Since their first appearance in history, from huge mechanical machines to formless digital algorithms, synthesisers have drastically changed the concept of music making, adding new sonic palettes and infinite possibilities to create incredible tones and soundscapes.
During the last decade, there has been a huge rediscover of old classics and many manufacturers have started to reissue hardware clones of the originals, in order to make available to the modern producers those gritty, imperfect and beautiful tones that modern software synthesisers hardly can replicate.
Here is where Arturia enters the chat, releasing very solid and realistic software emulations of those classics, with their exclusive TAE® (True Analog Emulation) technology which accurately reproduces the defining sonic qualities of analog synthesizers, recreating the characteristics and properties of analog oscillators and filters in detail, with the addition of soft clipping, for even more punch and presence. Here some more info on TAE®.
Besides the impressive catalog of software and hardware products available, Arturia offers an incredible bundle of all their classic software synth emulations and more, the V Collection 7 (currently 50% off until the 7th of April 2020)
What is it
V Collection 7 is a massive bundle of 24(!) software synthesisers, comprising emulations of evergreen classics such as the Moog Minimoog Model 3, The Arp 2600 V, the infamous CMI V sampler, and many more.
It also includes a fantastic Piano plugin, which accurately models the sound of dozens of pianos (more on this shortly).
Their mission is to model these software as closely as possible to every part of the synth circuitry, piece by piece, and, in most cases, collaborating with the actual creators of the originals (Mr. Moog, for instance) for an even better result!
Technical info
This bundle is a heavy beast (well, understandably, at least, considering what is delivered), weighting around 16GB. You are gonna need a decent computer to run them, and they will come as plug ins (NKS, AU, AAX and VST) and standalone, meaning that they will be up and ready to be used both in your production and/or for your performances, thanks to the Analog Lab app (see below).
I had a chance to explore each of them a little bit, and I listed here a video for each one of the synthesiser included in V Collection 7. Most of the videos are from Arturia and briefly get through the features of the synths, so you will have them all showing nice and easy (and in alphabetical order!) on a single web page. Some are straight from version one, meaning that they have been improved over the years (and I mean straight from 2006!).
The synths
- Analog Lab:
- ARP 2600 V:
- B-3 V:
- Buchla Easel V:
- Clavinet V:
- CMI V:
- CS-80 V:
- CZ V:
- DX7 V:
- Farfisa V:
- Jup-8 V:
- Matrix-12 V:
- Mellotron V:
- Mini V:
- Modular V:
- Piano V:
- Prophet V:
- SEM V:
- Solina V:
- Stage-73 V:
- Synclavier V:
- Synthi V:
- VOX Continental V:
- Wurli V:
Conclusion
Overall I deeply enjoyed exploring these synths, they sound and feel really authentic, and the added features make them ultra powerful tools ready to tackle advanced music production tasks.
The short tutorials available within the plugins are brilliant in getting you started quickly and on point, while the massive preset lists will hook you there for hours exploring.
The manuals are also super detailed and instructional (I strongly recommend having a look at them), with explanations on how the synths work, how to use them, the type of synthesis they employs, info on their history, and additional step-by-step sound design tutorials.
This bundle is very powerful and the vast variety of instruments you get will hugely be improve your creative flow, but it is a bit pricey at the time of writing (around $500)
However, as mentioned early, the discount on offer (available until the 7th of April 2020) turns out to be a game changer, especially considering the possibility of splitting it to 4 payment instalment.
I will definitely consider this myself and, if you'd like to try any of the synths available before committing to it, there are demo versions available through the Arturia App.