There’s still some really important synths from the '80s that are missing from it (and V Collection) that I hope they add at some point. I’m really hoping they do the Korg M1 and the Roland D50. I have a decent M1 virtual instrument (from Korg, even) but would love both of those in V Collection.
They do have the Yamaha DX7, Ensoniq SQ-80/ESQ-1, and Casio CZ-101 though, so they do have a really solid start on digital synth coverage.
The analog synth coverage is amazing.
I’ll take a listen to those. I’ve mainly been focusing on the different grand pianos, and casually playing around with winds and brass. I haven’t tried any of those synths yet.
I can see me spending a lot of time playing around with this and not accomplishing anything LOL
I’ve read somewhere that Korg Legacy collection (Which I really love.) synths are no-go for any other company. Because of legal reason.
You will probably immediately recognize some of the stock DX7 patches. Because it was one of the most popular synths used by '80s artists - by far the most commonly used - and it was so hard to program that everyone just used the stock patches 
I believe it. I have M1 Le and it’s decent, yeah. UI could use a little work but overall sounds quite good and like the original.
I bought the collection at 50% discount. I really love M1. (There’s a reason why it’s one of, if not the best selling synth of all times) And I feel you on the UI issue. It actually really reminds me of 80s and I would love to have it in Arturia ecosystem, but … well, not gonna happen, so we’re stuck with this “meh” UI format.
So good. I remember when it came out.
Man, Japan just owned the '80s Digital Synth market. Yamaha, Roland, Korg, and Casio were like 90% of the market. Ensoniq was great but definitely niche in comparison to those, same for Kurzweil.
Analogs would have been the same except Sequential, ARP and others had a solid foothold there. But Roland and Yamaha were huge players there too.
Man, I wish Arturia would do the D-50. I don’t want to use Roland Cloud.
I am starting to think this is a hobby in and of itself…and the reason I don’t really want to start fiddling with my keyboard at all, even though it is now back right next to me. I used to really enjoy playing piano and was getting somewhere with skill level.
I really want to be retired when I grow up.
Or much more, yeah. This is a big world.
For me it’s like everything I always wanted is now available at a 1%-5% of the price it used to be and with far better tools than I ever would have expected.
Frankly it is a bigger interest than bass for me, really. Or more accurately, overall music production is my actual interest, and synthesizers and bass are both parts of that.
I’m the same way. Now that I have that 88 sitting right there in my practice space, I find myself spending as much time on the piano as I do on the bass. Those synths are just a fun diversion from learning and practicing.
It’s a fascinating history how all these instruments were invented. FM synthesis was invented at Stanford and licensed to Yamaha. It’s one of Stanford’s most profitable intellectual properties.
Not really. You’re simply learning and practicing a different instrument 
It must be, easily. Yamaha sold over 200k DX7’s in the first three years alone. It was the first synth to crack 50k sales.
FM is interesting. It’s never really taken over from subtractive, additive or wavetable synthesis; it’s simply more difficult. However it has its own character that the others can’t really duplicate as well.
The history of wavetable synthesis is interesting as well. It followed a few paths.
True, but with no objective other than making unusual sounds. With piano and bass I have a goal in mind (learning songs, etc.). Yes, I realize your objectives are different, but that’s because you have an acute interest in synth playing, which I do not.
Well, some things do carry over. Synthesis is really about making sounds do what you want them to. Things like the filters and ADSR envelopes on synths directly carry over to effects in the bass world like envelope filter pedals, and compressors use some concepts from envelopes as well. So it’s not entirely wasted time for you 
Well the plan is to get the Hammond B3 plug-in on Black Friday and the controller for merry Christmas to make it more interactive (will also double as an Abelton controller).
Then try to do some cool stuff with sax, bass and Hammond on my own. That should slow progress to a grinding halt in all 3. Hahahahah
I feel much the same at this point…it allows me to express the bass lines I develop in a full context. I like covers, but exercising the full creative aspect is enjoyable as well.
I’m sure that’s very rewarding @Sully . I’ve thought about trying that, but the synth instruments just don’t sound real enough to me.
I’m not even sure what that means
They sound “real” enough for actual music production.
It’s possible that more music is made with software synthesizers currently than with bass guitars. Almost all EDM and pop uses these extensively; even some metal (Jordan Rudess uses them a lot, as one example.)
For the Arturia models specifically, these models of the synths sound really close to the real synths to me, and I have owned and/or used a lot of them. And where they sound different is not less “real”, but just like a slightly different synthesizer.
Do you mean that a patch described as a “bass guitar” sound on a synthesizer doesn’t sound like a bass guitar, but like a synthesized instrument? That’s a common thing for hardware synths too. With synthesizers it is best to think of their sounds as original instruments and not as a mimic of a physical instrument. Though samplers are another story there.
There’s exceptions to this too though. The “bass” at the start of “Danger Zone”? That’s the patch “Bass 1” on a Yamaha DX7
But not like an actual Hammond B3 through a Leslie. That is a transcendent (and heavy, difficult to move, and expensive) experience.
That’s my quibble. Synth sounds are cool. I love them in context.
But when someone says it sounds just like a well-mic’d Bosendorfer piano … um, no.