CS-80 V4

Arturias products are GREAT. The recreation of the original circuitry is very good. (I'm almost that old so I can remember what analog synths used to sound/feel like)

But foremost, to my experience so far, CS80v (and other Arturia products ) are very CPU friendly and Incredibly stable. Great coding in other words.

The plugin LOOKS great but I wish Arturia would do some sort of optional GUI to their products that works better on a computer,keyb and mouse. Of course you can easily assign the knobs to your favorite hw controller but I'm pretty sure that most people still end up "whipping cream" with their mouse for hours....

I've been using the V Collection for a few years now. Love the Modular, Quite like the others, especially the Prophet. But I can't get my head round the CS80. Can anyone explain what the fuss is about.? Is this just not a very good emulation? I haven't heard a single preset I want to use, and I've yet to get a decent sound out of it myself. Maybe I'm missing something?

What's the best way to put this to use? I can't find a good way to use the ribbon. Also, I haven't found a good way to emulate key pressure/vibrato. Any suggestions?

Hi - the ribbon controller is like a pitch wheel. I guess you need a controller with a ribbon on it to use it. I think Paul McCartney used one (with a moog) on some of the tracks on Abbey Road, and Keith Emerson used to use one live to make silly noises - eg on Pictures at an exhibition.

To get aftertouch vibrato, open the panel on the left hand side - this gives you access to the modulation matrix. Select aftertouch from the first source menu and LFO 1 as the destination. In the next source box select LFO 1 and select VCO 1 Freq as the destination.

Repeat the entire process in the next two rows, but this time select VCO2 as the final destination.

Hope this helps. Guy

Ps - adjust the Amount knobs to taste. The LFO speed is adjusted in the VCO section to the immediate right of the panel

Can we be honest here? This VST is broken, right? This is the only VST I have ever paid money for where, after 3 years of updates and trying again and again, I am convinced it is actually just not put together properly. I'd say stay away from this VST. It's unbelievably frustrating even for experienced users. And not frustrating because the original synth was too complex. It's frustrating because it was not make properly. It is genuinely missing some virtual screws.

If you think I am kidding, just try the demo patches for yourself. Do those sound like patches you would here in a retail synth VST? Think about it, and don't just assume it must be right because it is Arturia, or based on a famous synth. This is the worlds most broken and frustrating VST. Prove me wrong.

You must have gotten a virtually defective virtual unit! It's a rare thing, but it happens sometimes. If it's still under warranty, I'd ship it back to the virtual factory for virtual repair.

Actually, I figured it out, and decided to come back and post about it. Cubase 6. Quick Controls. TURN THEM OFF. I must have fiddled with them years ago to try and record the control changes I played live to be more like Vangelis. Instead, they ended up manipulating certain control changes that I didn't want, and restricted others to only what was set in the quick controls. I couldn't get vibrato to work to save my life, even though I was setting it up correctly. This was because of the Quick Controls I had enabled. They permanently stole my modwheel for filter control and it was driving me mental. Again, this was my doing, and my misunderstanding of how Quick Controls were supposed to work (I never did get them working like I wanted).

So I figured it out, turned that crap off, and was FINALLY able to make a Blade Runner patch in really no time at all. Vibrato on the modwheel, filter on the after touch. Pitch bends finally worked as expected too.

So, I take it back somewhat. I still think the age of this VST combined with the quick controls caused some more unusual things than you would expect, but in the end, it all worked out and finally I am happy to own this synth.