V COLLECTION 7 POWER GUIDE
Arturia are at it again. Those auteurs of emulation have given their voluminous V Collection a once-over and managed to find something missing – well, three somethings, as it happens. And we have to say, we’re in complete agreement with their conclusions. This time around, they’ve pulled three classic keyboards from three distinct eras.
First off, there’s the mighty Mellotron, a proto-sampler that played pseudo-symphonic sounds recorded on racks of magnetic tape.
Next up, there’s Casio’s budget-minded answer to the DX7: the CZ-101 and its variants. The CZ series skirted Yamaha’s patent on FM synthesis by developing their own phase distortion-based system that was just as capable, but a heck of a lot easier to use. Still, it demanded dedication from synthesists accustomed to familiar analogue techniques.
Finally, comes a supreme space-case: the utterly English Synthi AKS, complete with a virtual recreation of its famous pin matrix routing system, touch keyboard and sequencer. With a loony, looping envelope generator, and the ability to interconnect pretty much every part of the signal path, it still leaves most users scratching their heads. In this case, that’s one of its best features!
Each and every one of these instruments has earned a place in music history, and each of them offers its own unique features and sonic character. Spanning the decades, you can use them to add a bit of retro vibe to your tracks, or tap into their unusual architectures to create something utterly new.
Over the next few pages, we’re going to take a look at each of these new additions to V Collection, and the instruments after which they’ve been modelled. We’ll give you some history behind the originals, name-check some famous users, and take a quick tour around Arturia’s recreations, showing you some of their most useful features and
