Arturia V Collection X

The Lounge Other Gear
102

Yeah, I couldn’t get the auto-installer to work on Windows 10 either. It took me half a day to install the damn thing, one plugin at a time.

A recent update also broke the loop points on every one of my Emulator II patches. By my reckoning, Arturia owe me about 2.5 days of my life back…

2 Likes
103

V Collection is saving my back, my wallet, and a bit of travel stress in my relationship.

Last two times I flew for gigs I brought my entire live rig. 20kg+ of dawless gear risking it in checked and carryon luggage. Was a huge headache and backache for my partner and I.

So, for an upcoming gig in San Francisco i rebuilt half of my rig hybrid using stock Ableton and V Collection:

AS-1 > Prophet V
Minitaur > Mini V
S-1 > Jun
Donner B1 > Acid V
Boum > Op-Amp
Reface CP > Piano V and Stage 73 racked with chain selector.

All sequenced via Oxi One.

I mapped ableton macros to get the ranges similar to the feel of each hardware instrument, then set up macro variations for “patch recall.”

Everything sounds surprisingly close.

And the kicker? I’m hitting mayyybe 30% CPU max even with all VSTs playing simultaneously. I’m on an 2021 M1 MBP !

Arturia is class.

15 Likes
104

Yep, Arturia V collection is a treasure box. The point that sets it above the competition is its overall ergonomics. It’s incredibly easy to use, switch presets, organize collections, map almost everything… Not perfect, but not far from perfection.

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105

Could you share a little bit more about this? Makes me curious how you’re using these macros (context: I’ve never made a macro in Ableton yet:)

106

Sure.

I wanted to recreate the sound and feel of my Minitaur as close as possible. Of course, the architecture of a Minimoog-style synth like Mini V can sound like a Minitaur, but isn’t exactly the same. To do this,

  • make Mini V controls accessible via the “Configure” menu in Ableton (in device rack, click configure, then click/drag any VST controls to get them to show up in the device panel)
  • right click any control in the device panel, lets say filter cutoff, and click ‘map to macro 1’ or desired macro
  • do the same for up to 16 macros (8 are accessible by default, click + to add more up to 16)
  • you can map multiple controls to the same macro, then define some basic behavior, like range, or inversion, so as you turn the macro knob you can increase one value and decrease another at the same time, range to taste
  • map (command M) a midi controller, or use ableton control surface such as Faderfox EC4, Knobbler on iPad, akai, etc) to Bluehand direct to those macros when device or track is selected
  • To make ‘presets’, change the macros to taste, then click the camera icon, which makes a Snapshot or Macro Variation. You can create as many as you like then name them. Of course, you could also alternatively create presets inside the VST, which might be needed for patches that go beyond the controls youve mapped to the macros…
How to get VSTs to feel like hardware

In many of these cases, the ranges that are available in the VST, for example Attack or Decay, were not close enough to the ‘feel’ of the hardware I am trying to emulate.

For example, the decay envelopes in Mini V or in Prophet V are much faster than my Minitaur and AS-1 at short settings, and much longer when fully open, so when opening Decay, the first 0-30 was imperceptible, then after 30 I can hear it opening up, then from 100-127 it was just too long.

In Ableton you can set the range of each macro, so I had them start at around 25% and end at 75%.

Why use Macros when playing live

Controlling every possible paramater is overwhelming live.

I dont really need control over every single A/D/S/R stage of both Filter and Amp envelopes when playing live. I only have two hands.

I linked filter and amp stages, so:

  • Macro 2 controls Attack for both Filter and Amp
  • Macro 3 controls both Decay and Release simultaneously for both Filter and Amp (linking D/R is common on synths like the Minimoog and Minitaur)
  • Macro 4 controls Sustain for Filter and Amp

And, because I like the filter envelopes to be slightly lower in Decay and Sustain for a ‘pluckier sound’, I set the ranges for the Decay and Sustain differently for Filter and Amp.

7 Likes
107

This makes a lot of sense!

Amazing - I’ll try this :slight_smile: I actually have the V collection as my only non stock synths :slight_smile:

Cheers for the write up very interesting to read and makes all the sense yeah!

PS and duh it totally makes sense now I remember how Rytm mk2 has that one macro pot that I always loved to use for making core sounds go “more/bigger/louder/brighter” and back down.

1 Like
108

OM friggin’ Buddha! There’s a Wurly in there!!!

109

The only thing I’ve ever done between my M3 and MiniFreak is update firmware. Can I load this collection on my MF and then use my other board to MIDI in and make my Reface CP redundant? I really need the Wurly and Rhodes. The rest of my MF is just lovable lagniappe!

110

Welll, no. You need a computer to run the V Collection. Alternatively you can look at Arturia’s Astrolab, which is kind of the V collection made hardware, with a few limitations.

2 Likes
111

Thanks.

So the V Collection is a standalone dawless setup that I would need my laptop for, and the way you linked allows for downloading presets onto my MiniFreak without the laptop.

With the V Collection, I’d be shifting to a dawless setup. I have dabbled in Logic Pro but found myself chasing down a lot of rabbit holes so I just abandoned it in favor of hardware (RC-505, MiniFreak and more). With a dawless setup I could either sell my MiniFreak (and maybe some other beloved boxes) or simply leave it / some of them, at home and bring my MacBook instead.

I’m going to have to give this a whirl in the studio, and I imagine that it might take a week or so to see if this new workflow fits. I’m 62yo and do not want to carry any more crap than I have to, so I suspect this might stick. Shifting paradigms, right?

Thanks to all…

edit: Oh wait, I just looked at the link and this is another piece of hardware, but it has full size keys, but it’s another piece of hardware, but it has a lot of what I want rolled into one piece of hardware, but it’s another piece of hardware.

FWIW, a quick search produced some other sound packs with a Wurly and Rhodes (I also see that these are included in the V Collection). Has anyone used them and how do they sound? I’m comfortable with the MF. If only I could load some usable Wurly and Rhodes presets onto it…

https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/wurli-v/overview

https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/stage-73-v/overview

These also appear to be aimed at dawless setups and do not allow presets to be loaded onto the MiniFreak. Damn it man.

112

This is easier said than done though… you’re talking about PC messages to a VST??

113

I think you may have some things confused here. A dawless setup generally means a hardware setup without a daw, as your primary focus.

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114

Yeah, i have 0 experience with this.

A quick google shows its possible, but somehow not with VST3 due to Ableton not allowing PCs with VST3s?

I think there might be two ways:

  1. dummy clips with the PCs being launched from within Ableton
  2. oxi one or other midi controller sending PCs to the VSTs directly
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115

My bad, yes I understand now. Should have said setup that minimizes hardware or maybe even dawfull. By dawful, I mean filling your life with daw, and do not mean to imply that daw’s are awful :upside_down_face:

116

the plot thickens :grin:

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117

quick Q
i’m reinstalling all plugins on a fresh machine.
ive installed the plugins on a 2nd drive (not main one)

the plugins appear but have no presets… the website says i have to remove the .db3 file

do i have to do this for everyone plugin ? to get each working.
ive run each as standalone and in ableton … some presets on one or two of the plugins appear … some dont.

anyone had this too ?

118

I have not experienced this one, you might find some answers in this clip I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.

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119

The external drive stopped working so I’ve reinstalled on main drive and all the presets are now appearing as expected.

When the replacement turns up I might still move them , the video could still be useful. Thanks for digging it out.

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120

Teaser for VC 11 is up: https://www.arturia.com

1 Like