I haven’t been producing music for long. I first started dabbling in 2016 but didn’t even know about Arturia back then. I’d heard of NI and a few others but it wasn’t until 2022 when I got serious about creating music that I found Arturia and tried a few demos of their instruments. I really like the Piano, and the Augmented Voices seems like something that I would definitely use. I am told that the Mini V is one of the best implementations of Moog. With the software offering, I have purchased the KeyLAB MK3. I played with the AudioLab play and it looks like fun.
I am left however wondering how many of the actual V Collection instruments do you actively use?
(edited to better define the question being asked).
That really depends on your personal requirements. It’s definitely true that by the time you’ve funded the cost of say three apps you may as well just buy the V Collection. Arturia offer considerable discounts at various times in the year, and this is often the best time to buy. Likely the next will be Black Friday or Christmas.
Don’t forget you have the option to download any of the instruments as fully-working time-limited demos.
Just to add though, some people never feel the need for anything more than an acoustic piano, yet others, the need for an entire symphony orchestra; with most being somewhere in between.
Possibly think of The V Collection as a HUGE box of artists’ paints with oils, water colours, pastels, charcoal acrylics etc… You can cover pretty much ANY situation with a box full of those.
The question was more directed at what other users here really use in music production vs the well I’ve got 2 million possible sounds.
I have burnt myself enough times buying with a hope and excitement to not realize this purchase doesn’t really offer anything I truly need. I take it that V Collection is just another box of sounds with nothing special or spectacular inside. Thanks for letting me know…
No that’s not at all true, in fact you couldn’t be more wrong. V Collection gives you access to literally every aspect of every instrument just as though you had 30-odd synthesizers and sound modules in your studio. It’s not just a bigger box of presets. Whether you want that flexibility is entirely down to you. That’s why I suggested downloading the demos.
To more directly answer your original question, I’ve probably used every instrument in the V Collection in a project at some point, all except for the Buchla Easel, Obviously we each have our favourites.
I play around with all the instruments from time to time. It’s just a privilege experiencing classic synths (even as emulations) that work (virtually) and sound like the originals. I’ll never even see most of them in real life.
Not a surprise, but I usually head for the Mini V and MS-20 for starters and add others from there. Those two synths have such a high reputation in the synth world and I can see why. By making them polyphonic opens up a new world too.
Add the Prophet V a Juno and a Mellotron and what more do you really need. It depends on what style of music you want to produce of course, but the V Collection is all about classic synths and most of those 70’s and 80’s bands managed to write iconic tracks with only those mentioned above.
I have my own personal favourites that i often reach for as I KNOW they’ll do the job i’m after and do it WELL.
I LOVE the EMU V… it’s my go to ‘quick and dirrrrty’ sampler, couldn’t be easier to use, yet you can create some humongous and really complex sounds with it… i just wish it had multiple outputs to make better use of some of the drum kits.
I find myself reaching for The Augmented series rather more than i thought i would initially.
I’m not generally a fan of sampled instruments like woodwinds, i particularly despise those sax sounds of 90’s ROMplers, even played by a decent blower with an EWI… they make me cringe!
But the Augmented series manages to sound organic but ‘new’ and ‘believable’, at least to my ears.
The Solina V gets pulled out rather a lot here too, so much so that i bought a ‘Bolina’ a little while back and like to mix it in with The Solina V as they stack REALLY nicely.
Arturia did a very good job at creating these old synths replicas (software emulations). They really are very close to (and I’ll dare to say in most cases undistinguishable from) the originals.
But it all depends on your profile and what you are looking for. If you feel nostalgic and do want to get the exact same sounds as the original synths, then as suggested in other answers, just try’em out !
BUT if you want to use ANY type of synth sounds, from 70’s-like to latest EDM types of sounds, then I would warmly recommend that you check Pigments, which can do all of that.
You can hear sevral examples of these emulations and of Pigments sounds in my History of Synthesizers video .
Personally I use Pigments for all my synth projects, with EastWest for all classical (symphonic) instruments, and a few other VSTs for specific piano or othe “real” instrument sounds.
Hello,
it’s true that it’s difficult to give an opinion on a virtual instrument in the collection (today X + Synthx) compared to another.
At first (and even if we can claim that they are only sound boxes, but superbly well sampled) I would never have had the opportunity to own as many original instruments as with this collection.
Of course, I will not have enough imagination or talent to use all the acoustic and digital possibilities that are offered to me.
But it’s a godsend to be able for modest musicians like me to open up to the excellence and quality that Arturia offers us.
I made a choice between the update of the Collection X and the fabulous synthx V compared to Komplete 15 Standard, I do not regret my choice at all.
The ease in my DAW FL Studio 2024, for use taking up much less space than a Kontakt 7 where megabytes accumulate with each element added, there is no comparison for the equipment I own.
And then it gives me the impression of being a real collector at a reasonable cost, but I will have to put myself more seriously on the study of harmony in my compositions, but that is another story.
Friendship.
It’s the downside of sampling vs synthesis. Pianoteq (synthesis) has a great collection of keyboards and they load instantly.
Synthex brings a new Macros’ curve modulator. You can add Brightness (set Modulation high) and play with the curves; the result is immediate. The multi-arp brings more complexity, which I don’t master. I’d say Pigments (likely the most popular) and other instruments will have these features.
I enjoy Native’s world collection (Asia, Africa, Cuba, Middle east, etc.); they are true didactic tools on scales and rhythm. And Session Horns Pro.
Kontakt 8 seems to be a work in progress. The Leap-Looper is an interesting tool for practising with an accompaniement. I did a little clip on this feature because I found it was not well coverered. Reviewers insisted on chords and scales.
I use quite a few of them. I play in an 80s band so I use the VST emulation closest to the gear the band had originally. I also use the Roland SoundCLoud VSTs sometimes. I find they more faithfully recreate the original Jupiter 8 and Jupiter 4, but I get extra functionality on the Arturia version that Roland didn’t incorporate that I require sometimes. I’ve never really used the Augmented stuff much, but I’m not doing the kind of music that would benefit from those currently.
I’ve owned the V Collection since v2 and I’ve always upgraded it. It’s been an exceptional value compared to other large libraries, but for the more acoustic type stuff such as orch strings, piano, E.P., organ, I feel Arturia can work on those a little more. Overall though, if I were starting out, you could do far wors than investing in the V Collection as your first/primary VST suite.
Cheers
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