Arturia's V-Collection expanded with five more emulations

[Michael Canavan]

It's the same price as if going direct to Arturia's site. And there's no 'members only' price from AD either.

That's not really a discount (the $30 coupon). It's a shill to keep you spending more money at AD.

Whatever. I stand by what I said and we'll just have to agree to disagree. You see it your way, I see it mine (and I ain't changing).

I'll keep in mind this adherence to cognitive dissonance when engaging with you in the future.

[Michael Canavan]

I'm most interested in the Syncalvier. By a factor of about 10:1.
The upgrade price seems a bit steep to me though. Although all the windows new now resizable - cool!
Martin

I bought it based on the Synclavier, sounds great to me. the browsers are all improved, the GUIs are better for the most part and it includes some other emulations I haven't really had a chance to delve into. In all I think Arturia are on a far better track than they have been in years. Whatever people may think of the look of the new CS80 GUI it's ability to go full screen and better layout make programing it a lot easier.

Heads up, on my system the VST version of MatrixV 2 crashes DP during examination every time. The AU works.

[Michael Canavan]

Heads up for users with patches in V-Collection 4 or individual plug ins in this collection:
As of now user created presets aren't able to be imported into the new versions, but in the next few months that will change:
https://www.arturia.com/faq/utilization ... patibility

In the meantime just use the patches in the older versions.

[doodles]

gotta be honest. I ADORE arturia stuff, BUT... they're all so bloody glitchy with DP 8.07. Have had so many calls with them, and they just can't fix them. Mostly GUI issues, glitchy graphics, all getting stuck. If this solves them, I'll be one happy bunny.

[Michael Canavan]

gotta be honest. I ADORE arturia stuff, BUT... they're all so bloody glitchy with DP 8.07. Have had so many calls with them, and they just can't fix them. Mostly GUI issues, glitchy graphics, all getting stuck. If this solves them, I'll be one happy bunny.

My guess is eventually. It seems to me their whole interfaces were about 15 years old with patches for compatibility. The new interfaces seem solid, bar a few glitches that hopefully get solved soon.

[musicman691]

Heads up for users with patches in V-Collection 4 or individual plug ins in this collection:
As of now user created presets aren't able to be imported into the new versions, but in the next few months that will change:
https://www.arturia.com/faq/utilization ... patibility

In the meantime just use the patches in the older versions.

Your link as it doesn't work; here's the corrected one: https://www.arturia.com/faq/utilization ... patibility "Coming in the next few months" - considering Arturia's sluggishness in taking care of past issues I doubt we'll see the converter before the end of the year.

[mhschmieder]

As I have the receipt to prove it, I'm not changing what I said either.

No $30 voucher involved either. So maybe it was an error on their part? Early bird gets the worm?

[musicman691]

As I have the receipt to prove it, I'm not changing what I said either.

No $30 voucher involved either. So maybe it was an error on their part? Early bird gets the worm?

You're talking about getting it from AD right? My speculation as to what happened is AD had it at the price you got it for and somebody at Arturia pitched a bitch and AD had to change to the coupon deal. Arturia doesn't tend to discount or allows resellers like AD discount their stuff at initial sale but somewheres long down the road.

[Armageddon]

Haven't installed v5 yet, but I had a lot of issues with v4, especially 4.0. Also bummed out that the Synclavier emulation doesn't include the sample sets from the later versions (not that I'd expect a full-on emulation of a $100,000 workstation, but still …). I'm hoping to snag a Keylab 88 controller in a few months; it'll be interesting to see how that works with this new release.

[musicman691]

Haven't installed v5 yet, but I had a lot of issues with v4, especially 4.0. Also bummed out that the Synclavier emulation doesn't include the sample sets from the later versions (not that I'd expect a full-on emulation of a $100,000 workstation, but still …). I'm hoping to snag a Keylab 88 controller in a few months; it'll be interesting to see how that works with this new release.

I remember well some issues with the initial release of VC4 but at least for me those got ironed out.

I like what the Keylab88 can do for the most part. One thing I don't like is the pitch and mod wheels are above the keyboard where they are. Something else and I'm not saying this is indicative of that keyboard's quality but there's a fellow that posted a video on YouTube of issues he's been having with that keyboard after about a year's use and according to him Arturia hasn't been able or willing to to make it right. Take that for what it's worth but you may want to check it out none the less.

[doodles]

Haven't installed v5 yet, but I had a lot of issues with v4, especially 4.0. Also bummed out that the Synclavier emulation doesn't include the sample sets from the later versions (not that I'd expect a full-on emulation of a $100,000 workstation, but still …). I'm hoping to snag a Keylab 88 controller in a few months; it'll be interesting to see how that works with this new release.

keylab 88 are great.

[doodles]

Haven't installed v5 yet, but I had a lot of issues with v4, especially 4.0. Also bummed out that the Synclavier emulation doesn't include the sample sets from the later versions (not that I'd expect a full-on emulation of a $100,000 workstation, but still …). I'm hoping to snag a Keylab 88 controller in a few months; it'll be interesting to see how that works with this new release.

I remember well some issues with the initial release of VC4 but at least for me those got ironed out.

I like what the Keylab88 can do for the most part. One thing I don't like is the pitch and mod wheels are above the keyboard where they are. Something else and I'm not saying this is indicative of that keyboard's quality but there's a fellow that posted a video on YouTube of issues he's been having with that keyboard after about a year's use and according to him Arturia hasn't been able or willing to to make it right. Take that for what it's worth but you may want to check it out none the less.

build quality of their stuff has been pretty lame. I've had 7 replacements of various keyboards of theirs in last 2 years. Pitch wheel spring always breaks, and some keys break pretty quickly. But, like the software, the concept behind their stuff is great. 88-key has been the best, IMO.

[mhschmieder]

I didn't notice at first that the Arturia-provided preset libraries aren't available for V5 yet. I was re-tracking stuff last night and got really frustrated, and didn't have the time, energy or inclination to hunt forums for info on how to import the old banks (I think maybe that tool is forthcoming).

I'm also getting increasingly annoyed at Spark, as it has a mind of its own and doesn't remember settings. As the user manual is horrible, it then takes me a long time each time it fails before I remember how to trick it out to work as a renderer for MIDI. There are multiple things you have to do; not just one. I'm going to plug in the hardware this morning as I can't remember if that is a 100% requirement as a dongle or whether the iLok license (or whatever they use; I forget) is sufficient.

In general, I have turned completely against hybrid synths. I bought and sold Roland's System-1 very quickly, earlier this year. I find that such synths are the worst of both worlds, rather than the best of both. They tend to be brittle in terms of overall ecosystem changes, quirky and arcane regarding how one bootstraps them and authorizes them for use and/or gets them functional with sound banks, and numerous other issues that can quickly make one lose train of thought or creative ideas before getting past the gate.

I wish Arturia would make a 100% pure hardware standalone version of Spark. As it is, I now aim to replace all my Spark tracks this week and put it up for sale. The hardware has great touch pads compared to most (e.g. Akai) but it's just not worth the extra complication of a poorly documented process for getting it to work in a MIDI tracking environment. Sure, I may start a project with the hardware interface, but I tweak and refine later on, and then re-track. Doesn't everybody?

[Prime Mover]

Yeah, I hear endless amount of problems with their smaller controllers, but it seems that they finally got it right with the KeyLab88. I LOVE mine! Works perfectly. Only minor problem is that the paint rubs off after a while in places where you might commonly lay your hand. Some jackhole on the Arturia forums keeps telling people that it's from "Toxins from eating at Taco Bell" LOL. But he's just a crazy user. I think Arturia has fixed the issue, but I got an earlier batch that used crummy paint.

Other than that, it's a dream, feels great. Much better than my old Alesis QS8

[Armageddon]

Yeah, I hear endless amount of problems with their smaller controllers, but it seems that they finally got it right with the KeyLab88. I LOVE mine! Works perfectly. Only minor problem is that the paint rubs off after a while in places where you might commonly lay your hand. Some jackhole on the Arturia forums keeps telling people that it's from "Toxins from eating at Taco Bell" LOL. But he's just a crazy user. I think Arturia has fixed the issue, but I got an earlier batch that used crummy paint.

Other than that, it's a dream, feels great. Much better than my old Alesis QS8

Ha! I remember when those were still around and immediately thinking, especially for the price, it would make a great 88 key controller/stage piano.

Currently, I'm on the fence between a Keylab 88 and maybe a slightly-more-expensive Akai MPK88, with the recent Roland 88-key weighted controller (even slightly more expensive) thrown in as a wild card choice. My last 88-key weighted controller was an M Audio Keystation Pro88, which seemed like a bargain at the time … it didn't even last a year before the middle C key stopped working properly. So I'm hoping my next choice, whatever it is, lasts a bit longer. I purchased a relatively cheap Korg K61 synth-action controller at the same time, and it's been through the wringer. It still works flawlessly. If Korg produced a weighted 88-key controller, I'd buy it in a second,

I've noticed a strange lack of choices in a fully-weighted piano-style controller in recent years. I'm sure that some of it has to do with the fact that these younger generations of musicians and computer-based producers aren't learning to play on pianos, as well as them needing a master controller that fits in a small space, like a desktop.