianos<\/a> are fool\u2019s gold \u2013 lots of names no real distinction. I\u2019ve also never seen organs as an instrument for my kind of music. The Farfisa<\/em> takes the best features of the real thing \u2013 envelopes for example \u2013 and adds in more synthetic controls, including advanced additive synthesis. It\u2019s very simple, it sounds great in a mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In VERSION 6<\/strong> the CMI<\/em> and DX7<\/em> were both ‘nice to have’ but really illustrate the actual value of the V collection<\/em> in their inauthenticity. Both have added features way beyond the original device – the CMI<\/em> has some wonderful sample modulation and DX7<\/em> has multiple waveforms, filters, pitch envelopes and more. The more Arturia bends and breaks the emulation the better. To be frank an 8bit CMI in 2019 is bullshit. But a 16bit sampler that modulates the loop point – that’s cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s also a Buchla Easel<\/em>. Yawn. Do people really pay bank for this thing? It’s an overrated fart box. My Electro-Harmonix Mini Synthesiser<\/a> was more fun (now available on iPad)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VERSION 7 <\/strong>adds the Casio CZ 1<\/em>, which I thought everyone owned but sold once they could afford something nicer. I didn’t know it was anything special (I actually smashed mine to pieces on stage<\/a>) but that must be a generation gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More cool’n’groovy is the EMS\/AKS Synthi<\/em> which in hardware costs at least $10,000 and leaves you wondering why you paid that much. (It’s like a V10 Jaguar car which is really a V8 because at least two of the cylinders are broken at any moment – true story.) By the time you’ve got a usable noise out of real Synthi the rest of the band have gone to dinner. This emulation is better than a real one if you’re trying to make music. Here also is a Mellotron<\/em>, which like the CMI<\/em> is better for the changes they made and features added than any authentic limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VERSION 8<\/strong> has arrived and they did not listen to my advice! They need to include things that failed as much as the successes. We need a FIZMO<\/a>. How about a Neuron<\/a>? Give me things I can say – thank god I never paid for that. Instead we have a newer version of the Jupiter 8<\/em>. Jesus people, how many Jupiter 8 emulations does this poor world need? This one falls out of tune. It’s the Honky Tonk version. As does the OB-Xa<\/em> which I guess was used by somebody on some record that I didn’t own and so my nostalgia factor is low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have no idea why the Emulator 2<\/em> is here. It’s a stodgy bodgy sampler. If you want a bodgy sampler but with useful additions get TAL Sampler<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vocoder<\/em> is actually pretty interesting. Yes it’s a goddamn vocoder<\/a>, but they are using it as a synthesiser, where that buzzy drone sound has some wider application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The highlight – I am really surprised by the Juno 6<\/em><\/a>. They’ve expanded it with extra envelope, LFO and voices such that it becomes a useful, contemporary but very controllable instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VERDICT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Arturia V Collection<\/em> is for people who are not going to look too closely at each individual instrument, and would rather have an orchestra of things for a reasonable (given the quantity, yes reasonable<\/em>) price. It is more for composers than designers. It may never satisfy a pedant, but it very often fulfils one’s musical needs. Pull out a DX7 and get working, you will have the result you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every case the emulation is reasonable, but the expansion and augmentation – the breaking of the mirror – is the factor that lifts the collection into moments of greatness. Be weird Arturia! Break things!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arturia Keylab 49 \u201cHybrid Synthesiser\u201d.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n

This article is very out of date but I still enjoy it.<\/strong> Once upon a time there were elves that made sound software<\/em> that sounded just like hardware, and Arturia was the most jolly kind. This was long long ago and since that time the world had grown up and up and up. Arturia\u2019s software had become very teeny tiny, as big as a mouse!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSacre Bleu!\u201d said one of the Arturia elves (which meant \u201cWhat the Fuck\u201d in French Elf). \u201cWe must make our software bigger, or it will disappear!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when they looked they found that all the bits they needed had been thrown out by Papa Arturia. There was no way to make the software bigger! Why had Papa done such a fool thing? All the elves stormed over and knocked on his door all at once.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Papa was really the wisest of all the Arturias. He waddled leisurely out the door, belched and smiled. \u201cNow listen. No one is going to buy this shit in 2015 anyway. Virtual? Merde! What do they say? You tell me\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bravest Arturia spoke up. \u201cThey say it sounds nothing like the original stuff. That it\u2019s too deep or too high or too pink\u201d. The other elves joined in. \u201cToo fat\u201d. \u201cNot fat enough\u201d. \u201cLacking the balls\u201d. \u201cWeepy bullshit\u201d. \u201cWoofy\u201d. Papa Arturia nodded.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo then, what do you think? What do we need? To make it bigger?\u201d Everybody shook their heads sadly. \u201cNon\u201d, he continued. \u201cWe add the one thing that they all mention. We put our software in a box that has that one magic that every single dork in the world thinks is most important!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly the elves were singing and dancing! Of course! How could they have been so wrong! They didn\u2019t have to make the software any bigger at all! They just had to add wooden ends. To make it sound better.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To be very honest it doesn\u2019t sound any better but then again my eyesight is getting bad so I may as well use the controller that works best with the software I paid for. It works well enough, although once you go past editing a preset the actual tiny interface shows up and there\u2019s not enough knobs for everything. But look, it\u2019s pretty close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this a good controller? Does it have NOVATION written on it? No? Then it might actually last more than a few months before exploding into a miasma of tiny screws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually I just noticed the bottom key is a little too keen on the after touch.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the old page for versions up to 8. I once compared this software collection to the Smurfs. Let me update that slightly… It’s still the Smurfs, but with a hell of a lot of Gym hours. HISTORY Arturia\u2019s V Collection has both the pride and misfortune to be one of the first to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[31,8,7,13,4],"class_list":["post-87","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-additive","tag-modular","tag-sampler","tag-spectral","tag-virtual-analogue"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/87\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}