Arturia and the use of its products.

[cylon]

I have read countless this on here and other sites/forums regarding The laboratory etc ...

Im waiting for my 61 key version of Laboratory this week to be delivered.

What makes me grumpy and annoyed are the countless number of people who diss the products having bought them.

I have been with my music studio for a while, and i can honestly say not one product has worked first time every time. even NI products fail.

My point is i intend to use my arturia stuff in standalone as most of the issues seem to come from VST usage etc...

Why rely on your VST/Wrapper etc to do the job.

Get back to the old analog school and play the instrument and record it. dont rely on the integration, it always fails and a good cable and trusty sound card never fail me.

Yes i have hardware in my studio and i intend to use this arturia set of synths the same way.

integration can make your life a little easier workflow wise etc but hey man just stop moaning and get on with the task in hand, find a way around it if you can be bothered too.

Chillax

[Manuel]

... most of the issues seem to come from VST usage ...

Who told you this?

Actually not! The real problems are not VSTi, RTAS or AU issues. The real big issues are communication problems between the controller and the software.
The controller is good and the software is good too, but sometimes there are major issues because of the different configurations you can make to the controller.

Just an example:

You have two different setups stored to the memory of the controller. One where all the buttons, faders and knobs are configured to work with the Laboratory and another one where you've changed some settings, to work with one of the single soft-synths (i.e. Oberheim SEM V, Wurlitzer V etc.)

Now, you play with the Laboratory. You edit some presets, save them, record something etc. and when you're finished you close the application, switch to your other setup, to work with another synth and then maybe close this synth too and open the Laboratory again. Here is the problem (one of them!!!)! The different settings on the controller and in the software can cause a bleuscreen or a system shutdown without a bluescreen!

This is just one possible scenario! But hey, try and you'll see!

Good luck,

Manuel

[cylon]

I will get to trying whatbu suggestbsoon.

So far i have had zero issues installing, using and no crashes with logic.

So for now im happy.

[Manuel]

BTW:

Even if all the problems would only come from VST/AU/RTAS usage, all the Arturia synths are announced to work as standalone as well as as VST/AU/RTAS plugin!

It's just stupid buying a plugin that is not working as a plugin, thats just like a car that can only be driven on rails, but not on the street! I would have bought a train then...

[cylon]

i have all but the J8 instruments.

Maybe it my mac pro, the 16gb, ssd etc, means im having no issues.

i have had no freezing, and all seems fine.

Maybe in a month i will change my tune but for now its still swimmingly good.

[Manuel]

I guess you don't use them then!

Everytime I try to use them, I find new bugs and have nothing but trouble. It's really annoying how disastrous slapy the programing actually is! Are they made for MAC only, or for MAC and Windows?

BTW: I have the	Arturia AE The Player 25 + Hip Hop Producer Bundle
	Arturia AE The Laboratory 49 + V-Collection 2
	Oberheim SEM V

And I had/have problems with all of them excapt the Hip Hop Producer Bundle and I'm by far not the only one!

[Aovi]

I am not discounting the troubles you are having, but I did want to weigh in with my experience with Arturia products, since it has been a different one.

I use an Arturia synth on almost every piece of work.  While I can say in ProTools as an RTAS, they are a bit CPU hungry, I have had little to no trouble using any of my Arturia stuff in stand-alone, within Analog Experience, or within Pro Tools (I now use Reaper as a rewire to keep cpu usage under control).

When I first got the V-collection, I had a bit of GUI trouble with the CS-80v within PT, but was promised by tech support the issue would be resolved soon, and within 2 weeks there was an update that solved the problem.  Since then it has been smooth sailing.

I just wanted to show that there are users who have had a positive experience, and continue to do so.  I am sorry you have had trouble, and while you are probably far from unique in that, it can be said that there are plenty of users for whom this is not the case.


Arturia Products I own:

Analog Laboratory
V Collection 2
Spark VDM
Oberheim SEM V
Analog Experience (49)

Running PT10 on Win7
i7 920
12G RAM

[Manuel]

The point is,

I was using an 60 day trial extended demo of the V-Collection 2 and Analog Laboratory www.beat.de/arturia before purchasing them and I had no trouble at all, but after purchasing them and especially after the 2.5.1 update I wasn't able to use them anymore because from that point on I had nothing but trouble with the V-Collection. Even after going back to the previous versions I can't use ARP2600 V, miniMg V and Mg Modular V as a VST plugin in Ableton anymore.

I'm still in touch with Tech-Support to find out why they're crashing Live when I un-load one of them or close a Live-Set that uses one of them.

The 2.5.1 updates are freezing my system if I try to choose an ASIO sound device in standalone mode and sometimes I get internal error messages (External plugin error. Can't load ....).

Howsoever, I still love the sound and I use them a lot! My new projects are amazing, thanks to Arturia-Synths, but still having that trouble sucks....

BTW: Today I saw an advertisement for the V-Collection 3 in a Beat Workzone Special. I hope that I will be able to use them all without trouble one day....  



... but to be honest... I don't think so!
I guess I will sell all my Arturia stuff on ebay next month...

[stuey]

The DAW set up is really crucial when using 'VI's' and if you are using standalone and they are fine, then I'd really look at how the DAW is set up.

As far as RTAS is concerned, Pro tools has never liked VI's and the CPU usage has always been high with all of them, including arturia, NI to name 2.

Pro tools 10 has been a lot better with VI's, although you have to juggle your voices around a bit.

Another point is, software crashes! That's a given and you will always have issues if you can't find workarounds to certain known issues, this isn't just for arturia but every piece of software you own. But as the first post says, just use it to create and work around the gremlins and find a way to get things working for you. what works for one won't always work for you. Another huge issue is the workstation people are using to record on, if you can afford it, buy a 'music only' machine and don't use it for email or word or anything else that could break it. I have been on machines that have had all kinds of rubbis installed and it is always the case that something is conflicting on the machine.

Every few months, back up, nuke your drives and reinstall.
When I'm not that busy, I set aside a half day and back everything up, download all my latest installers and plug ins and install my system from the ground up, it really does keep stuff clean.

I'm not saying I don't have issues, I do, but by keeping your machine clear from freeware and all other manner of rubbish, keeping your system in tip top condition and working around certain issue you can really start to use the software as it was intended.. To create music

I find lots of people are content with finding issue with every piece of gear they own, but just because it doesn't work flawlessly all the time. Concentrate on creating and all these issue will slowly fall away.

Stuart

[Manuel]

@ Stuart

This is not an issue that is related to my OS or the DAW, this is an issue with the graphic card driver! I have all the issues on a fresh operation system and in Samplitude X, too!

It is also not a CPU issue and I don't need to re-install my OS and software every few months. I don't need help with my OS or backing up files and I don't have to clean out anything, because everything else is working just the way I wan't it! If I have trouble with an application, I find a solution, but there is no solution for this issue, because it has nothing to do with other software I use on my machine.

.... 

[JDoo]

Looks like a lot of folks are weighing in, with helpful suggestions for you Manuel.  I don't want to pile on... but like other in this thread - I have been using Arturia products with no issues.  Could Adturia use improvements in the interface, yes.  But characterizing  everything as buggy... because you are having problems on your 10 year old Pentium class PC?  Sorry - but you would do well, to save up your money and buy a new system.

[Manuel]

Characterizing my 10 year old Pentium class PC as bad? Sorry - but Arturia would do well, to update the minimum system requirements on the website if the CPU is the issue and btw. the tech support and developement didn't mentioned that there is a problem with my CPU.

Original words:
Regarding your driver, my point is that our products have a problem with it (not that your driver does not work).

I'm not sure if he was talking about the ASIO driver or the graphic card driver, but my sound device is a t.c. electronic desktop konnekt 6 and there are only two driver/firmware versions available for this device. As I already have the latest version installed and none of the driver update apps ever wanted me to update this one, I guess the whole problem is the ATI RADEON 9200 SERIES that is really not my first choice, but at least working for all other applications I use. After updating the device driver manually, I didn't had bluescreens or system crashes caused by the controller anymore, but using all the latest updates is causing many bugs now.

Is it my fault? I don't think so!  

[Manuel]

Sorry, my fault!

I wrote plug in, but I actually meant the virtual instruments, because the standalone versions of some of the instruments don't work on my machine since the 2.5.1 updates, a few months ago. And the problem with the VST version is pretty much related to the same issue (as far as I can see). Tech support and developement weren't able to help and most forum users just don't understand the situation, because they don't see the history behind it!

[vaikl]

Characterizing my 10 year old Pentium class PC as bad? Sorry - but Arturia would do well, to update the minimum system requirements on the website if the CPU is the issue and btw. the tech support and developement didn't mentioned that there is a problem with my CPU.

Manuel, just to clarify an often made mistake: The minimum system specs doesn't guarantee the customer that *every* possible combination of hardware, OS and graphic system *above* those specs will perfectly run with this products. But it does guarantee that every combination *below* those specs will *fail* to run with this products. A negative insurance, if you wanna see it this way. Valid for *every* product I've bought in my life...

The ATI RADEON 9200 always was a slow video card since it's first sale in 2003. I've had them in some office desktops at that time and that was like a security guideline from management to ensure that no one would load cool games on those PCs Actual benchmark tests would rate them near to zero points.

AFAIK there was no newer driver published by ATI after 2008 (or even earlier). Do you have the latest Catalyst version that was compatible with the 9200 family??

[Manuel]

... Do you have the latest Catalyst version that was compatible with the 9200 family??

I think so:

• DriverVer=05/03/2006, 8.252.0.0
• ATI-CCCVer=1.2.2314.20337

I know that this is probably one of the worst video devices one could ever have, but I still don't understand why I didn't had any problems with the demo version, bluescreens with the controller but the old driver and now with the new driver, Windows is unable to close the application window of some of the synths.



I shouldn't have bought it!  

Now I'm in touch with Thomann, Arturia and Tomeso to find a satisfactory solution...

 

PS: The original RADEON 9800 SERIES video card died 18 months ago and this one was the only video card I had by the hand. Do you know another AGP video card that could possibly work?