Applied Acoustics Systems Ultra Analog VA-3

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 ive
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 irst impression, but does all that
style come with enough added substance?
Bigger and better
VA2’s worklow 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 ilters the library down by
Packs, Sounds, Categories or Creators, and does
a great job of making VA3’s 560 excellent new
Applied Acoustics Systems
Ultra Analog VA-3 $199
Now in its 14th year, the developers of this venerable virtual analogue
synth have doubled down to come up with its biggest upgrade yet
“VA2’s worklow was
quite hectic… the
handsome new user
interface makes a great
irst impression”
LAYER 2
Tweak the second
multitimbral layer in
the green tabs
OSCILLATORS
Two analogue
oscillators with
PWM and
hard sync
HOME
Get rid of everything but
the Macros in this
performance-focusing view
EXTRA CONTROLS
Click to pop out a panel
of further parameters
PRESET BROWSER
Good looking, highly
functional and stuffed
with patches
SETTINGS
An assortment of
under-the-hood
tweaks and controls
FILTER
Two filters per layer, not
including a phat Ladder option
DUAL PATHS
Route the oscillators
through two filter/
amp signal paths
OUTPUT
Balance and
pan the amps
at the end of
each path
LFO
Cyclically
modulate the
filters, oscillators
and amps – no
matrix required!
LAYER 1
The three brown
tabs access the
first of two layers
for stacking or
splitting
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 ilter and ampliier, and
mixed at the inal 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 ilters 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.
94 / COMPUTER MUSIC / January 2020
> reviews / applied acoustics systems ultra analog va-3
CMU277.rev_ultraanalog.indd 94 08/11/2019 09:53