The good news is that SQ80 V comes with a modern GUI that brings all the modulation controls and other parameters to the front panel. Its streamlined controls meant that the users had to do a lot of button-pushing and menu diving to customize the sounds.

Arturia’s expanded digital waveform collection allows you to create thousands of waveform combinations that were never possible with the Ensoniq SQ-80.įurthermore, the original instrument was notoriously hard to program. The result is a virtual edition of the Ensoniq SQ-80 that truly rivals its hardware counterpart.Įven better, the software edition opens up sound design possibilities that aren’t available in the original hardware. Thankfully, Arturia went above and beyond expectations, arming the SQ80 V plugin with state-of-the-art emulations of the 5503 DOC chip and CEM 3379 analog filter. Simply sampling SQ-80’s digital waveforms and using them as the sound source for a virtual instrument wouldn’t be enough to capture the hardware instrument’s sonic charm. The sound of the SQ-80 is the essence of synthwave and 80s soundtracks, if you ask me. It’s a combination of gentle bit reduction and analog saturation that sounds beautifully warm and mellow. Its charm lies in the somewhat lo-fi sound quality that is heavily colored by the 8-bit DOC chip and the analog filters. The SQ-80 is a hybrid analog synthesizer with digital waveforms and analog Curtis filters. Safe to say, Arturia’s virtual recreation of the SQ-80 proved good enough to postpone my hardware purchase indefinitely. I never actually pulled the trigger on the original Ensoniq SQ-80 (mainly because of its size), but I tested Arturia’s SQ80 V when it was released in September 2021. I’m starting with SQ80 V because Ensoniq’s classic 80s hybrid synthesizer has been on my wishlist since… forever.

Let’s take a closer look at the new Arturia V Collection 9 instruments first. Arturia included four brand new instruments, four improved versions of old V Collection classics, and fourteen exclusive soundbanks. V Collection 9 brings enough fresh material to whet any synth aficionado’s gear appetite. Arturia releases V Collection 9, the latest iteration of their flagship virtual instrument collection, containing 32 plugins.

Arturia v collection 5 will be 6