Arturia Memory V: Sound Design Tricks

Hey folks,

New video up — the Arturia Memory V landed and I spent some time with it this week.

Short version: it’s a polyphonic Memorymoog with some additions that make it more interesting than a straight clone. The ladder filter has bass compensation (similar to what you get on the Moog Messenger and Muse), which is a genuinely useful addition — you can push the resonance without the low end disappearing. The big thing though is oscillator 3. You can route it as an FM source to pitch, filter, envelope decay time, and panning, which opens up bell tones, evolving filter FM textures, and per-voice stereo spread.

Built two patches in the video: one evolving FM drone using oscillator 3 into pitch and filter (synced, detuned, with a pitch delay on the Advanced page), and one multi-arp plucky thing using the mod sequencer and voice modulator for randomised pitch per voice.

One thing worth noting: the Memory V doesn’t have the dual-layer architecture of the SynthX, so you can’t have two distinct sounds playing different arp patterns simultaneously. But with the poly-metre arp stacking fifths and thirds at different rates, you can get a lot of movement from a single patch.

Verdict: if you’ve got the V Collection, it’s a solid addition. On its own it’s in similar territory to the SynthX and the Prophet emulation — comparable quality, different character. The ladder filter has its own sound and the FM routing via oscillator 3 gives it a bit more range than the original.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Nate