UVS-3200 Review – UVI Brings The KORG PS-3200 Synthesizer Sound To Your DAW

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Back in February 2017, UVI released the UVS-3200 Synthesizer library for Falcon and Free Workstation that is based on the vintage polyphonic analog Synthesizer KORG PS-3200. This vintage Synthesizer featured a semi-modular structure with 2 oscillators, each with it’s own filter. 48 voices of polyphony, scalable CV joystick… One of the reason why this device becomes so interesting in the 1978 was the patch memory function which was unique for this time period.

This instrument was not only for its patch memory but also for its very own sound character.  I’m not an owner of a vintage KORG PS-3200 Synthesizer myself but I will try in this review to find out if UVI has managed to revive the well-known sound of this instrument.

Simple But Lovely Design Interface 

As in the last UVI releases, the interface language of the French company is clearly recognized. It was kept in the same colours and design (brown) as the original KORG PS-3200 instrument. The interface is very easy to use and offers many possibilities to design new sounds. It consists of five different GUI pages each filled with different functions.

  • Main: oscillators and filters
  • Edit: pitch, stereo spread, portamento & mod-wheel
  • Modulation: step modulator & LFO
  • Effects: drive, chorus, phaser, delay & reverb
  • Arpeggiators: one arpeggiator for each oscillator
CPU Optimised Engine

The virtual instrument UVS-3200 runs inside of the free UVI Workstation or in Falcon that offers more advanced sound design options. Like the other releases, it doesn’t consist of pure synthesis but on sampled content. For this purpose, the individual oscillators were sampled and installed in the engine. Here you can work with two oscillators. The first one has 24 sound sources, and the second has the same sounds again but with some additional other timbres. For sound generator, you have also independent controls for and modulation. So it’s possible to create quite complex sounds with the engine.

In the test, the UVS-3200 was particularly convincing because of very good CPU and RAM performance. Even if you build very complex sounds here, the utilization remains very moderate and everything very well use.

How Does It Sound?

Although this virtual instrument was developed using samples, the UVS-3200 sounds great. The developers have managed to reproduce the well-known PS-3200 sound character in software. Not only classic sounds are possible here, but also those that go beyond. With the advanced capabilities of the UVI engine, more complex sounds can be easily designed. Especially the step modulator or the two arpeggiators brings here movements to your sounds. This is an advantage of this recreation that is not possible with the original instrument.

I also like that you can spread the sounds in the stereo image with which you can make thick fat sounds. There is criticism from my side at the factory library. Unfortunately, there are not very many sounds here that revives the actual PS-3200 Synthesizer. They sound more like a modern version than the vintage one. The included presets sounds great but doesn’t include many classic sounds.

Sound Demo &  Video Review

 

Conclusion

With the UVS-3200, UVI once again showed that they master the sample handcraft very good. The sound of the old PS-3200 Synthesizer has been stored here in a beautiful way and stored in an easy-to-use plugin. Users get here a good sounding sample based instrument that is very playable but also invites to create new sounds.

Positive:
  • Authentic sound reproduction of the KORG PS-3200
  • Straightforward designed GUI
  • Low CPU/RAM consumption
  • Open for new sounds
Neutral/Negative
  • Factory patches

More information here: UVI 

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