APPLIED ACOUSTICS SYSTEMS ULTRA ANALOG VA-3
Now in its 14th year, the developers of this venerable virtual analogue synth have doubled down to come up with its biggest upgrade yet
Canadian physical-modelling specialists Applied Acoustics aren’t a company to rush things, and the third full version of their quietly successful virtual analogue synth comes five years after VA-2 (8/10, 200), and over 13 years since the launch of the original Ultra Analog (7/10, 81). The handsome new user interface makes a great first impression, but does all that style come with enough added substance?
Bigger and better
VA-2’s workflow was quite hectic, thanks to the number of tabs and pages that had to be negotiated to program it – and Ultra Analog VA-3 (VST/AU/AAX/Standalone) has even more panels and modules to get to grips with. It’s not a big issue, but with four tabs at the top switching between the performance-orientated Home view (showing just the keyboard and four macros – see A la Modes), the preset Browser, the Settings page and the main Editor, and the
Editor itself divided up into multiple tabs beyond that, you’ll be pausing occasionally to work out exactly where you are. Very good news, though: the GUI is now freely resizable, from 75-200%.
Also welcome is the integration of a proper preset browser. This filters the library down by Packs, Sounds, Categories or Creators, and does a great job of making VA-3’s 560 excellent new presets – plus 648 reworked patches from VA-2 – eminently manageable.
Path finder
Ultra Analog VA-3 is a two-oscillator synth, with both oscillators feeding into two discrete signal paths, each comprising a filter and amplifier, and mixed at the final output stage. Actually, it’s all that times two, as we’ll return to shortly.
Each oscillator outputs a sine, square or saw wave, or noise, with PWM for the square; and features an onboard ramp modulator for sweeping up to 72 semitones up or down to the note pitch over 0.01-10 seconds. Very useful! An integrated sub oscillator tracks the pitch an octave below, and can be substituted for a punchy hard-sync function.
The two filters each have their own input gain knobs for both oscillators, and Filter 2 can also receive input from Filter 1, facilitating any imaginable blend of parallel and serial routing.
“VA-2’s workflow was quite hectic… the handsome new user interface makes a great first impression”
As well as the existing LP, HP, BP, Notch and Formant filter types, VA-3 boasts a new Ladder algorithm, for a colourful Moog-style alternative to the regular low-pass. Beyond that, each path hosts the same envelopes and flexible multidestination LFOs as VA-2, all assigned and controlled directly from their modules, rather than in any kind of modulation matrix. What you no longer get, however, is VA-2’s ‘details’ panel, which is a shame. This dedicated a section of the interface to viewing any one module from either signal path (VCO 1, Filter 2, etc), revealing extra controls that weren’t visible in the main UI, but also, as a beneficial side effect, enabling that module to be kept in view while navigating the rest of the synth in the tabbed pages. The ‘extra’ controls are now kept in slightly awkward popout panels, and we preferred the old setup.
The big architectural story with VA-3, though, is the implementation of true multitimbrality, enabling two complete synth ‘layers’ to be stacked or split across the keyboard. To be clear, each layer is effectively an entire VA-3 in itself, complete with its own effects rack, mixed using the controls at the top of the Editor (which we reckon should also be accessible on the Home page, as they can be fundamental to the sound of a patch), and feeding into a third master effects rack. The presentation of all this in the Editor page couldn’t be simpler: the two layers sit adjacent to each other, with the tabs and panel keyline for one coloured brown and the other green, although this colour-coding doesn’t carry through to the modules themselves, which are consistently grey. For totally intuitive orientation, the two colours should really pervade the layers in their entirety.
Anyhoo, the two layers both range across the whole keyboard by default, but clicking the Split button (housed, weirdly, in the engines’ Modes pages, despite being a single shared property) assigns layer 1 to the bottom of the keyboard and layer 2 to the top, with the dividing note selected via a menu. Easy.
Back to those effects, and each of VA-3’s three racks (one per layer, and master) comprises EQ, Compressor, Reverb and two multi-effects modules, just as VA-2’s single rack did.
However, the menu of multi-effects processor choices now includes the other three modules, as well as new Guitar Amplifier and Tremolo options, on top of the incumbent Delay, Chorus, Flanger, etc. You can now drag modules to reorder them, too.
Age of Ultra
We’ve always loved Ultra Analog’s focus and simplicity, and despite the addition of a whole second layer to the synth, those values remain very much at the core of VA-3. Yes, the interface is a bit fussy, and the ‘details’ view is missed, but the improvements far outweigh those issues.
The multitimbrality and per-layer effects literally double the sonic power and versatility on offer, and the ability to copy complete layers between patches encourages experimental mixing and matching. But most importantly of all, the whole thing just sounds awesome, from basses, leads, keys and plucks to pads, arps, FX and everything else you could ever ask of a high-end synth.
With elaborate wavetable and sample-based instruments increasingly dominant on the soft synth landscape, Ultra Analog VA-3 is a spectacular reminder that pure analogue emulation is still as relevant as ever. applied-acoustics.com
“The big architectural story with VA-3 is the implementation of true multitimbrality”