Arturia V8 Released

[Boombastix]

The Juno 6 emulation sounds good enough, I guess Arturia is finally getting better at the VAs, not as good as the top guys, but good enough to be very usable.

Have you seen the Jef Gibbons video where he compares some Arturia patches with the Juno-6 he happens to have in the studio? It’s not an exhaustive test by any means but it is impressive!

I did see it but he did it with the chorus OFF!
I'll DM him and complain LOUDLY

[Despondo]

So, I decided to get the update. I think there is actually a lot in the new devices that I will use. I did notice something odd, however. All of the NEW devices open up with a black background for the toolbar at the top of the VST window. Anyone else experience this? I reported it as a bug to Reason Studios to see what they say.

[fieldframe]

Have you seen the Jef Gibbons video where he compares some Arturia patches with the Juno-6 he happens to have in the studio? It’s not an exhaustive test by any means but it is impressive!

I did see it but he did it with the chorus OFF!
I'll DM him and complain LOUDLY

Ha! Fair enough, I guess that is an important part of the Juno sound!

[Boombastix]

I'm really disappointed with the new ui for the library menus. It was so efficient before. Tons of dead space and massive icons on separate pages now.

the Home page is not great, try the Explore page instead, much better.

[hurricane]

So is the Matrix blurry and the mod pop-out text mangled for you too or is it just me?

matrix garbage.png (278.72 KiB) Viewed 5457 times

[miscend]

There's a couple people over at GS saying they prefer the new Jup8 to the Roland Cloud version. So it looks like Arturia have upped their emulation game and this is reflected in the higher prices.

[danc]

There's a couple people over at GS saying they prefer the new Jup8 to the Roland Cloud version. So it looks like Arturia have upped their emulation game and this is reflected in the higher prices.

Or just maybe... Arturia need all the cash they can get to sue Behringer for launching the Swing - possibly?!

[tallguy]

The real question on my mind is, how long does it normally take for a Collection upgrade to go on sale? 6 months? A year?

[Italophile]

The real question on my mind is, how long does it normally take for a Collection upgrade to go on sale? 6 months? A year?

You typically have to wait until Black Friday for a good deal. Last BF if you were upgrading from V6 to V7 the price was €99/$99, but I expect the price will be higher next year. Typically if you were upgrading by two or more versions, say from V5 to V7, the price would be €199/$199.

[Italophile]

So is the Matrix blurry and the mod pop-out text mangled for you too or is it just me?

Blurry here too. It looks as though the first three button have two lots of text overlaid on each other.

[Italophile]

So, I decided to get the update. I think there is actually a lot in the new devices that I will use. I did notice something odd, however. All of the NEW devices open up with a black background for the toolbar at the top of the VST window. Anyone else experience this? I reported it as a bug to Reason Studios to see what they say.

I'm not seeing that, but then I'm not on macOS.

[tallguy]

You typically have to wait until Black Friday for a good deal. Last BF if you were upgrading from V6 to V7 the price was €99/$99, but I expect the price will be higher next year. Typically if you were upgrading by two or more versions, say from V5 to V7, the price would be €199/$199.

Really? When you skip a version the upgrade price goes up? I own Collection 6 and am looking at a €299 upgrade price. What upgrade price do Collection 7 owners get then?

[Despondo]

I'm not seeing that, but then I'm not on macOS.

Thanks for checking. I will see if Reason Studio has an answer.

[Italophile]

You typically have to wait until Black Friday for a good deal. Last BF if you were upgrading from V6 to V7 the price was €99/$99, but I expect the price will be higher next year. Typically if you were upgrading by two or more versions, say from V5 to V7, the price would be €199/$199.

Really? When you skip a version the upgrade price goes up? I own Collection 6 and am looking at a €299 upgrade price. What upgrade price do Collection 7 owners get then?

If they bought OBXa seems they get V8 for €149/$149, otherwise €199/$199.

I am also on V6. The new instruments in V7 didn't give me a compelling reason to upgrade and there isn't anything new in V8 that tempts me either, especially as I get all the point updates plus AL V.

Incidentally it looks as though Jup8 V3 patches will need conversion for V4 as they don't load in AL V.

[Tiny Montgomery]

As I just got the Cherry Audio Juno and the upgrade price is too high for this rn Im actually really happy with the quality of the presets you get with the Analog Lab update. Updated presets for the instruments you have and loads of presets for the Emulator etc (most of the ones you'd expect tbh in the case of the Emulator). If Im honest despite delving into the ones I own on occasion I wonder if Analog Lab would have been enough for me (with a copy of Pigments full version, I do actually try sound design with that). That being said I never paid any where near full price for the V Collection 6 or 7.

[Tiny Montgomery]

I'm really disappointed with the new ui for the library menus. It was so efficient before. Tons of dead space and massive icons on separate pages now.

the Home page is not great, try the Explore page instead, much better.

Yeah fairplay to the preset designers but Im not interested in seeing pictures of them. That was a weird ui choice.

[hurricane]

My GAS was tempted really hard when this was announced, but the $299 upgrade price turned me off. I would have done it for $199 no question. The price didn't bother me as much a few days later, when I figured out that it was basically about $33 per new synth, and looking at it that way pushed me towards going ahead with the upgrade, that is, until I demoed the Juno and Jupiter. I don't have any experience with the hardware versions, but lots with the various software emulations out there and I just don't hear a big enough difference in Arturia's to warrant a purchase. I'm still on V6 and I'm going to stay there until a better deal comes out. I imagine their 2021 BF deal is going to be 50% off at least, so that means for me, it would be $150. That still might require some thinking - but a $99 deal would be a no-brainer.

I wonder if more people are in my position, where the 'just ok" stuff Arturia has released lately has been covered by other "wow" plugins in their libraries. Let's take V7 for example:

Mellotron: I've had G-Force's M Tron Pro for years now, and it's pretty much perfect. Mellotron samples are widely available and free, and Mello sounds are usually included in most rompers. I also remember getting UVI's mellotron for free a few years ago. Logic has a free Mellotron in its library. Arturia's doesn't blow me away.

Caszio CZ: If you're a fan of this synth then you would have purchased VirtualCZ a long time ago like I did. If you have a real CZ like I do, you know Virtual CZ is super close to the hardware. So, I was done and satsified with CZ emulations years ago. Arturia's doesn't blow me away.

Synthi V: I remember grabbing XILS LE a long time ago, thinking it was ok, but never really getting into it, therefore I never used it. Never upgraded it to it's bigger brother either. It's still sits disabled in my plugin library. Just not my thing. and - Arturia's doesn't blow me away.

And now V8:

Emulator: I bought UVIs Emu years ago and am pretty satisfied with it. Emulator samples abound in almost every rompler. I never went beyond using presets. But I appreciate Arturia's full-blown emulation, and if I was really into the Emulator this would be the ultimate version. Arturia's doesn't blow me away though.

Jun-6: I don't get this one. The Juno has been done to death. TAL's is still king, Cherry Audio's is good. DIVA does a fantastic Juno. I just don't need Arturia's. The demo didn't change my mind. Arturia's doesn't blow me away.

Jup-8: Again, the demo didn't make a difference. DIVA does a good Jupiter, and the best one that I currently use is a Reaktor instrument. In my opinion, the Jupiter sound is easy to re-create on modern synths. I don't need another Jupiter emulation. Arturia's doesn't blow me away.

OBXa: OPX-Pro II, Synapse Obsession, DIVA - I don't need anything else, and Arturia's version doesn't blow me away.

Vocoder: This is the only one I find appealing because I have nothing like this anywhere in my library.

There IS room for a new emulation of a widely covered synth -AS LONG AS IT BLOWS THE OTHERS AWAY. A good example would be Softube's M72.

Arturia are supposed to be re-doing their Minimoog and CS-80 emulations. When the inevitable updated/upgraded Mini comes out, I don't imagine it's going to make a huge bang. However, if they get their CS-80 updated, this one could be good because it would be THE CS-80 emulation to get.

There are also so many synths that haven't been done yet. How about we get some of those for V9? We don't need another SH-101. They haven't done any Korg stuff, but I can tell you right now that we also don't need another M1 or Wavestation.

[Boombastix]

I agree and there has been an explosion this year with 80s emulsion.

The Arturia Juno sounds nice, I compared to the Roland cloud version. Both are great. But the synth itself is a very limited synth. Though most sounds don't need that advanced synthesis. And the new Vital could easily fill the pocket for modern wavetable synth sounds.

Their older VAs have never impressed me and having Diva, Legend, VK-2 and a few others, the bar is high.

Still, nobody had done a good MS-20, perhaps all the mod connections is too overwhelming to get it right, but I have an original so don't really care.

Two that I definitely would be super interested in are:
Ensoniq Mirage, but with Arturia's added features.
Roland Variaudio type sampler. I know only Roland has the DSP, but the feature set is still very cool even if they licensed zPlane DSP for it.

Funny though, many discuss these old sampler emulations but never look at the free TX16W from Sonic Charge, using their own OS that runs a true old Motorola chip emulator. Sure it is a bit wonky as you need to load floppy disks, but you can save each patch as a Combinator and save the loaded patch that way that way.

[SebAudio]

My GAS was tempted really hard when this was announced, but the $299 upgrade price turned me off. I would have done it for $199 no question. The price didn't bother me as much a few days later, when I figured out that it was basically about $33 per new synth, and looking at it that way pushed me towards going ahead with the upgrade, that is, until I demoed the Juno and Jupiter. I don't have any experience with the hardware versions, but lots with the various software emulations out there and I just don't hear a big enough difference in Arturia's to warrant a purchase. I'm still on V6 and I'm going to stay there until a better deal comes out. I imagine their 2021 BF deal is going to be 50% off at least, so that means for me, it would be $150. That still might require some thinking - but a $99 deal would be a no-brainer.

I wonder if more people are in my position, where the 'just ok" stuff Arturia has released lately has been covered by other "wow" plugins in their libraries. Let's take V7 for example:

Mellotron: I've had G-Force's M Tron Pro for years now, and it's pretty much perfect. Mellotron samples are widely available and free, and Mello sounds are usually included in most rompers. I also remember getting UVI's mellotron for free a few years ago. Logic has a free Mellotron in its library. Arturia's doesn't blow me away.

Caszio CZ: If you're a fan of this synth then you would have purchased VirtualCZ a long time ago like I did. If you have a real CZ like I do, you know Virtual CZ is super close to the hardware. So, I was done and satsified with CZ emulations years ago. Arturia's doesn't blow me away.

Synthi V: I remember grabbing XILS LE a long time ago, thinking it was ok, but never really getting into it, therefore I never used it. Never upgraded it to it's bigger brother either. It's still sits disabled in my plugin library. Just not my thing. and - Arturia's doesn't blow me away.

And now V8:

Emulator: I bought UVIs Emu years ago and am pretty satisfied with it. Emulator samples abound in almost every rompler. I never went beyond using presets. But I appreciate Arturia's full-blown emulation, and if I was really into the Emulator this would be the ultimate version. Arturia's doesn't blow me away though.

Jun-6: I don't get this one. The Juno has been done to death. TAL's is still king, Cherry Audio's is good. DIVA does a fantastic Juno. I just don't need Arturia's. The demo didn't change my mind. Arturia's doesn't blow me away.

Jup-8: Again, the demo didn't make a difference. DIVA does a good Jupiter, and the best one that I currently use is a Reaktor instrument. In my opinion, the Jupiter sound is easy to re-create on modern synths. I don't need another Jupiter emulation. Arturia's doesn't blow me away.

OBXa: OPX-Pro II, Synapse Obsession, DIVA - I don't need anything else, and Arturia's version doesn't blow me away.

Vocoder: This is the only one I find appealing because I have nothing like this anywhere in my library.

There IS room for a new emulation of a widely covered synth -AS LONG AS IT BLOWS THE OTHERS AWAY. A good example would be Softube's M72.

Arturia are supposed to be re-doing there Minimoog and CS-80 emulations. When the inevitable updated/upgraded Mini comes out, I don't imagine it's going to make a huge bang. However, if they get their CS-80 updated, this one could be good because it would be THE CS-80 emulation to get.

There are also so many synths that haven't been done yet. How about we get some of those for V9? We don't need another SH-101. They haven't done any Korg stuff, but I can tell you right now that we also don't need another M1 or Wavestation.

We are spoiled with very good synths, since several years now. I think that one advantage of having new versions is UI related : the new synths provide several sizes so you can enjoy as big or as small GUI as you want. And that is important for some people.
In Arturia case, JUP-8 is really very very good, I’ll no more use an « old » synth that is telling me it can be a Jupiter 8. JU-6 is on par with the TAL but it has 1 complementary LFO and enveloppe and midi control that extend it to make it more complex in a simple way

[tallguy]

Arturia are supposed to be re-doing there Minimoog and CS-80 emulations. When the inevitable updated/upgraded Mini comes out, I don't imagine it's going to make a huge bang. However, if they get their CS-80 updated, this one could be good because it would be THE CS-80 emulation to get.

Interesting, the CS-80 is one of the few synths in the collection I regularly use. Keeping my eyes open for that one. It's surprising how few CS-80 emulations there are out there.

[sdst]

tried the Analog Lab V demo, the grand piano sounds good

other than that, nothing my synth can't do

that grand piano the only thing that interests me

[Jackjackdaw]

There are a good few unique things about the V collection synths beyond the presets. The sound design potential is awesome

The envelopes for operators in DX7 are brilliant . CMI has function generators with random nodes, also it can modulated the start and end point of the sample in a way most other samples can't. The multi voices in Matrix 12 and CS80 are great. The filters are all lovely across the board and the built in fx sound great.

These things are where the value is in the package for me. More than, "does this synth sound exactly like the hardware version? "Or " I have these sounds somewhere else."

[SpeculationStudios]

CMI V vs Emulator II V

I fear this may be a very ignorant question. How do these two synths really differ? I appreciate how they were different machines as hardware. But as software, are they not both fairly similar vintage samplers? I don't know for certain if that is true...I'm asking. They would have different sample libraries included, but are they doing different things to those samples?
I have V Collection 6 and am considering what value the new VSTs in version 8 might have to me.
Thanks.

[Lotuz2019]

CMI V vs Emulator II V

I fear this may be a very ignorant question. How do these two synths really differ? I appreciate how they were different machines as hardware. But as software, are they not both fairly similar vintage samplers? I don't know for certain if that is true...I'm asking. They would have different sample libraries included, but are they doing different things to those samples?
I have V Collection 6 and am considering what value the new VSTs in version 8 might have to me.
Thanks.

They have a different sound. CMI V is much more lofi than Emulator II V.

If you want to use your own samples, then you might find the sample editor of CMI V more user-friendly.

[SebAudio]

There are a good few unique things about the V collection synths beyond the presets. The sound design potential is awesome

The envelopes for operators in DX7 are brilliant . CMI has function generators with random nodes, also it can modulated the start and end point of the sample in a way most other samples can't. The multi voices in Matrix 12 and CS80 are great. The filters are all lovely across the board and the built in fx sound great.

These things are where the value is in the package for me. More than, "does this synth sound exactly like the hardware version? "Or " I have these sounds somewhere else."

Exactly !
DX7 V is what I’d expected PX7 to be. What a pity, the env aren’t remotable !
CMI sample start and end modulations : the way to achieve the great JMJ « ethnicolor » track !