I thought it was strange. Just didn’t seem quite right. Not a Happy Neil!
That’s how I felt after spending hours (days) trying to get just the sound I wanted with Mini V, being totally happy with it and then doing a software upgrade.
Bloody software upgrades. It’s not the developers fault. They do the best that they can and at least in this case they put the risks in black-and-white.
So this is how the story goes. I started with Arturia V Collection version 3. It was my first taste of the MiniV and it was heaven. I was a late starter with Arturia and grabbed the V3 collection as it was on special. They were about to go to Version 4. That proved handy, as I could then get V4 at crossgrade pricing.
I made the initial instrument (lead sound) for Shine on You Crazy Diamond, and AJ seemed happy with it. So did YouTube viewers. (AJ actually knows a bit about the sound of a real Minimoog so we were all sorted.) But I still felt the need to upgrade to Version 4.
The old patch loaded into the new instrument and all seemed okay. This was Mini V2 which comes with V Collection 4. In the patches available here for download you can identify this one by the plain brown logo with the black “m” writing.
Eventually, with V Collection 5 coming out and the advent of the Synclavier, I just had to splash the cash again. Sadly, there were no drum machines any more in V Collection 5. God bless crossgrade/upgrade paths. HOWEVER – this time there was a mismatch between the patch formats of the old Mini and the new.
To import my old patches into Mini V3 (the yet again updated Minimoog in V Collection 5) I had to run them through a conversion process. Quite some time after Mini V3 was released, Arturia made available a preset converter/updater. I converted my trusty old patch without reading any of the fine print believing in the joys of perpetual digital reproduction with no discernible change.
From that moment it never quite sounded right. Grrrrrrr!
I have made the Mini V3 patch available here on the site anyway, because a number of people who are interested in this sound do not have the older version of the Mini V. If you do have the old instrument I really think that the Shine On patch sounds better (before it was converted to V3). I think this is because Arturia’s rewrite of the filter changed the sound just too much.
If you’re in a situation where you get to have a choice, and want the patch, choose the old one.
If you click on the graphic to the left you will see Arturia’s explanation of why the same patch sounds different across the two instruments.
I have not yet managed to have a red-hot go at tweaking Mini V3 to get the warm sound I’m after. If you get it sounding better please let me know as I would love to have it sounding warm and lovely on the current version (Mini V3 at the time of writing).
I really like most of the Arturia stuff. The Wurlitzer is not so great but these are modelled instruments and not needing samples does wonders for computer efficiency and freeing up disk space.
As an aside, at the moment I’m in love with Applied Acoustic Systems – Lounge Lizard 4 electric piano. The “Sheep” intro piano sound I’m working on is nearly spot-on. It’s a freebie in the Patches Area for anyone who has Lounge Lizard and wants to try it out. Please be sure to read the installation instructions for that one. It’s different!