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Behind-the-scenes
Vintage Vault 4: the story
Vintage Vault 4

Including the authentic hardware sound of over 250 synthesizers spanning over 5 decades, Vintage Vault 4 is a must-have. Dive into the history of synthesis through the machines that made it, and discover how UVI’s history is deeply intertwined with synths machines in this new Focus article.

An enduring love story

The starting point for the creation of Vintage Vault 4 is definitely our passion for synthesizers, inherited from Alain, UVI’s co-founder, who has owned and collected them for years. In the early 2000’s, looking for a way to simplify his workflow and streamline his studio, he decided to start sampling them.

❝ Hardware synths have a special acoustic vitality that’s immediately recognizable. Creating sample-based instruments was a natural evolution of our passion for the sound of hardware. ❞

Indeed, his first synth was a CZ101 that he purchased as a teen. He still has it to this day and it was used in making Cameo, available in Vintage Vault 4.
Cameo

Indeed, his first synth was a CZ101 that he purchased as a teen. He still has it to this day and it was used in making Cameo, available in Vintage Vault 4.

Cameo
Hardware that traveled the world

Finding the original hardware you can listen to in Vintage Vault 4 has been sometimes pretty epic. Some of the machines have even traveled thousands of miles to reach our offices in Paris, and others have been directly sampled on the other side of the world. Here are some examples of these well-traveled machines:

JP Legacy -

We went through three Jupiter-6’s before getting one that was decent shape, and the good one was located in France, so this true vintage gem could join the collection of synthesizers of Vintage Vault 4.
JP Legacy
JP Legacy

We went through three Jupiter-6’s before getting one that was decent shape, and the good one was located in France, so this true vintage gem could join the collection of synthesizers of Vintage Vault 4.

JP Legacy
UVX80

- UVX80

The analog polyphonic synth which UVX80 is based on was very hard to find in Europe. It has finally been found by our Japanese team members who flew it to our sound designers in Paris.
UVX80

The analog polyphonic synth which UVX80 is based on was very hard to find in Europe. It has finally been found by our Japanese team members who flew it to our sound designers in Paris.

UVX80

Kroma -

After years of looking, we recently managed to locate a Rhodes Polaris, the Chroma’s 6-voice sibling, adding it as a free update to Kroma. We found it in Holland, but it was not working well, so we asked for one of Paris’ best synthesizer technicians and specialists help.
Kroma
Kroma

After years of looking, we recently managed to locate a Rhodes Polaris, the Chroma’s 6-voice sibling, adding it as a free update to Kroma. We found it in Holland, but it was not working well, so we asked for one of Paris’ best synthesizer technicians and specialists help.

Kroma
Ob Legacy

- OB Legacy

Marko Ettlich from the RetroSound YouTube Channel drove 1,000km across Europe to bring us his rare OB-Xa, OB-X and Matrix-1000, that have inspired Ob Legacy, available in Vintage Vault 4.
OB Legacy

Marko Ettlich from the RetroSound YouTube Channel drove 1,000km across Europe to bring us his rare OB-Xa, OB-X and Matrix-1000, that have inspired Ob Legacy, available in Vintage Vault 4.

Ob Legacy

PX V8 -

The voyetra-eight from PX V8 came straight out of Detroit in the USA. It came from an owner of a boat engine shop who loved synthesizers. We were pretty scared to see it travel in the plane hold, but it made it safely to Paris.
PX V8
PX V8

The voyetra-eight from PX V8 came straight out of Detroit in the USA. It came from an owner of a boat engine shop who loved synthesizers. We were pretty scared to see it travel in the plane hold, but it made it safely to Paris.

PX V8
Old Machines Are Hard to Maintain

One of the challenges in making Vintage Vault 4 was the restoration of these old machines, which gave us cold sweats more than once.
One of the major scares we had was when the Sequential Prophet VS we sampled for Vector Pro died while recording the very last note. After years of work, synths specialists Manfred Veber and Martin Höwner were able to fix and even enhance it, so we sent it to Claudio, aka Doctor Mix, to have some fun with it.

Vintage Vault 4
Feature Facts

With 36 products included, you can imagine that Vintage Vault 4 is full of feature facts, and here is a short selection of them:

1. BeatBox Anthology 2’s “Recreation” section features famous song’s rhythms such as Madonna’s “Vogue”, “Brass Monkey” by The Beastie Boys and more.
2. Dzmo from Digital Synsations Vol.2 is the only instrument that features the Tempo-Synced section. These sounds were sampled at a specific tempo in order to keep the original hardware modulation curves - this way the sounds synchronize automatically to the tempo.
3. In String Machines 2, you get access to 66 machines within a single unified interface, and they are even filed in a by-year timeline: a real piece of history!
4. In Saturn-4, we went particularly in-depth to sample the VCO. We sampled most waveforms, with and without the sub, with and without pulse wave modulation, in four versions: Poly, Poly + Ensemble, Unison, Unison + Ensemble. This results in a huge amount of samples: 6 000+ only for the Saturn-4 waveforms, that you select only with 6 buttons in the interface.
Machines that made history
West End Girls - The Pet Shop Boys
Emu II+
1999 - Prince
Ob Legacy
Thriller - Michael Jackson
JP Legacy
Vintage Vault 4

The sound of 255 hardware synths
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