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What is Audiobus?Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.

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Arturia V-Collection 9

Another year, another upgrade to Arturia's V-Collection. The headline new synth is a Korg MS-20 emulation that puts Korgs virtual offering to shame. But the real magic of the collection are newly coded (from the ground up) updates to the Yamaha CS-80, and Sequentials Prophet 5 and Prophet-VS. If you're already an Arturia customer, log-in for a personalised upgrade offer.

This is an essential upgrade for me for the CS-80 alone. Listen to the artist demos near the base of the CS-80 page as these really show off how close Arturia's engineers have got to the Yamaha classic. Lot's of Vangelis/Blade Runner type tributes but that's to be expected

https://www.arturia.com/products/analog-classics/v-collection/overview

https://www.arturia.com/products/analog-classics/cs-80v/overview

Comments

  • Not a great upgrade imo. Only refreshes and I got SQ80 last year, which is great btw, but still not enough to get me to upgrade right away this time. Upgrade price should be $50 less given I bought a few things from them last year and have v8 already.

  • @auxmux said:
    Not a great upgrade imo. Only refreshes and I got SQ80 last year, which is great btw, but still not enough to get me to upgrade right away this time. Upgrade price should be $50 less given I bought a few things from them last year and have v8 already.

    The Upgrade price for me is $199 as I have v8. It should be $149 if you have V8 and SQ-80.

    I think it’s a good update but will wait as I don’t want to spend that kind of cash at the moment plus I am still far from bored with v8!

    I’ll use my iPad in IDAM mode to scratch my MS20 itch — the Korg iMS20 sounds pretty great put through my outboard EQ or one of the many ‘analogue’ colouring fx plug ins I have.

    The existing Prophet 5 warms up nicely when run through those fx too… I’m sure the new one is going to be much better — the new Roland synths from v8 do stand out — but I’m happy enough for now. I haven’t even properly explored many of the v8 synths yet.

    I’m going to try and save some £s to update to v9 when Black Friday comes around though — by then I’m sure GAS will be hard to resist.

  • edited May 2022

    For me, the value equation comes down to the CS-80. The hardware costs the price of a house these days and it's virtually the same weight to boot!

    I'll go out on a limb here and say that the Arturia emulation is even closer to the Yamaha hardware than Deckards Dream.

    In much the same manner, last year's upgrade cycle was headlined by the Juno because it was brand spanking new but over time it's the upgraded Jupiter which impresses the most.

    Here's hoping they get round to reworking the ARP 2600 next year.

  • I’m going to sit this one out for a bit. When I bought version 7, a couple of weeks version 8 came out. I just upgraded to version 8 like 2 weeks ago. I wish Auria would notify people when they ate just about to release a new version of their V collection or give it to people who bought it less than 2 or 3 weeks before a new version comes out for free. I also already own the Korg collection of synths so it’s not that big of an update for me personally.

  • edited May 2022

    I recently bought v8 on that screaming deal (cause Pigments) a while back, knowing that v9 was probably just around the corner. That’s just how it works. I probably won’t upgrade until the next screaming deal, rinse repeat.

  • @Strizbiz said:
    I’m going to sit this one out for a bit. When I bought version 7, a couple of weeks version 8 came out. I just upgraded to version 8 like 2 weeks ago. I wish Auria would notify people when they ate just about to release a new version of their V collection or give it to people who bought it less than 2 or 3 weeks before a new version comes out for free. I also already own the Korg collection of synths so it’s not that big of an update for me personally.

    If you didn't get your upgrade at a sale price, you should contact them. Maybe they'll give you a break. I bought v8 at a heavy discount when on sale two months ago, so I wasn't surprised a new one was around the bend and that my upgrade offer was pretty small (skipping it, myself) but if you're only a couple weeks out and upgraded to v8 at the going rate, you should get some consideration IMO.

  • @klownshed said:

    @auxmux said:
    Not a great upgrade imo. Only refreshes and I got SQ80 last year, which is great btw, but still not enough to get me to upgrade right away this time. Upgrade price should be $50 less given I bought a few things from them last year and have v8 already.

    The Upgrade price for me is $199 as I have v8. It should be $149 if you have V8 and SQ-80.

    I think it’s a good update but will wait as I don’t want to spend that kind of cash at the moment plus I am still far from bored with v8!

    I’ll use my iPad in IDAM mode to scratch my MS20 itch — the Korg iMS20 sounds pretty great put through my outboard EQ or one of the many ‘analogue’ colouring fx plug ins I have.

    The existing Prophet 5 warms up nicely when run through those fx too… I’m sure the new one is going to be much better — the new Roland synths from v8 do stand out — but I’m happy enough for now. I haven’t even properly explored many of the v8 synths yet.

    I’m going to try and save some £s to update to v9 when Black Friday comes around though — by then I’m sure GAS will be hard to resist.

    Yeah, it's $149 for me. Not ready to go forward. I'm getting FM sound design right now so DX7v is serving it's purpose really well.

  • I'm betting on the upgrade price (149 for me right now) going into two digits by Black Friday at the latest, I can probably survive until then. 🙂

  • $399 for me, but everything I’ve bought from them had been on sale pretty cheap.

  • What iOS apps give you the CS80 sounds? I forget if it’s In Syntronik.

  • Pretty slim update IMO. Will wait and see what the next one looks like. I’m a new customer as well so lots to explore in V8.

  • I’ve never been willing to pay the price.

  • I love the V-Collection so far, but this upgrade would cost me more than what I paid for the V Collection 8. So I'll wait until the upgrade price goes down significantly.

  • The update of the CS-80 shows why I'm still reluctant, deciding if getting this.

    Compare how it sounded prior to the update, something that suggested the sounds of the CS-80, but that it was far of being considered an accurate representation of the sound.

    And listen to the new engine. This can be finally called a CS-80 emulation.

    And now think that most of the old synthesizers included in the collection, sound as bad as the prior CS-80 version.

    I'm mostly interested in the Buchla Easel, the VCS 3 and in this Yamaha CS-80.

    And the VCS 3 has a much more accurate emulation in iOS, with the iVCS 3 app. But it's cool to have something that can be easily added in the workflow of Bitwig, without routing the audio between my Mac and my iPad. The other alternative on desktop, XILS 3, it's also far from the exactitude of iVCS 3

    So the trap of this collection is that if I buy on a sale the three individual synths that I want, let's say at 75 euros the piece, I will pay 225. When in Black Friday, I will be able to get the entire collection for 300.

    At the end, I will also install the SQ80 V and this new Korg MS-20, which are both great emulations, without a better counterpart of other developers.

    But for me it's far from the great deal that is for people that plan to use every single device included.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    What iOS apps give you the CS80 sounds? I forget if it’s In Syntronik.

    The Syntronik V-80 is based on the CS80/Gx-1/CS-01

  • @Pynchon said:
    The update of the CS-80 shows why I'm still reluctant, deciding if getting this.

    Compare how it sounded prior to the update, something that suggested the sounds of the CS-80, but that it was far of being considered an accurate representation of the sound.

    And listen to the new engine. This can be finally called a CS-80 emulation.

    And now think that most of the old synthesizers included in the collection, sound as bad as the prior CS-80 version.

    I'm mostly interested in the Buchla Easel, the VCS 3 and in this Yamaha CS-80.

    And the VCS 3 has a much more accurate emulation in iOS, with the iVCS 3 app. But it's cool to have something that can be easily added in the workflow of Bitwig, without routing the audio between my Mac and my iPad. The other alternative on desktop, XILS 3, it's also far from the exactitude of iVCS 3

    So the trap of this collection is that if I buy on a sale the three individual synths that I want, let's say at 75 euros the piece, I will pay 225. When in Black Friday, I will be able to get the entire collection for 300.

    At the end, I will also install the SQ80 V and this new Korg MS-20, which are both great emulations, without a better counterpart of other developers.

    But for me it's far from the great deal that is for people that plan to use every single device included.

    Korg has an official MS20 Vst, which has been around for almost 20 years.

  • @auxmux said:

    @Pynchon said:
    The update of the CS-80 shows why I'm still reluctant, deciding if getting this.

    Compare how it sounded prior to the update, something that suggested the sounds of the CS-80, but that it was far of being considered an accurate representation of the sound.

    And listen to the new engine. This can be finally called a CS-80 emulation.

    And now think that most of the old synthesizers included in the collection, sound as bad as the prior CS-80 version.

    I'm mostly interested in the Buchla Easel, the VCS 3 and in this Yamaha CS-80.

    And the VCS 3 has a much more accurate emulation in iOS, with the iVCS 3 app. But it's cool to have something that can be easily added in the workflow of Bitwig, without routing the audio between my Mac and my iPad. The other alternative on desktop, XILS 3, it's also far from the exactitude of iVCS 3

    So the trap of this collection is that if I buy on a sale the three individual synths that I want, let's say at 75 euros the piece, I will pay 225. When in Black Friday, I will be able to get the entire collection for 300.

    At the end, I will also install the SQ80 V and this new Korg MS-20, which are both great emulations, without a better counterpart of other developers.

    But for me it's far from the great deal that is for people that plan to use every single device included.

    Korg has an official MS20 Vst, which has been around for almost 20 years.

    But it sounds miles worse that this new Arturia emulation.

    In general, it's a problem with most of the emulations. Until now, the technology or the computational power to create accurate emulations wasn't there.

    But in the last 2 years, there has been a quantitative jump in quality.

    For example, Synapse The Legend, an emulation of the Mini Moog.

    Look at this comparison, how its creates exactly the same waveform than a hardware unit:

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZIPu2Su-V9Q

    In comparison, the Mini Moog included in the Arturia Collection is a joke, not even close.

    But to be fair with Aturia, they drastically improved the quality of the emulations starting with V Collection 6, after hiring some new engineers.

    The problem is that they still haven't updated the old plugins to include the new circuitry emulation used in recent plugins, such as this new Korg MS-20.

    And still, companies like Synapse, U-he, GForce Software and Plogue surpass the Arturia efforts. The Plogue Chipsynth OPS7 is the most advanced work of software circuitry emulation created until this day.

    https://cdm.link/2021/09/plogue-has-made-a-chip-perfect-emulation-of-the-yamaha-fm-synth-line/

  • Yeah, fair points. I have Legend as well as Uhe and they are my go-to for Mini sounds.

  • Re DX7, while the Plogue may be accurate, I like the Arturia one as an advancement of DX concepts. It is after all a digital synth, so I don't care about emulating 80s DAC. In Arturia's DX7, you have filters per operator, MSEGs, mod matrix, and more.

  • edited May 2022

    Whilst I know that the earlier emulations in the V collection are far from the best comparatively, I've actually really enjoyed some of the 'bad' ones since I got V8.

    I love the sound and programming of a real Prophet and have been using the 'bad' old Prophet V emu quite a lot. I get sounds I really like from it by putting it through something like a 1073 pre amp emulation plugin and driving it a fair bit. This gives it a bit (or a lot) of extra character and grit. What can sound quite flat and dull on its own sounds great with a bit of added 1073. Adding something like a Juno Chorus doesn't hurt make it sound fuller either.

    You can definitely tell how much richer the newer synths such as the Juno sound in V8 compared to the older synths when going through the presets solo, but not so much in the context of a mix even without added colour.

    I think the V9 upgrade is definitely good value at $199 already and I'd definitely like to have the improved Prophet and CS-80 but I'm going to wait for a sale as I can't really justify that kind of cash at the moment -- hopefully I'll buy the upgrade next BF if I can ride out the huge cost of living hikes we're being subjected to in the UK (FcUk BoRis!).

  • @klownshed said:

    @LinearLineman said:
    What iOS apps give you the CS80 sounds? I forget if it’s In Syntronik.

    The Syntronik V-80 is based on the CS80/Gx-1/CS-01

    You get a mightily thin slice of CS80 character with Syntronik. What's there is good for a sample-based engine, but a sample-based engine is a million miles away from the expressiveness you get with a real CS80; or in the case of the Arturia, a mightily fine emulation.

  • @jonmoore said:

    @klownshed said:

    @LinearLineman said:
    What iOS apps give you the CS80 sounds? I forget if it’s In Syntronik.

    The Syntronik V-80 is based on the CS80/Gx-1/CS-01

    You get a mightily thin slice of CS80 character with Syntronik. What's there is good for a sample-based engine, but a sample-based engine is a million miles away from the expressiveness you get with a real CS80; or in the case of the Arturia, a mightily fine emulation.

    Personally, I’m trying to avoid all sample-based synths/romplers from now on. A great emulation which duplicates actual circuitry is best.

  • edited May 2022

    @jonmoore said:

    @klownshed said:

    @LinearLineman said:
    What iOS apps give you the CS80 sounds? I forget if it’s In Syntronik.

    The Syntronik V-80 is based on the CS80/Gx-1/CS-01

    You get a mightily thin slice of CS80 character with Syntronik. What's there is good for a sample-based engine, but a sample-based engine is a million miles away from the expressiveness you get with a real CS80; or in the case of the Arturia, a mightily fine emulation.

    I don't disagree. Whilst it's all there is if you want a flavour of CS80 for iOS, I don't think Syntronik is really worth the GB or loading times.

    I have Syntronik 1 for Mac which I got as part of the group buy and think it's amongst IKMs weaker offerings. I don't have or want Syntronik for iOS.

    Given that IKM model so much in their other products, and model the filters in Syntronik, I don't get why they insist on the sampled oscillators. You end up being stuck with their choice of sound palette. Which is fine for traditional sampled instruments, but not for synthesisers.

  • edited May 2022

    @NeuM said:

    @jonmoore said:

    @klownshed said:

    @LinearLineman said:
    What iOS apps give you the CS80 sounds? I forget if it’s In Syntronik.

    The Syntronik V-80 is based on the CS80/Gx-1/CS-01

    You get a mightily thin slice of CS80 character with Syntronik. What's there is good for a sample-based engine, but a sample-based engine is a million miles away from the expressiveness you get with a real CS80; or in the case of the Arturia, a mightily fine emulation.

    Personally, I’m trying to avoid all sample-based synths/romplers from now on. A great emulation which duplicates actual circuitry is best.

    I agree in general terms apart from when it comes to the UVI sample-based synths. But that's because Falcon is an amazing synthesis engine full stop. Great snappy envelopes, fantastic range of characterful filters (expertly modelled, but also with fearless designs that often go beyond the source circuits), great motion modules, FX modules that are best in class in their own right... the list goes on. UVI output may start with samples, but it's their modular synthesis toolset that brings the noise.

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