Arturia has announced V Collection 7, a major update to their flagship virtual instrument collection.
The update adds new software synths and brings updates to many others.
Here’s what’s new:
MELLOTRON V – The original instrument redefined what keyboard players could do, unlocking the doors to orchestral and choral sounds at the touch of a key. Arturia’s version features all original Mellotron tapes, but also lets you import and play your own samples with authentic tape emulation.
SYNTHI V – The quirky British “silver machine” that put a new spin on modular synthesis, reborn in software with ‘exciting new tricks up its sleeve’.
CZ V – Easy to program phase distortion synthesis with custom editor, huge modulation potential and effects.
The update also features a new version of Arturia’s Hammond organ emulator, B-3 V 2:
Arturia V Collection features a total of 24 software instruments and thousands of preset sounds.
Audio Demos:
Sound designer Paul Schilling shared these audio demos, featuring some of the sound design work he did for the updated V Collection 7:
Pricing and Availability
V Collection is available now for $399/399€, through June 10th (Normally $499/499€). See the Arturia site for more info.
Arturia has really come a long way from the early days. I almost feel bad for them because they are going to eventually run out of vintage keyboards to emulate! Now when is somebody going to finally man up and give us the MemoryMoog? Not holding my breath for that one.
There is a Memorymoog emulation but unfortunately only Windows. Its called Memorymoon. Doesnt sound bad
I’ve been lovin’ the V Collection ever since I bought it for Synclavier and Fairlight CMI alone. CZ is a crazy synth, It was the first one I ever bought – now I have a VZ-10m and it’s wackadoodledoo!
I would really like to understand why I should buy this upgrade when I already have the XILS 3.2 and the G-Force M-Tron Pro. What are the advantages of the Arturia versions? It’s bad enough that I now have at least 3 variants of the DX7…..
Maybe you should send Arturia a list of the plugins and emulations you already own so they can rule those out before they begin their product design meetings. I’m sure they are probably in there spinning their wheels and stabbing in the dark trying to figure out which instruments Ted already owns. If you sent them the list ahead of time, they could probably save weeks of all the messy guesswork.
It’s worth a try!
He does have a point though. Arturia are emulating products that have already been emulated, and chances are that those interested in those specific synths/keyboards, already have emulations of them, as well as the V collection. So they either need to convince owners that already have several of the new instruments, or the only one of the new instruments that would interest them, why they should get the arturia version as well. Or simply but so many new instruments in each new upgrade that it feels worth it anyway, or that chances are they manages to emulate something that customer doesn’t already have, but want.
For new customers the V collection might still be a good value even if they own other emulations of several of the included instruments….
But for upgraders the value isn’t great, ans even worse when non of the instruments are of interest either because of already owning a good emulation of that instrument, or because they simply aren’t that interesting and adding that much value.
The V collection already has synths for good analog musical sounds, the synthi in this and the easel in last, doesn’t really offer much over the V5 in those terms, where they do stand out is in weird fx type of noises, that may not be of interest to all users.
The mellotron is a classic, a bit overused, and sampled many times, but the sample import feature here might be of some use, or lift it above having mellotron samples only, but also might not be of any interest at all to some, since it is basically a preset machine, with a very specific tone.
And the CZ isn’t a very sought after classic… and it is digital, so if they wanted to do something with the synthesis used in that one, there was no need to emulate any product, they could have just designed their own concept. The DX7 emulation last time was pretty much the same, but at least quite a bit more sought after, for some reason.
The fairlight in last version, is a cool milestone product, since even today we see the influence it had in modern DAWs, but the product itself is very specific, with a few classic sounds, and a lo-fi treatment of samples, something that is far from unique, and the fairlight is probably not the most user-friendly way to do that.
The clavinet in the last update may be useful for those that are looking for those sounds, it isn’t the most exciting instrument to explore, also a bit of a preset machine, but still useful for some.
If the mayor sound exploration tools in the V collection upgrades are Analog FX type noises, Digital dated synths where the concept hasn’t been fully explored instead based on emulations with their inherent limitations due to programming methods, some sample treatment offer (fairlight lo-fi, and mellotron-tape emulation effect), plus keyboard sounds that are put through effects (clavinet and mellotron), that is quite far from what the V collection used to be, a collection of classic analog subtractive synths, that allowed for creating ones own useful sounds, even if they at times might sound exactly like sounds already created on the original or by another user of a software emulation + a few keyboard emulations thrown in for more general type of use.
Virtual CZ is a really good Casio CZ VST, $99 retail but it goes on sale, I picked it up for free on a pluginboutique.com promo a couple years ago.
I’ve had V collection since the first version up to 6 but I don’t really see much value in the $200 upgrade from 6, which I upgraded to only a few months ago from 5 during the Xmas sales. If it goes below $100 on a promo then sure. Wish they gave a better discount to recent 6 buyers.
only have the v collection 4, but im too cheap to buy this when i am lazy as fak to do my own sounds and they give out the analog lab updates for free [which includes presets from all of these new plugins]
i can only imagine the music you are making, you know being “lazy as fak” and all…
lol, you have no idea. its embarrassing. then again ive been without any inspiration to do things for more than a year now, so im probably cursed :'(
Analog Lab 4 only has a small handful of the new plug-n presets (like about 30 in all), this may change in the future though.
I contributed factory presets to the Synthi-V, CZ-V and Mello-V. A lot of the effects got a major upgrade, they sound great. And it’s nothing short of astounding how well they were able to emulate the Synthi-V with the unique sound character and all the quirks.
Considering that M-Tron Pro’s library is comprehensive, its more a case of how much the sample import feature and the effects wow you. I use a fair number of the fringe sounds lower in the M-Tron library, but more mainstream players may just want the basics. I prefer using my own FX in Logic, but adding pedal effects here was a smart move. The main power of the Synthi V is probably the fact that those weird sounds can now be played from a keyboard in a stable manner. The real thing is a fussy effects machine not exactly known for melodic playability.
Built in FX are of course a must, when it comes to offering good soundings presets.
But tweakers and sound designers tend to use their own external effects, that are either more extreme or familiar.
But there are still many that are mostly preset users, that buy collection like this. And there are people, that we can perhaps call adjusters, they don’t tweak as tweakers, but they do turn one or two knobs, just to offset the sound from the preset, or because they may want to turn up or down a FX.
Sometimes makers come up with great effects, that are sadly locked to a specific instrument. One of the most recent examples in my mind is the Particle Engine in Native Instruments Piano Noire, without it, the instrument is just a fairly good piano library, with the felt option. I would be looking for that FX as an external product to process other things through, even if it is only adopted for piano sounds. I would be interested in the piano noire if that FX was able to process sounds from other sources, as it now stands, I’m not that interested in the product. The FX is more interesting than the rest of the product. And still for just that FX, the instrument is in my mind overpriced…
The Mellotron V offers the “Mellotroning” of samples, that is a FX, that I would probably use, and I could use it with any material.
Though at the V upgrade price or individual price of the instrument, in my mind, the price is too high, for just that feature. I would love that FX, but not for that much money.
Unfortunately in my case that is the one thing, that actually interests me with this update.
The Synthi may surprise me with some useful melodic sounds, that I never heard form those synths, that can’t be done on other synths, but I have my doubts. In my mind the demand for those is probably higher than it should be, considering where its strengths lies. Same with west coast stuff, in my mind. On the other hand, I’e seen many modular demos, by customers and by manufactures, where all the modules are used for are weird FX sounds, even though theoretically the product should be usable even for melodic type of sounds.
Modular for me, is a way to design one’s own synth, not a separate form of synthesis, made for weird FX sounds. And I would not call them fart noises, because I doubt any Foley-artist would be using those type of sounds for that… I just don’t understand how musicians would use those noises.
Emulating old digital synths that did not have great programming interfaces and where the synthesis wasn’t fully explored, makes little sense to me.
FM synthesis (Phase Modulation synthesis) and Phase Distortion synthesis wasn’t fully explored in the 80s hardware that used them, so why emulating hardware that didn’t fully explore the synthesis methods? Sure the Arturia interface are much better than those of the original hardware, but they don’t come up with a completely new programming method that makes programming easy, neither do they dig all the way down and make them super complex, in order to allow users to come up with completely new stuff that fully uses the synthesis method.
They are still more 80s retro-machines than synths exploring the synthesis method. Of interest to some, not that much for me, though.
I just think it is an missed opportunity. But I guess the “new” FM synth or “new” Phase distorion synth by arturia would be a separate thing from the V collection. I would have preferred it that way, though, and left the V collection more to the analog synthesis.
I hope it isn’t a matter of the Easel and Synthi taking up so much R&D money and time that they needed some quick turnaround projects, and threw in some digital synthesis, just because it was easy to emulate, to increase the number of new instruments.
I can’t speak for everyone but you are correct with regard to many people that use external effects rather than onboard with the plugin. Take delay for example, I have loads of external ones including an El Capistan, DD-20, Yamaha D1500, SPX-90 or Boss RDD-10 at a pinch and some nice ones on a Lexicon MX200, plus a Korg A3. I’m always using those first and it would be incredibly rare any of them wouldn’t get me what I needed. Saying that, I get it. It was common for manufacturers to put a chorus on single oscillator 8-voice synths so there is an argument there. As for the CZ-V, what did impress me about that was the UI timeline on the envelopes and that will help people understand how PD works a lot better.
Since I’m CZ-obsessed, the sysex import support for this makes it an instant buy. Sorry VirtualCZ, we must part ways.
But VirtualCZ does support SysEx import …
Yeah, I know, but this is very designed interface for programming sounds. VirtualCZ interface is a bit and less intuitive in comparison. Just like Dexed or FM8 vs Arturia’s DX7.
I often wondered how the virtuaCZ would feel to program with a touchscreen, to enable just grabbing the parameters and playing with them. I also feel like it is more in touch with the original instrument, in terms of design. If arturia was going in their own direction, why not take the concept to the extreme? I don’t quite get the concept of emulating digital synths, rather than build on them and make something new. And for those that really needed those synths emulated, the VirtualCZ and Dexed are both fine. I’m not saying that Arturia should not emulate synths that have already been emulated, but when it comes to specific digital synths, instead of really going further with the technology, I see little point.
Great pricing Arturia! So, existing customers pay €398 for 2 upgrades in under a year and a new customer can buy the complete V7 for €398. Thanks Arturia I’ve saved a WHOPPING €1! Sorry, no I haven’t I’ve already paid out for V3 collection + V4 upgrade + V5 upgrade.
Companies like Steinberg usually offer one version upgrades for a maximum of €80-100 every 12-18 mths.
Im getting a little tired of playing this game every time there is an upgrade. I feel, that if you have bought the full product at full price at some point, any future upgrades should be limited to say 99 euros. That seems a fair price to reward and continue innovation.Of the three new synths, only the Synthi V interests me. Maybe I will purchase that alone for 99 euros. I hope you are listening Arturia.
I think even 99 is a bit steep considering the wide spread of the new products, few people would be interested in the 3, many at most 1, and a whole lot in non, considering what they are.
For me though the Mellotron Sample import is the only thing that interests me… But I would have rather seen some interesting synth… And the Synthi isn’t for me. I am yet to hear it demod in a way that I hear a sound that can’t be had elsewhere, that isn’t in the category odd and sound effecty, much like the easel, in the last upgrade. Nothing wrong with them, but they feel a bit specific, just like the fairlight and DX7 and CZ, not a great wide appeal. The clavinet and Mellotron, will be useful for some keyboard players, less so for synth focused users, so also specific.
I’ve just bought the upgrade, I’ve only had a play with the CZ and B3 and I’m very impressed. I’ve got a CZ5000 and the emulation is spot on. As a bonus, the B3 is glorious.
having just upgraded to V6 within the last year, $199 for this upgrade is just too much, and punishes customers who’ve faithfully upgraded over previous versions. I have a LOT of Arturia software and gear, and am as good a customer as any – but I won’t be getting this.
Completely agree. Personally, I’ve resorted to an upgrade every 2-3 versions to be more efficient with the process. Feels like a better value when I get 6-8 synths in the process.
I skipped V6 in anticipation of this. Glad I did.
Unless there’s a “must have” in V8 I’ll probably skip that too.
Dont know what a “must have” would be for you, but when I look at version 6 and version 7, they seem to have a theme. One digital synth, one analog that is odd and shines only when it comes to sound effects type of noises, one instrument with sample support, and one “organ/keyboard” instrument, in this though, the last two was the same.
Will the next sample instrument perhaps be the sp1200 or an old Akai MPC emulation, or the emulator perhaps?
Will the next digital synth be ppg/waldorf, or perhaps the Roland JP8000/8080?
Perhaps a Trautonium or something else weird for the analog sound FX synth… Or something like the Novachord for odd analog meets organ? I can’t keep track of all the weird electronical instruments… The Ondes Martenot I do like, but mostly for how it was played, without the proper playing surface, it wouldn’t be the same.
The idea of emulating old analog useful subtractive synths seems to have gone out the window, despite there still being several they have yet to emulate.
Check your account again. I was in the exact same situation. I bought V6 last month! I even emailed their Sales team about the $199 price. But when I logged in again I saw an option for a $99 upgrade, which is totally reasonable. Apparently there was some sort of website issue that is now resolved.
Website issue?
The email they sent out said 199.
And if I log in it say 199.
In my mind 99 is still an overprice for this upgrade, though.
Same for me… $199
In my opinion, Arturia needs to step up their game. They offer a good value for new customers, but at some point they will reach saturation, where they have to live off upgraders, and the offerings they put out, are expensive upgrades, for products that many of their customers aren’t looking for.
Reviewers need to really start considering the upgrade price, at least those that get the software to test for free. Would they pay 199 for Mellotron V, Synthi V, and CZ V as a pack, not as a part of V collection, because the rest, the upgraders already have? Probably not, as those products on their own often appeal to very different users.
This release is very similar to the underwhelming v6.
They have a digital synth, that is already well emulated, the last time it was the DX7, where there is a free plugin called dexed. Now there is the CZ, for which there is the virtual CZ. The CZ is a less commonly used synth than the DX7, thus might appeal to some as it is less heard and the plugin that is out there isn’t a freeware, but the DX7 is more sought after, so pretty close match.
But emulations of old digital synths is not what got people interested in Arturias V series. With digital synths, that did not come with a great interface, there is little point in emulations, as arturia go so much further by taking the technology and build on it. The DX7V is more powerful than the DX7 in its synthesis, but not to the level one could expect from a modern digital synth VST.
The last time they did the easel, a synth which greatest strengths in relation to other synths, is the sound effect type of noises. Sure, an introduction to west coast synthesis, but also a steep learning curve, that many probably will not invest time in to learn after testing it for a few minutes or a few hours even.
This time it is the synthi, same there, the strength is in sound effects type of noises compared to other classic syntsh. A classic synth, but I have a feeling that many will discover that in most types of music, the usefulness of that over other synths will be limited, I expect the same with the easel.
The last time they had the Fairlight and the Clavinet.
This time they offer the Mellotron.
The fairlight isn’t really that interesting, at least not for people not looking for some of the specific factory sounds for it. As a milestone in history it is huge, as its influence can still be seen in modern DAWs, but today as an instrument it is limited. The Clavinet was more useful as it offered emulation of an instrument with characteristics.
The Mellotron is sort of a mix, a classic instrument, with characteristics, and sample import as a way to retrofy samples. As a whole, that single instrument can probably hold up against the two others.
And this part of the collection, with the clavinet last time and the mellotron this time, does potentially offer some usefulness even for those that got in to the Arturia V sereies, because of their emulations of classics. The originals are classics that are still in use, and sought after.
The last time they updated the Piano V, but really the upgrade was kind of an essential, and should have been free to all owners of the Piano V, in my mind.
This time it is the B3, and it probably needed an update, but it wasn’t the same kind of essential as the Piano V, so it seems fair they could charge some for that.
Completely underwhelming in my mind.
Personally the only thing that excites me, is the mellotron sample import. Other will like other things, and some, will probably not be interested in a single new addition.
Where is the “origin V”? A synth, that kind of does what diva does, by allowing users to mix from part of the emulated synths in the collection, but with more options because of the bigger library of emulated synths (however probably not with quite as convincing emulation, but still good). The hardware version that Arturia made, never reach beyond Alpha stage in its software, but was still sold to the public for some reason, but the idea was great.
I think a lot of users that got in to the V collection because of the analog emulations, would be very interested in a “semi-modular” solution like that.
I think a lot of owners would easily even pay 199, for just that single feature. But that would then be a one time thing, just throwing in modules from new emulations in new V collections, would not drive the sales in such a way.
And there are still quite a few classic analog melodic synths that Arturia hasn’t emulated, so why would they go for the easel and Synthi? They are odd and can be useful for certain types of sounds, but as the only new analog synth emulation in a new version of the V collection, I don’t think they hold up.
The problem isn’t that they are there, the problem is that they represent the only emulations of analog synths in V6 and V7 respectively.
For many that choses to upgrade, I think it will mostly be a matter of feeling up to date, rather than them looking for the specific sounds of any of the new instruments, or certainly not willing to pay the upgrade cost for those sounds, but they can’t keep charging people 199, for staying up to date, year after year, without offering any added value.
Native instrument may be in a somewhat similar situation, but because of their 3rd party kontakt instruments, they can always just buy a few of those and include (if they didn’t already pay for the development, with a contract stipulating that they after a certain point would be free to include it in their collection).
Arturia relies on their engineers, designers, developers and so on, to come up with products that excites the public, and in my mind they no longer do. For newcomers, the collection is great, with a good value for money, at least during sales. But for upgraders, the upgrade price is quite high, and the included instruments are of the type that many upgraders will be looking for one of them at most, making the upgrades very expensive.
I get that development of the products isn’t free, so they do have to charge for the product. The problem is that, to keep charging, they also have to release products that people are willing to buy, and that is where I think they have to step up their game, if they can’t lower the price for upgrades instead.
I get that Arturia is separating the emulation collection, the FX collection, and the new synth (probably more coming, and perhaps the Spark 2 falls in to this category today, even if it is a bit outdated and it once was included in the V collection), so they can do a “complete” bundle at some time.
But the way I feel, their upgrade price of 199, should be the price of a “complete” upgrade, at most (depending on how much they released since last time, right now it would be good value for money for those who haven’t already bought the other products, but for just a single 3 new effects pack, 3 new V collection emulations, where non is a classic melodic analog synth, an upgrade of an existing model, and a single new synth at most, 199 would still be a bit steep).
I hope Arturia reaches a point soon where there aren’t enough new customers, so their product will be judged more on what it offers in terms of updates for existing users. And then I hope they start sending out surveys to existing users, to ask what they want to see, where they can include options they already had in mind, so it could result in them finding that the interest in those particular instruments isn’t huge among V collection owners.
Or if they can keep making money while only charging 49-79 for upgrades, so people would be willing to upgrade no matter if they care for any of the new additions, that could also work, if they want to be free to emulate whatever they like, no matter the public interest.
and your point is?
Read and you will know.
Almost as bad as owning the Matrixbrute, their flagship product, with a clock that can’t keep in time, making it almost completely useless for recording.
If it takes them years to deliver an update (which still isn’t here) to give their biggest purchasers the product they paid for in the first place (which the purchasers are somehow meant to be grateful for), can we really expect anything more with their lower-priced products?
At least with this product the customer is getting something new. With the matrixbrute the customer doesn’t even have what they paid for. They have a car with a missing brake pedal.
Arturia’s lack of delivery/terrible customer support will destroy their business. A new toy every season won’t hide a poor reputation.
And yes, the upgrade cost for these new softsynths is ridiculous.
Hmm, I have a real CZ in my closet that I bought from a roommate ages ago for $20. Guess I should put it up for sale…
V Collection 6 owners upgrade to V7 price €199 for 3 synths. WTF, it’s a SHAKEDOWN!
V Collection 5 owners upgrade to V7 price €199 for 6 synths. Ok, I can live with that.
V7 New Customers price €399 for 24 synths. Yeah, nice deal!
Existing customers lose again!
Yes $199 for the upgrade it’s a shame!!!
I paid from 3 to 4, from 4 to 5 and from 5 to 6….
Yep. Pay for every single update is pain. Skip even or odd update. Do you really need editing for all of them? If not, default presets will be available through new version of Analog Lab.
Disclamer: I love Arturia’s synths first of all because of inspired preset.
Agree 100%. I am paying upgrades for every version and it is just too much. Now I have enough. I would give 100 EURO and even that is plenty. Arturia? AARTURIIAA???
I demoed Synthi yesterday. Sounds good but it’s very CPU hungry, more than Serum or Diva. And it eats CPU while it’s on a track not playing, it also eats more CPU once you played a few notes and go play on another instrument as if the release envelope never stops. Too bad as i wanted to purchase it…
Sorry Arturia. I’ve bought every upgrade since V1. No more. 199 Euros = $315 Aussie dollars For yet another upgrade. Omnisphere hasn’t been charging a button for theirs…ps I bought a minibrute 2s 2 weeks ago. It lives alongside the minibrute se, the microbrute, the matrixbrute plus several of your controllers. For 99 Euros I may have bitten…
Agree
EVERYONE should Post on Arturia Facebook page about this terrible pricing for existing customers!!!
https://www.facebook.com/Arturia.Instruments/
Guys, let’s do it!
Well that trailer was probably the most fart-sniffingly pretentious thing I’ve seen all month.
Good plugins, but these upgrade prices are way too high. For the upgrade for existing owners, they are demanding HALF of what new purchasers pay. Half! And it’s four new products–for which they want HALF the full price of a bundle that had 21 instruments at V6. Arturia is becoming one of those customers that screws it’s customer base.