UVI based in France has been producing music software products for more than 20 years. For years different products based on vintage synths have been sampled by UVI for you to work with. One of the advantages of UVI’s approach is that the sampled instrument sounds as the original hardware that was used.
Vintage Vault by UVI Review
You have more options on the original hardware, but also have to spend thousands of Euro/Dollar if you want similar sounds in your armory. You are also quicker as with the presets included you can start right away as you do not have to program the hardware synth.
UVI released over the years different sampled vintage synths. With Vintage Vault bundle UVI selected 14 existing products and offer them at a reduced price compared to buying them separately. Some products have been updated like Beat Box Anthology.
We already reviewed some of UVI’s next-gen products like Beatbox Anthology 2.
Beat Box Anthology
Deep sampling of 80 classic drum machines, was upgraded to Beatbox Anthology 2 in mid-2017.
Included are samples from Acetone: Rhythm Ace FR-1, FR-2L, FR-6 et FR-8, Akai: XR-10, Alesis: HR-16, HR-16b et DPM5, Amdek: Rhythm Machine RMK-100, Bohm: Digital Drums M, Boss: DR-110, Dr. Rhythm, DR-220 A, DR-220 E et DRP-I, Dr. Pad, Casio: RZ-1, Crumar: OMB-2, Dynacord: Add One, Elka: Drumstar 80, OMB 5, Wilgamat, E-mu: Drumulator, ETI: Drum Synthesizer, Godwin: Drummaker 45, Hohner: Drum Performer et Rhythm 80, Kawai: R-100, Korg: DDD-1, DDM-100, DDM-220, KPR 77, KR33, KR55, MR16 et S3, Linn 9000 et Linn Drum, Mattel Synsonic Drums, Mini Pops Junior Keio, MPC the Kit, Novation: Drumstation, Oberheim: DMX, Pearl Drum-X et Fightman, Realistic: Rhythm Box Concert Mate, Roland: CR-78, CR-8000, TR-505, TR-55, TR-606, TR-626, TR-66, TR-707, TR-727, TR-77, TR-808 et TR-909, SCI: Drumtracks, Siel: MDP40, Simmons: Clap Trap, MTX-9, SDS 400, SDS 800, SDS 9, SDSV et Trixer, Solton: Arranger +, Tama Techstar: TAM500, DS200 et Techstar TS204, Ted Digisound Synth, Univox: ARI, Vermona, Wersi Drum Composer, Wersi Wersimatic WM24, Yamaha: DD-10, MR10, QY10, RX5, RX7 et RX8.
Darklight IIx
3 Instruments Inspired by the Fairlight, the sounds are historical, edgy, and very grainy. Fairlight Synth has been used by Jean-Michel Jarre, Supertramp, Michael Jackson, Art of Noise, Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Yellow, Foreigner, Madonna, Eurythmics, Mike Oldfield, Prince, OMD, Duran Duran, Queen, Alan Parsons, Fleetwood Mac, Pet Shop Boys, and Depeche Mode. You get with this library the sound of the 80s.
Darklight IIx includes a digital synth, a digital drum machine, a sequencer, and a creative multi-phrase that reminds you of songs you have listened to back then. With Darklight IIx you get yourself a powerful 80s synth station.
Digital Synsations
4 Instruments inspired by 1990’s digital synths such as Korg M1, Ensoniq VFX, Yamaha SY77, and Roland D50
Emulation II
UVI’s Emulation II was created to reproduce the warm digital sounds and analog textures representing old school E-mu Emulator II and E-mu crunchy Drumulator.The library was sampled from restored units.
The Emulator II has been used by Depeche Mode, Genesis, Tangerine Dream, Simple Minds, Enya, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Mr. Mister, Stevie Wonder, and Pet Shop Boys. with the 2 instruments, you get 281 presets
Emulation One
This library is based on E-mu Emulator (ONE) and E-mu Drumulator (ONE) masterpieces of 80’s 8-bit Sounds and Drum Machine. The Emulator (ONE) was used by David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Genesis, New Order, OMD, Jean-Michel Jarre, Kitaro, Vangelis, Yes, and Stevie Wonder.
Mello
The Origins of Sampling—a Sound that Shaped the 60’s, inspired by the Mellotron. The Mellotron has been used by the Beatles, Genesis, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. A Mellotron is in a nutshell a sampler that uses tape which is drawn over ahead and plays the recorded sound. Pure vintage goodness.
String Machines
11 Vintage String Synths (ARP Solina String Ensemble, Crumar Performer, Elka Rhapsody, Eko Stradivarius, Korg PE2000, Logan String Melody, Siel Orchestra, ROLAND RS-505, ROLAND VP-330, and Yamaha SS30) reproducing orchestral string sounds through analog synthesis
The Beast
Synth and drum machine inspired by the vintage Synclavier. Synclavier has been considered in the past as the Rolls Royce of Synth. The hardware was manufactured by New England Digital Corporation (NED), USA and was highly influential to the composer in those years.
Synclaviers have been used by The Cure, New Order, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Foreigner, Michael Jackson, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Genesis, Kim Wilde, The Cars, Soft Cell, Geoff Downes, and Frank Zappa.
UltraMini
Revered Analog Synth is based and inspired from Minimoog and Moog Voyager.
UVX-3P
Inspired by the Huge Analog Sound of a famous Roland JX-3P
UVX-10P
The Glory of 80’s Analog Polyphony, Inspired by Roland JX-10, MKS-70 (Rack) and JX-8P
Vector Pro
3 Instruments Inspired by the Sequential Prophet VS and Yamaha SY22
Vintage Legends
6 Instruments inspired by the Yamaha CS Series and DX1, Elka Synthex, Rhodes Chroma and DK Synergy
WaveRunner
7 Instrument Retrospective of Wavetable Synthesis
Rating: Four out of five stars
Many of us are looking and in need of a large collection of authentic vintage, synthesizer sounds that are prepared and ready to use. You get with Vintage Vault a large number of virtual instrument models of vintage gear, it contains a lot of great characters and sounds, some of which directly bring you back to the 70s or the 80s, at least when you are old enough). Because of the magic of the sampled instrument, you can apply further effects, some of which have not been available with the original hardware that was sampled.
Areas of improvement: Usability is key and as said before UVI has nailed it for their newest releases, with the product included in the bundle UVI has carefully created pretty looking UIs and made the effort to design a unique interface for every included interface. This is really excellent, however, every user interface will require you to learn a different approach to allow you to use the instrument.
We did see that with new releases of updated products like Beatbox Anthology 2 or Synth Anthology 2 UVI has followed similar design guidance so the hope is that UVI will update this great content as well.
Another improvement area would be if you browse through all presets across all included instruments. The presets presentation across all instruments could be harmonized as well.
All newer products from UVI have been delivered with a dramatically revamped User Interface, which was one to the numerous reasons those new UVI products received the high rating in recent reviews. With a major UI revamp the rating is seen at five out of five stars.
