Arturia Acid V Review: Vintage Vibes Gone Wild

The unmistakable sound of acid house came to prominence in the mid-80s, emerging from the Chicago underground with a signature penchant for chirping basslines. At the center of this was the Roland TB-303, a small synth that quickly went from commercial failure to cult classic as it conquered dancefloors from the American Midwest to London and Manchester. Almost 40 years later, Arturia continues the unit’s legacy with a new digital instrument that’s much more than just a recreation: this is Acid V, a super-charged bass synth that takes a dance music staple to bold new places.

The soul of the 303 has been stretched and souped up to give it more possibilities than ever before. Acid V functions, at its core, in the same way as its inspiration, namely, allowing you to sequence and mold basslines through tempo, accents, slides, effects, etc. It wouldn’t be very notable if that was everything, but this is Arturia we’re talking about, after all, and Acid V goes even further than its legendary predecessor thanks to a range of improvements and added content. Beefed-up oscillators and vibrato provide deeper bass with greater range, while 14 different distortion algorithms mean more ways to get weird than ever before.

A modern sequencer provides in-depth control; scales let you quickly build a line, transmutation lets you transform them with ease, and 3 modulators, 4 FX slots, and 17 FX algorithms let you craft the sound to your exact specifications. There’s even a fine-tuning “panel” that gives you access to advanced parameters (bass boost, pulse width, accent attack, cutoff range, pitch tracking, noise gain, clipper) that mimic vintage TB-303 units.

Acid V is just delightfully nasty- it takes what was already a funky, unconventional icon and injects it with the added features and room to explore typical of Arturia’s digital instruments. Naturally, it’s ideal for acid house, but play around with it for just a little while and you’ll see that the possibilities go far beyond. Easy to get up and running thanks to the streamlined Arturia system of apps, the plugin quickly becomes hard to step away from with its oodles of parameters and 150+ presets. It’s the perfect instrument to experiment with, and whether you want to spice up your house tracks or add some mutated flair to your trance or techno projects, you’ll feel right at home.

Arturia Acid V is now available– a special introductory offer currently has the plugin on sale at 50% off! If you’ve been wanting to get your hands on the company’s famous V collection of digital instruments, you can now also get Acid V included for free; if you’re already a customer, you can log in to the Arturia website and get your own personalized offer. These limited promotions only run until September 13th, so be sure to hurry if you’re looking to get this new software on a deal. Watch the video below to get a quick peek at what this special little plugin can do!

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