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.

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