All the UVI instruments, except for Falcon (which I highly recommend) are sample based. The best thing to do is to buy Falcon and then buy the sample sets as things to load in Falcon and manipulate.
well, depends what you are looking for. If you are looking for a “clone” of an old analog synthesizer, samples may not be what you want. Most instrument billing themselves as a “virtual xyz” are not just samples of an xyz.
Just stumbled across this, which might be worth a gander. The links at the end of the article will take you down some more rabbit holes.
Hmmm…as a CS80 owner/user, I think I can safely say that you can’t properly emulate one of these in VCV…and here’s why:
First up, the '80 is really in its element when you’re ALSO using the “tabs” above the ribbon controller. Missing those is a real stumbling block. You could try and emulate the various modifiers there, but without the hands-on controls, it’ll be lacking something.
Next, there’s no such thing as a “perfectly in-tune CS80”. Remember: this synth has an alignment routine that’s insanely complicated, so unless you’re totally obsessive (and have a way to deal with the INFAMOUS temperature issues!), you’re far more apt to leave the tiny not-in-tuneness alone. And there’s actually a bit of a reward in NOT doing anything as long as the individual oscillator ranges (yeah…three different tuning ranges across the keyboard) are very, very close, because that’s a part of that “fat” pad sound. Similarly, the synth is subject to constant tuning shifts due to the non-compensated components, which necessitates about a 30 minute warmup to get things to stabilize.
Third: poly aftertouch, and the ability to live-assign it via the aforementioned tabs. When you listen to Vangelis’ work with the instrument, part of what he did is pretty reliant on that feature, as it’s how he could bring one note forward in a pad without much change to the other notes. This MIGHT be emulated in VCV, but without an MPE-capable controller…well, not so much.
Fourth: remember, there’s TWO synths under that panel. Each one is pretty much a CS60 in of itself, but the ability to stack patches (this is where the presets DO come in handy) and crossfade between them live is pretty critical. And this also gets back into the slightly-detuned character of the synth itself, as you can detune one of the “synths” and make things even FATTER.
It’s a very weird synthesizer…VERY weird. I love mine, but I also know of keyboardists who have nothing but a seething hatred for the instrument. Not due to the sound, mind you…but because it’s a damn difficult machine to wrap your head around. I’ve had mine for coming up on 30 years, and it STILL kicks out a surprise or two each time I use it.
5 Likes
Yes the CS-80 sounds great, but there are an awful lot of ways to get detunes in VCV. Also, with polyphonic modulation that most VCV modules have you can get “per note” effects pretty easily. VCV users don’t want to play a big keyboard in real-time. That’s not what modular is about (it seems). so…
Oh, it is…along with a pile of other controllers. But the inherent problem with this isn’t technical…it’s purely a matter of where the market trends are going. You see a few MPE controllers out there, but they’re either prohibitively expensive, or rather atypical such as my Xkey25. We’ve not had a relatively affordable MPE controller since (I think) a certain Novation controller that was out years ago. Oh, and a Roland keyboard series had poly aftertouch, but everything I’ve seen about it included some variation on the words “worst aftertouch I’ve ever used”. Makes me wish that Arturia would answer the clue-phone and give us something rather KSP-ish that has that.
1 Like
ok
This wonderful rendition has just appeared on Patch storage. Made by Lanavishnu Orchestra in VCV Rack. Please have a play with this and get to the maker of the patch if anything needs improving.
4 Likes
This is it!
Glad to be of service.
1 Like
Cool! It sounds wonderful on my system. Thanks.
Edit: I am on Win11 .
I’ve got a HydraSynth Deluxe with 73 keys of poly aftertouch. It’s also got a ribbon and can broadcast MPE or poly AT over ‘normal’ MIDI.
It’s a good controller keyboard, but also a great 16 voice poly synth in its own right.
3 Likes
Beyond frustrating … I was so looking forward to playing with this amazing patch, which btw is not compressed or archived in any way using the download. Yes I tried all the remedies. This needs to be fixed. [/rant]
That’s odd, I have opened it on Windows 10, what system u using?
What exactly have you tried?
search forum… set autosave/modules folder to read-write and patch will load (at least does here). Known bug, apparently fixed in next version of Rack (after 2.2.3)
1 Like
Yep, one of the things I tried which didn’t work for me. This is a known bug and I apologise for venting on this thread. I have learned to keep multiple copies of my own patches in case this happens.
I will enjoy rebuilding the patch and I will certainly learn something as I do.
Have you tried to disable autosave in /User/[yourname]/Documents/Rack2/settings.json?
You can do this by setting "autosaveInterval": 0.0,
2 Likes
I sent you a DM. Not wanting to hijack this thread more than I already have.
I bit tangential, towards emulating the Voyetra-8, which might be deserving a seperate dedicated thread, but…
These machines are rare and expensive. There are only a few people on earth that have the luxury of having acces to ‘the real deal’. The rest of us must be grateful for acces to any decent emulation.
Dr. Mix (who is now sponsored by UVI) recently presented/discussed a list of the “Top 10 Most Expensive Synthesizers In The World” on his Youtube channel…
Featured on that list:
- #1 Yamaha CS 80
- …
- #7 Octave Plateau Voyetra 8
- …
It is already quite a challenge to emulate the CS-80 sound with basic VCV Rack modules (e,g, emulating its notched saw oscillator ‘imperfection’), but it would definitely be quite a challenge to emulate the Voyetra-8, due to its flexibility.
From the Wikipedia Voyetra-8 article:
But then again, we might have an insider with loads of detailed knowledge aboard to perhaps guide us along. 
1 Like