Well, this is a pleasant surprise for 9 and X owners: the 2.0 version of all your Augmented instruments is a free upgrade. Even Strings and Voices, which got additional sample content / articulations in addition to the new UI and features, are included.
If you have VC X, you basically have everything Augmented in VC 11 except for Mallets and Yangtze.
When I checked earlier a lot of plugins also have an update but the release notes just had āimproved pop upā
I currently own Analog Lab Pro and Pigments and theyāve offered me the full package for ā¬399 or Intro for ā¬99.
Not a fan of most their old synth emulations (as I have said here probably too many times!!) but I think theyāve been clever with this Intro bundle. Theyāve included a couple of old classics (Mini, Juno 6, Prophet 5), the new Pure LoFi which definitely has itās own charm, and the updated Augmented Piano and Strings which would fill a particular gap for a lot of people. I think including MiniFreak is very shrewd as well, it covers a lot of the same ground as Pigments in a less intimidating interface. The smaller package offers a lot of variety for a very reasonable price, especially at less than Ā£100.
Iām pleased theyāve improved the interface design for Augmented series and itās definitely a lot better, but itās still so bright and it hurts my eyes. Arturia, one more time I beg of you - please give me a dark interface option for Augmented series!
Arturia seem to be one of the companies that have such a churn of sales and second-hand licences that it almost never feels worth it to pay full price, even at the introductory rate. I canāt help but wonder if some people will jump at the intro bundle and then change their mind and Iāll be able to grab it for ā¬50-60 in a couple of weeks. Or even get the full collection for < ā¬200.
One last little thing - does anyone else find that their plugins sound very quiet at the default volume? I almost always have to crank them up to get them to match other plugins I have.
Iāll be honest here and say Iāve tried, bought and resold and rebought my Arturia stuff more than any other vendor. Iām not completely against the idea (still have VX - bought 2nd hand for cheap), but itās never 100% gelled with my workflow even though it should on paper. I like the company, like their free/fair resale policy, enjoy the combination of digital and analog sounds, and I love the in-app tutorials.
One big question I have is how this will play out now the Collection has reached 45 plugins. The way itās going, by V14, the collection will install over 60 plugins. This ends up with a shopping list situation in the DAW which can be distracting depending on how you work. If youāre more minimalist then this could be an issue. Arturia would of course say the answer to this is Analog Lab, and only install what you need. The counter to that is that even Native Instruments has a way of only coming with 4-5 instruments, and literally everything is contained in Kontakt/Komplete Kontrol (the latter of course can actually house V Collection along with your NI stuff). For example, could Augmented be a single instrument, rather than 7 different plugins? Again I suspect the answer from Arturiaās end is āuse Analog Lab.ā
All that said, a lot of the new emulations are really, really good. That J-8000 thing sounds like the 90s/00s and thatās awesome. Where itās patchier is where thereās competition. When it comes to Junoās, Prophetās and Oberheimās there are some that folks seem to prefer from Softube, uhe, and GForce. Iāve always felt that the Arturia sound is an uncanny blend of the digital and analog. The interfaces are decidedly realistic, but the sound is more of a vibe than an accurate emulation of something. That can work really well for a lot of music btw, but it can also lead people to feel that if they swap an Arturia plug for one from Uhe or Softube, it just sounds better.
I feel now the more options we have out there, itās about finding an approach and sticking to it. The Arturia way has plenty of merit. I think they want you to install it all, then hunker down with V collection and learn 2-3 of the synths with the on-board tutorials, then access the rest via Analog Lab. The upside to V is when you just want a Solina, you pull up a Solina, end of story. I guess if you bought V, FX and Pigments, (and some drum samples) you could shut up shop and keep going with their upgrades. No dongles, no iLok, easy to sell if you want. Happy days.
On the flipside, the Model Series from Softube is just 5 instruments that covers most analog needs, or you could go even more minimal and get Diva and Repro from uhe and access everything in 3, (especially since Diva has digital oscilators and a 3rd party V Collection style skin now.) This might be why V shines for digital instruments because there arenāt huge numbers of 1-1 emulations of those covered elsewhere.
The benefit of going the Softube/Uhe approach is I guess youāre more likely to learn these 3-4 synths properly than the vast sprawl of V. But the benefit of going the V route is you can change what your main driver synths are without having to buy anything. Maybe that level of excitement and confusion is why people buy it, play with the digital garage of synths and then flip it due to overwhelm?
Ps: oops I sold it again! For good this timeā¦
listened to a few arturia 8000 YT demosā¦I wonder how it is possible to make such poor emulations/presentationsā¦ It takes talent to turn a great idea into this kind of sh**.
@holonology Full marks for the detailed analysis!
I have often felt like Iām not āgetting itā with these Arturia emulations. Many of them sound very similar to me and just not up to scratch with some other products (some of which you mention) like U-He or Synapse Audio emulations. It makes me wonder if Arturia just has a signature sound that I donāt like, or in fact that they are genuinely very accurate and that Iām just not missing much with these classic synths.
If I browse the presets from Repro then Iām always amazed at the sound, and I never get that response from the Arturia stuff.
Anyway I always respect companies that stick to their guns and try to do their own thing rather than trying to be all things to all people. If Arturia are doing well in their niche with these emulations that look the part and they have a happy audience then good luck to them.
I still feel like their original creations like Pigments, Augmented Series and now Pure LoFi are more interesting and frankly easier to use because they have interfaces designed for a computer screen.
Anyway, it seems many of you are really chuffed with the JP-8000 so I hope you all have fun with it!
I never know if this means āhappy withā or āpissed off withā. Someone please educate me. 
It means happy or pleased!
āIām really chuffed with my new synthā or āI bought my wife a gift, sheās really chuffedā.
While the JUP-8000 V sounds great, it doesnāt sound quite like the JP-8000/8080 to my ears. Holding onto my hardware a little longer.
Iāve just emailed Arturia support to ask if theyāll bring back an augmented (and hopefully Pure Lo-Fi) bundle as they definitely had one in the past. I think it was just an intro deal when they released a new augmented instrument, but thereās no reason they couldnāt do it permanently.
These instruments donāt sit naturally with all the synth emulations, makes more sense to have them separately.
I also asked for a dark interface option for them so my eyes donāt hurt!
Way too high a price for the upgrade from v9.
They can get stuffed!
Maybe if thereās a hefty sale at some pointā¦?
Just my two cents on the whole Ā« upgrade prices Ā» thing.
I initially got the V8 free of charge with a KeyLab edition. And upon being asked to shell out money to the V9, I cringed a bit.
Never upgraded. AnalogLab was enough for me.
Then, I got me a MicroFreak and Pigments. And it got me many free updates - updates that could have been paid upgrades with other brands.
Arturia also often offers many free plugins for a short period of time. Basically never paid for any of the Arturia FXs I daily use.
This is just my opinion. But Iād say Arturiaās model is a good one. They probably have to recover some of the licenses and development costs at the end of the day. And they still manage to offer a great mileage on most of their ecosystem.
No brand is perfect. And that flagship V Collection is something of an odd choice in a crowded market.
But still.
I changed my opinion since they really try to meet their customers half-way.
Oh. And their customer service is far from perfectā¦but it works.
That PureLoFi is a bit late to the game, but it still is a great tool for anyone trying to find an all-in-one performing LoFi tool!
A quick side-by-side with the original hardwareās default āSand Stormā patch and my matching the parameters on the JUP-8000V (using AURAās JP-80x0 editor to read from hardware). I am sure it can be pushed further with additional filters or shaping, but this, combined with being only single-layer is pretty uninspiring for me.
it does look like the arturia presets are just a zip with a text file in it listing parameters, so itās possible to write a mapping from JP-8000 sysex if one were so inclined.
First: hardware, then: plugin
And with some serious EQ:
299 for me which is baffling considering how much Arturia Iāve owned for many many years. Too rich for my blood and Iāve had numerous collections in the past and I think Iām set with the amount of models I have from them at this point. Iām all good, Arturia, but you keep keepinā on!
Itās a similar story with the Prophet emulations (just the SW, no idea about HW.) The Arturia Prophet doesnāt allow the low boominess that can be had on the likes of Repro or Model 80, almost like thereās a filter in place on the device already that you canāt override. I guess on the one hand you could think of this as pre-EQād and mix-ready - or you could look at it as needing some processing to sound good. Itās interesting that itās not confined to the Prophet and seeps into other synths as well.
$149 for me, but I bought a couple of the post-V collection X releases at then full price (sq80 or CMI, synthex), so thatās probably why.
Same, $299. But I have Collection 9 so thereās more than the new 5 synths I would get.
That saidā¦ as great as these things can be I really just use it for preset surfing if I ever feel like it. I know they are all fully capable synths but at some point thereās so many to choose from itās impractical to truly learn them all.
Pigments and Minifreak are really the only ones Iāve cared to take time to learn to use. $299 is a lot for presets and synths that I wonāt ever actually use to their full potential.
Well, I upgraded from V Collection 9. I went several rounds through the Lo Fi and Yangtze demos and was really impressed by them. The Augmented updates in general seem to really push these more towards working like traditional sample libraries with lots of articulations. Iām sure Spitfire & company still beat them in fidelity, but for my amateur needs itās a good fit and a fair price.
I know itās not the best intro offer, but the most Iād save waiting for the holidays is $50-100 at best. As a teacher, Iād rather have them over the summer when I actually have time to use them.
Just FYI, I couldnāt find anywhere on the Arturia site how long the introductory pricing lasts (although I could have missed it) so I just asked support via email and they told meā¦
The offer is available until May 20th 2025
ā¦so if youāre a bit unsure like me you have a few weeks to think about it.
Arturia Live stream Augmented
https://www.youtube.com/live/-OXEw8FErZw?si=3td5M7tIac-0kr3m
https://www.youtube.com/live/-OXEw8FErZw?si=BOo7ndaSYO4f0U8m
btw you can play both videos at the same time side by side and mix between the two
his studio was interesting
