- Arturia
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- Disambiguation: For the fictional character see Arturia Pendragon.
Arturia Type Privately Held Corporation Industry Computer software and hardware for music production/performance Founded Grenoble, France (1999) Headquarters Grenoble, France Key people Frédéric Brun, Gilles Pommereuil Products Moog Modular V, CS-80V, Minimoog V, ARP2600 V, Prophet V, Analog Factory, Jupiter-8V, Brass, Origin, Storm Employees 13 Website Arturia.com Arturia is a software company located in Grenoble, France and founded in 1999 by Frédéric Brun and Gilles Pommereuil, both INPG-qualified engineers.[1] The company's focus is on the development of electronic music software and tools - primarily emulation of vintage analog synthesizers. Arturia's recreations are said to be so "astounding" that the company even received accolades from Robert A. Moog, the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer.[2] The company's products are in use by a number of notable musicians on a large number of movie soundtracks and hit records.
Early analog instruments such as the Minimoog and Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 had analog components and were known for their instability "on the road" and for their oscillators "drifting." In recent years, computer processing power has advanced to the point that companies such as Arturia have been able to recreate virtually these classic instruments.
One of Arturia's core technologies is TAE (True Analog Emulation), a technique which allows for the accurate modelling of the behavior of analog circuits on a personal computer. This technology, developed by Arturia, has been employed to successfully recreate the sounds produced by many analog synthesizers.[1]
Contents
Products
Arturia has developed and currently markets nine music software products, and recently announced their first hardware product at the 2007 NAMM show. Their instrument emulations are usable both as either a stand-alone program or as a plug-in (DXi, VSTi, Audio Units and RTAS) which can be loaded in various music studio software, such as Cubase, Pro Tools, Digital Performer, or Logic. Arturia's software synthesizer line are highly rated by professionals and amateurs alike, although nearly all plug-ins released by Arturia tend to suffer from major teething problems initially. Commonly, Arturia releases a plug-in, receives feedback from the public regarding bugs, glitches, and in some cases, outright inaccuracies. These are then ironed out through updates to the instrument until it is stable, reliable and tantalizingly authentic.
Moog Modular V
Moog Modular V is a virtual digital reincarnation of the Moog modular synthesizer. The aforementioned TAE technology was used to emulate analog circuits.
CS-80V
At the AES 2003 in New York, Arturia launched its third product: The CS-80 V, a software emulation of the Yamaha CS-80, which has been widely used in the realms of both popular electronic music and film scores, including the film Chariots of Fire and for the bass line in the 1980 - 1985 version of the Doctor Who theme tune.
Minimoog V
At the NAMM 2004, Arturia unveiled the Minimoog V, an emulation of what is largely considered to be the holy grail of synthesizers, the Minimoog Model D. Like nearly all Arturia soft synths, initially the Minimoog V suffered from quite a few glitches and inaccuracies. Besides compatibility issues with a collection of VST hosts, the initial release candidate of the Minimoog V was quite different then a real, hardware Minimoog Model D. Issues such as poor filter frequency response, glitches in the envelope generator and a problem involving audible "clicks" and "pops" in the sound were eventually resolved. The current version 2.0.1 (2.0.2 Mac) is strikingly authentic in both its sound and character. Highly praised for its characteristic "Moog sound", the Minimoog V was the only Minimoog emulation on the market to be officially endorsed by Bob Moog himself shortly before his death in 2005.
ARP2600 V
Arturia released their fifth software synthesizer in Anaheim, during NAMM in 2005, a software emulation of the ARP 2600 synthesizer which competed directly with the Minimoog. The program enhances upon ARP 2600 release while sacrificing authenticity (to some extent), adding features such a 2x8 step sequencer based on the ARP Model 1601 Sequencer.
Brass 2.0
Brass is a horn emulation software based on physical modeling. It can create either a trumpet, saxophone, or a trombone. The software has been developed in coordination with the Paris-based IRCAM laboratory.[3]
Prophet V
At NAMM 2006, Arturia announced Prophet V - a software emulation of the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Prophet VS synthesizers[4], based one the same TAE analogue modelling technology as the Moog Modular V, CS80V, ARP 2600 V, and Minimoog V.
Jupiter 8V
The Jupiter 8V is an emulation of the Roland Jupiter-8 analog synthesizer, made famous by Duran Duran. It was released in February 2007.
Origin
Origin is Arturia's first hardware product and is a virtual modular synthesizer wherein the user can take a component of one of Arturia's emulations of vintage synthesizers - for example, a filter from a Prophet V can be combined with an oscillator from the Minimoog V emulator.
Analog Factory
The "best of" collection of presets from Arturia virtual instruments
Discontinued Products
Storm
Initially released in early 2000, the software's aim was to emulate the professional studio environment. The current version of the software is 3.0, released in Spring 2004.
Awards
Arturia has won a number of awards. Among them are:
- The "Grand Prize for Innovation" from Andersen Consulting in July 1999;
- Recognition by OSEO anvar, the French Agency for Innovation.
- Participaged in the UCLA Anderson School of Management Global Access Program.[5]
Notable users
- Mike McKnight - Keyboardist for Madonna, The Spice Girls, Earth Wind & Fire, Jennifer Lopez
- Trent Reznor - Nine Inch Nails
- Jean-Michel Jarre
- Steve Porcaro - Toto
- Klaus Schulze
- Jordan Rudess
- Hans Zimmer
- Eric Persing - The owner of their competitor, Spectrasonics and Roland Corporation sound designer.
- Robert A. Moog - Father of the modern synthesizer
- Howard Jones
- Herbie Hancock
- Les Fradkin
- Armin van Buuren
- The Crystal Method
- Frank Serafine
- Deadmau5
- Covenant
- Tangerine Dream on , Jean d'Arc (Live 2005)
References
- ^ a b http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/company/about.html
- ^ http://www.analog.com/en/embedded-processing-dsp/tigersharc/content/arturia_musicians_tigersharc_based_synthesizer/fca.html
- ^ http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/brass/specs.html
- ^ http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2006/01/30/arturia-prophet-v/
- ^ http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x3139.xml
External links
- Arturia.com - Official company website
Categories:- Companies of France
- Privately held companies of France
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