UVI Synth Sounds for Mach V v3

[ronjams]

I need to get some perspective. It seems on average there is a new synth engine coming out for the Mach V and/or the UVI Player and I've been listening to the audio demo like Vintage Legends for example and others more recently new such as the Ultra Mini. UVI's Idea of a free 14 day trial of a soft synth with one sound in it is a joke unto itself. It appears to me that at least with the audio demos there is no real distinction with the sound characteristic and makes it difficult to make a decision as what to buy and so I would like to hear from those of you who may have or may not made a purchase on the analog synths offered by UVI. Please share what you think cause I'm still on the fence about this. There are a few offerings by UVI that I did not mention. Please share your thoughts on those as well. I'm looking for a good recommendation of stuff that could be useful in R&B, POP, HOUSE & ADULT music production and just wanted to know if these offerings are worth the purchase. It would be great if they would come out with something like the opx by oberheim. I would get it hands down. I wonder does anything compare like that in the UVI collection?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Can you please provide a source and link(s) for the claim that new synth engines are imminent. Thanks.

[ronjams]

Can you please provide a source and link(s) for the claim that new synth engines are imminent. Thanks.

Actually I'm referring to what has already has came out by UVI and what I meant to say on average they've been coming out every two to three weeks with something new for the Mach V/UVI Workstation. As far as the analog stuff it sounds all alike at least from the demos. [Refer to 1st post.]Can someone provide some insight into these products? Whether or not they like them or not and how do users use their products in production. In other words make a case for buying these products. http://www.uvi.net/en/ http://www.bigfishaudio.com/index.html

[ronjams]

Can I please get some responses to this question please? I know there are users who have the Mach V. Come on give up some info and opinions please thank you.

[monkey man]

Hey man, I'm feelin' ya. I too would love some feedback on these libs.

I've perused the site many times looking for some sort of an all-in-one bundle on the cheap, but no dice. I've seen the odd grouping of two or three libs only. Given the obvious quality in the MachFive factory UVI demos and inclusions, and also the sad lack of other 3rd parties' coming to the table (still!), it seems to me that a one-off, whole-kit-and-caboodle purchase of everything they offer mightn't be as ridiculous a move as it may well sound.

I finally scored MachFive (for near $600) from the Aussie MOTU wholesaler late last year after hankering for it since v1.0! Yay! Only problem is, the few libs I've added (mainly free and legacy AKAI, EMU and Kontakt-type stuff) have been patchy in quality and key-switches have in some cases been "un-reprogrammable". In some (actually, many) patches I simply cannot get the layer-based key-switching to work, no matter how many different combinations of nesting and check-box ticking I try in the Layer Rules window. Very frustrating, and a waste of time thus far. Further to that, what is for me a critical aspect of patch programming, namely filter settings, are all but missing throughout the imports I've made. Considering the manual's specific mentioning of MachFive's ability to "interpolate" filter settings upon import (to not just copy them, but tweak them for more accurate replication), this aspect is at least as disappointing as the randomly-stubborn layer-rule switching.

MachFive's filters etc sound absolutely fabulous, and as MLC has often pointed out, the granular and time-stretching stuff is probably worth the price of admission alone, although less so here in Australia due to the inflated RRP. This "fabulosity", combined with UVI's indisputable sample and programming quality lead me to the situation I just outlined; my thinking being that most bases should be able to be covered by such an all-inclusive (including the PlugSoundPro stuff, which I know MLC has endorsed in the past too) bundle.

The only thing missing, as is the case with you, is a comprehensive review and perhaps demos (I've had connection and bandwidth issues so if there are demos I'd have ignored them). It'd be wonderful if someone who's opinion on VIs we / I value were to offer an appraisal. Someone like mschmeider, Shooshie or Dave Polich, for instance. As I said, I'm feelin' where you're comin' from, mate.

[ronjams]

finally scored MachFive (for near $600) from the Aussie MOTU wholesaler late last year after hankering for it since v1.0! Yay! Only problem is, the few libs I've added (mainly free and legacy AKAI, EMU and Kontakt-type stuff) have been patchy in quality and key-switches have in some cases been "un-reprogrammable". In some (actually, many) patches I simply cannot get the layer-based key-switching to work, no matter how many different combinations of nesting and check-box ticking I try in the Layer Rules window. Very frustrating, and a waste of time thus far. Further to that, what is for me a critical aspect of patch programming, namely filter settings, are all but missing throughout the imports I've made. Considering the manual's specific mentioning of MachFive's ability to "interpolate" filter settings upon import (to not just copy them, but tweak them for more accurate replication), this aspect is at least as disappointing as the randomly-stubborn layer-rule switching.

I too have been disappointed in this area but the sad truth is that the programming or scripting in kontakt is not the same as is true of other samplers or romplers and for that reason you're going to have to get your hands dirty by perhaps using a batch converter or third party editor and convert your sounds to aiff or wav format. If you're really hard up for a particular sound, consider getting something like Kontakt player which was a good compromise but I felt like I went to the dark side because I don't want multiple samplers on my machine.

[monkey man]

Yeah, I've seen the odd translation forum (ChickenSys?) and the plethora of issues pretty much put me off. It's tempting though 'cause all my old AKAI stuff is tough to peruse, what with the faithful-to-the-original-format manner in which MachFive displays the presets. I mean, they're in folders which are in generically-named partitions. This would probably be OK if patch selection (using the patch increment arrow) followed on at the end of one folder or partition into the next. It's the same with Battery, EXS and Kontakt presets.

EMU, MachFive and UVI patch browsing doesn't suffer from this inconvenience though (having to navigate the selection menu), and that's one reason I expressed interest in somehow grabbing an all-in-one bundle on the cheap from these guys. It's their attention to details such as perfectly inaudible looping (it still amazes me that folks take shortcuts on this - I mean, if I could do it in 1990 on an EPS...), macro data and filter programming as well as intelligent, seamless key and velocity switching. Judging by those included in MachFive (BioS and the FX), it's kinda like driving a Merc. If I'm gonna get tangled up in a sampler again (it's been about 18years!), I wanna feel like I'm settling into the cockpit of a Ferrari or something, which I do... but there's a frustrating shortage of roads to tear up.

[ronjams]

Yeah, I've seen the odd translation forum (ChickenSys?) and the plethora of issues pretty much put me off. It's tempting though 'cause all my old AKAI stuff is tough to peruse, what with the faithful-to-the-original-format manner in which MachFive displays the presets. I mean, they're in folders which are in generically-named partitions. This would probably be OK if patch selection (using the patch increment arrow) followed on at the end of one folder or partition into the next. It's the same with Battery, EXS and Kontakt presets.

EMU, MachFive and UVI patch browsing doesn't suffer from this inconvenience though (having to navigate the selection menu), and that's one reason I expressed interest in somehow grabbing an all-in-one bundle on the cheap from these guys. It's their attention to details such as perfectly inaudible looping (it still amazes me that folks take shortcuts on this - I mean, if I could do it in 1990 on an EPS...), macro data and filter programming as well as intelligent, seamless key and velocity switching. Judging by those included in MachFive (BioS and the FX), it's kinda like driving a Merc. If I'm gonna get tangled up in a sampler again (it's been about 18years!), I wanna feel like I'm settling into the cockpit of a Ferrari or something, which I do... but there's a frustrating shortage of roads to tear up.

I am a EPS/ASR guy and I just sold my EPS last year but I still have my
ASR - 10 and by means of having an old Power Computing Machine with Mac OS 9 on it I was able to get most of my sounds translated into the mac platform by chicken systems. It was not their translator program but something designed for the EPS/ASR specifically for Mac computers and I was able to import those sounds into the Mach V via .aiff. This has forced me to really learn the Mach V's deep programming capabilities but that is a daunting task setting those instruments up in the Mach V. I've done 12 or 13 instruments maybe more just because I needed them in music production. As to the all-in-one bundle for cheap, the Plugsound pro package to me comes the closest to that and have used that bundle quite heavily even when orginally they were a separate individual packages. I feel like you in wanting to get deep into sounds for the Mach V but unfortunately its gonna cost you but you can always get from other libraries that the Mach V will read.

[supersonic]

I use MachFive as is. With the sounds made for it. The translation business as you say is tricky. I also have Kontakt and Reason and use them with their own banks as well.

[monkey man]

I ran the ol' ASR10 keyboard after selling the EPS, and fully expanded it. Great units, they were, onjams. I had a disastrous stint with EMU after that where it took 5 years to get a motherboard working properly, by which time I had to sell it to help fund a house move. I kept only the AKAI / EMU CD ROMS and ditched the Ensoniq floppies and EMU zip disks (foolishly).

EDIT: There was a poly-key preset I've not been able to replicate satisfactorily, but I do remember the titles of two others I've searched for in the public domain library and elsewhere online, but without success. I must therefore ask you if you have Bass&Organ and / or Kagong Rez, ronjams.

Seems you guys agree that the factory sounds are the go. More of the same is what I'm after, but definitely no more Star Drums. IMHO, the velocity layering / sampling leaves much to be desired and I couldn't even get my MIDI HH controller (or any CC04 data for that matter) to open and close the hat. What's more, the bloody thing took forever to load. Everything else in the library seems very good, again IMHO.

[ronjams]

I ran the ol' ASR10 keyboard after selling the EPS, and fully expanded it. Great units, they were, onjams. I had a disastrous stint with EMU after that where it took 5 years to get a motherboard working properly, by which time I had to sell it to help fund a house move. I kept only the AKAI / EMU CD ROMS and ditched the Ensoniq floppies and EMU zip disks (foolishly).

EDIT: There was a poly-key preset I've not been able to replicate satisfactorily, but I do remember the titles of two others I've searched for in the public domain library and elsewhere online, but without success. I must therefore ask you if you have Bass&Organ and / or Kagong Rez, ronjams.

Seems you guys agree that the factory sounds are the go. More of the same is what I'm after, but definitely no more Star Drums. IMHO, the velocity layering / sampling leaves much to be desired and I couldn't even get my MIDI HH controller (or any CC04 data for that matter) to open and close the hat. What's more, the bloody thing took forever to load. Everything else in the library seems very good, again IMHO.

I'm sorry I don't just went through my library did not find either sound. :(

[monkey man]

Doh! Thank you for looking, ronjams. Good on you.

I've just remembered two libs that I loved and used a lot:
Craig Anderton's FM bank(s) and Claude Gaudette. The FM banks were the most efficient sample patches I've ever used as the FM source (DX7, I believe) lent itself well to perfect looping, and very close to the attack portion of the waveforms at that. Excellent.

If they could be brought into MachFive, they'd make useful, super-efficient (size-wise) additions IMHO.

Got 'em?

EDIT: The FM banks all fitted on one 3.5" floppy if I remember correctly - insanely efficient. Both sets mentioned were in the public domain, and were available for free from the local music store.

[rayNmanmusic]

I've had Synths Anthology and a few others and I can stand toe to toe with any Virtual-analog beast with the addition of Biosphere. Classic stuff like Plug Sound Pro gets my bread and butter patches sounding professional like a hardware workstation synth/rompler.

Hope that helps!

[James Steele]

Yeah, I've seen the odd translation forum (ChickenSys?) and the plethora of issues pretty much put me off. It's tempting though 'cause all my old AKAI stuff is tough to peruse, what with the faithful-to-the-original-format manner in which MachFive displays the presets. I mean, they're in folders which are in generically-named partitions. This would probably be OK if patch selection (using the patch increment arrow) followed on at the end of one folder or partition into the next. It's the same with Battery, EXS and Kontakt presets.

EMU, MachFive and UVI patch browsing doesn't suffer from this inconvenience though (having to navigate the selection menu), and that's one reason I expressed interest in somehow grabbing an all-in-one bundle on the cheap from these guys. It's their attention to details such as perfectly inaudible looping (it still amazes me that folks take shortcuts on this - I mean, if I could do it in 1990 on an EPS...), macro data and filter programming as well as intelligent, seamless key and velocity switching. Judging by those included in MachFive (BioS and the FX), it's kinda like driving a Merc. If I'm gonna get tangled up in a sampler again (it's been about 18years!), I wanna feel like I'm settling into the cockpit of a Ferrari or something, which I do... but there's a frustrating shortage of roads to tear up.

I am a EPS/ASR guy and I just sold my EPS last year but I still have my
ASR - 10 and by means of having an old Power Computing Machine with Mac OS 9 on it I was able to get most of my sounds translated into the mac platform by chicken systems. It was not their translator program but something designed for the EPS/ASR specifically for Mac computers and I was able to import those sounds into the Mach V via .aiff. This has forced me to really learn the Mach V's deep programming capabilities but that is a daunting task setting those instruments up in the Mach V. I've done 12 or 13 instruments maybe more just because I needed them in music production. As to the all-in-one bundle for cheap, the Plugsound pro package to me comes the closest to that and have used that bundle quite heavily even when orginally they were a separate individual packages. I feel like you in wanting to get deep into sounds for the Mach V but unfortunately its gonna cost you but you can always get from other libraries that the Mach V will read.

I still have my EPS-16+ module in a rack with a SCSI hard dive attached! I have the sounds backed up with EPSm and not sure I have an old enough Mac to restore the drive. I had limited success with the Chicken Sys translator. I used the Windows version as it seemed to get better results. I'd kill to have some of those instruments in MachFive, specifically Miami Brass. That instrument though is highly dependent on the EPS's built in effects etc. Way more work than importing the audio files. If you have approximated that instrument I'd love to get my hands on it.

[monkey man]

LOL! I can relate, Jimbo.

If only we knew for sure (we probably do but ignore it) which sounds we're using will be those we'll hanker after decades down the track. If this were the case, I'd not have sold the EMU E-Synth, the ASR, the Wavestation SR (3 times!) and the JD-990 (this one's the only one I've reverted to, albeit at a cost of $1300 and 5 months of messing around with the repair station.

I even miss the DX7; it was perfect for placing on my lap in bed and writing stuff and spawned many a potential hittoon. The DX is what got me into exploring keys, and I pretty much slowed right down the minute I sold it... then stopped after the aforementioned sales. Doh!