Access Virus Ti

SteveDon

Does anybody here own one of these beauties?

If so

Are they all they are cracked up to be, or can the sounds they produce be easily replicated with other software?

And is it worth me putting away the cash to purchase one?

Im getting the gear horn bad

krd

You could probably replicate all the sounds with plugins.

But it would be great to fool around with one.

Though it depends on what you're setup is like. If you can play your plugins in real time on your midi keyboard without a latency then you don't really need the Virus.

The Virus will always be in real time.

It could also be a real pain to integrate with what you've got. More cables - SYSEX

For the price it doesn't look worth buying. You could probably pick up lots of more interesting bits an pieces second hand.

If you want to be the synth player in a Hipster band it's right up your street.

SteveDon

Check out this review of the cheapest model, the sounds that come out of it sound immense, is there any vsts that are similar to this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWV3N7TOVjc

krd

SteveDon wrote: »

Check out this review of the cheapest model, the sounds that come out of it sound immense, is there any vsts that are similar to this?

It's definitely a good piece of kit. It's still a few hundred quid more than I think would be a great price. There would be a few good reasons to own one of these. There are serious advantages that box has over VSTs - it's possibly rock solid in terms of live performance.

Don't be fooled by demo sounds. Or presets. Especially with heavy bright effects on them.

You could probably get the same sounds if you pushed the VSTs you have and learned how to use effects to get those crispy sounding electro basses. Or get better at using the samplers you have to create bigger sounds.

You can also layer VSTs you have - have several on different tracks and send the same midi to each. You'll have a lot more oscillators to play with. And you'll be able to build more complex sounds.

The VSTs can do a lot. Like they can do every sound you can do on a 303. It might take experimentation to unlock sounds that you didn't know they could do.

You might do better to experiment in difference ways of working with what you have. Go to the music shops and play around with the keyboards and boxes and ask yourself are they really what you want. I know they look fun - and are fun to play with but you could be paying a lot of money for a glorified VST. The Nord Stuff looks lovely but it's probably more of a pain to work with than VSTs.

You might get more bang per buck from a second hand Yamaha RS7000. Someone was selling one on adverts for 100 quid last year.

Virus have a big name from the 90s. Where they were the only company producing high end and stable versions of the 303.

The synth engines in the most expensive Roland synths are the same as the ones they put in their cheapest grooveboxes.

ICN

Hes talking about a Virus krd.. What similarities does a RS7000 have?

I thought they were basically grooveboxes?

krd

ICN wrote: »

Hes talking about a Virus krd..

Yes, I know. A virus that cost over 1,000 quid - an RS would cost 200 max.

What similarities does a RS7000 have? I thought they were basically grooveboxes?

The RS has a lot more knobs and buttons than the Snow. The Snow more or less operates like a plugin.

The snow, even though it's a virus, may not really do anything more than can already be done with plugin's that you'd have. There are even free plugins out there that emulate existing viruses. I can't remember the name of the most common one.

I could think of better ways of spending that money. Buy a bunch of CDs from a charity shop and sample them to death. Pay Des Cluskey for his professional listening service.

krd

Stephen, have you considered it may not be a hardware problem you have but a spiritual problem - I'm only being half serious.

You have probably more than enough gear to be getting on with. Listen to some music - stuff you wouldn't normally listen too. Cheesy early 90s revivalism seems to be in at the minute (I'm listening to this months mixmag CD) - Try to make a track that sounds like an early 90s house track - Or make a bouncy Electro track with grinding electo basses and heavy drops.

And don't tell me you don't want to do that music.

What were you going to do with the Virus? Make more two chord Deep House?

Spend the money on a costume. Deadmau5 has his mouse's head - The Rubber Bandits have their Centra bags. You need a costume.

The one I'd like is a dark lavender body suit - with L.E.Ds stitched in so it would light up - even sync to the music - Don't steal my idea.

Doge

krd wrote: »

Yes, I know. A virus that cost over 1,000 quid - an RS would cost 200 max.



The RS has a lot more knobs and buttons than the Snow. The Snow more or less operates like a plugin.

The RS is a completely different machine to the Virus though,
I don't think its really worth comparing to a dedicated synthesizer as people may confuse it as an alternative to the Virus.
The synthesis on the RS is very basic, and preset/sample based.

The Play FX helps makes up for that though, as you can sort of add more oscillators, theres controls for unison, adding a lower or higher octave,
and you can add 2 lower or higher semitones. It basically clones the sampled waveform, and allows you alter the pitch of those clones.

The Play FX also works with your own samples too, i reckon its hugely powerful but haven't done it justice yet.

It is a good comparison of value for money though, for people considering buying hardware other than synthesizers.

I personally think its the best live hardware seqeuncer ever put on the shelves,

if only the source code was leaked, and something like JJOS came out for it.


Oh and btw, the price of the RS is going up everywhere outside of Ireland, 400 euro seems to be the average value these days.

You will struggle to buy one for under 200, one selling for 100 is rare.

krd

waveform wrote: »

The RS is a completely different machine to the Virus though,
I don't think its really worth comparing to a dedicated synthesizer as people may confuse it as an alternative to the Virus.
The synthesis on the RS is very basic, and preset/sample based.

I wasn't really saying they're the same thing - they're not. They're very different things. Also it depends on how many oscillators you're looking for. I'd like to play with one, see what I can come up with. They're usually very creative boxes - integrating them can be a problem and a pain.

I personally think its the best live hardware seqeuncer ever put on the shelves,

It probably is. If I was in the market for one - it's probably what I'd go for. I'd much prefer hardware anyway. My DAW has too much latency for me to use a midi keyboard. I would much prefer to be able to bash stuff out in real time.

Oh and btw, the price of the RS is going up everywhere outside of Ireland, 400 euro seems to be the average value these days.

You will struggle to buy one for under 200, one selling for 100 is rare.

Well I missed my chance to get one for 100.

Doge

krd wrote: »

I wasn't really saying they're the same thing - they're not. They're very different things. Also it depends on how many oscillators you're looking for. I'd like to play with one, see what I can come up with. They're usually very creative boxes - integrating them can be a problem and a pain.

Ah i know you weren't, it just seemed a bit out of the blue when you compared both, you obviously have the RS on your mind a lot!

With the RS you have no individual waveforms that can be combined together like on a conventional synth. (Unless you use multiple tracks, with one waveform on each)

You can't modulate the waveforms either,
there's no pulse width modulation, sync or ring modulation due to them being sampled.
So basically you're stuck with the sampled waveform presets and can't create your own.
You do have an lfo though, that can trigger the filter, pitch and volume.
You also have envelopes for the filter, amp and pitch.

You have 16 filters in total, one per track, and they can be used on drum samples or anything.
You only have 3 send effects (2 of which are only delay and reverb) on a bus, its a pity there isnt 3 per track.

You can't switch between the 4 recording modes during playback without stopping, which would have been nice, (like switching from overdub, to the TR-x0x step sequencer).

You can however, put record into standby during playback (the red light flashes), which allows you to jam without recording the notes, and you can activate record again when you're good and ready to record them.

You can't really record or sample audio in a linear way like on the mpc's either,
the sampler is a totally seperate recording mode, so you can't really do live sequencing while sampling.

krd wrote: »

It probably is. If I was in the market for one - it's probably what I'd go for. I'd much prefer hardware anyway. My DAW has too much latency for me to use a midi keyboard. I would much prefer to be able to bash stuff out in real time.

You should definitely grab one when the time comes,
we both seem to have the same approach to making music,
sitting down in front of a DAW with a mouse, adding bits one after the other isn't my style either hence why i bought one!
The faster and easier it is to put a track together, the better imo!

If you have any questions you'd like answered about it, sure feel free to give me a PM.

I think i've ruined this thread enough already!

Neurojazz

Sorry for absence.. busy times...

The virus TI

ummmm, i've had THREE.

They are buggy pieces of crap if used with any other usb or firewire based gear on a machine... they lose timing and the support for them is awful. If your a Mac owner with no other audio devices attached... then awesome - will probably work.

The problem comes from DSP instances being created in the windows shell and Access not being able to code to allow other peoples kit to be attached to a machine. They messed me about for months with excuses and eventually found the problem via someone at digital village.

It is an incredible piece of kit, software cannot touch it - just buggy as hell....

They even said in one lot of patch notes... 'fixed timing issues' etc... so went for it again and was stuck with the lump of crap wanting to throw it out the window

Access support really does suck.

Baggio...

I've a Virus TI - Never ever had any issues with it at all to be honest, works like a dream for me. I absolutely love the sound out of it, and find it very easy to use inside my DAW.

I've used a fair few VST synths and some of them are pretty damn cool. In their raw form I've not really heard anything that is quite as good as the Access in my opinion. But if you are going to put it through a sampler and mangle the sounds up, it doesn't really matter all that much. It really is what you do with the sound, as opposed to the gear you use.

Are they as good as they are cracked up to be - have a look at the client list. All those pros can't be too far wrong . That said, I know some produces that only use soft synths these days and they some some absolutely amazing sounds - so it really comes down to what you can do as a producer.

Depends the on cost as well - very good soft synths for 150 - 250 dollars, which will sound great. Virus T.I. 2 = 1700 yo yo's! Which will sound better again, of course you can always get a second hand one or a Virus Snow.

hubiedubie

I had the Snow and the Desktop. They're decent synths but highly overpriced. They charge so much because (amazingly) no other company has come up with an equivalent to their Total Integration software. The hardware interface is OK but not amazing (lot's of menu diving on both the Desktop and the Snow). The sound is good and they're pretty powerful in terms of voices / fx/ polyphony etc.

I sold mine and bought a Waldorf Q and am much happier.

It's very much a digital synth so will never sound analog. The newer generation of softsynths (ACE, Synthsquad) do a much better job of this. The wavetable stuff is good but it doesn't sound as crunchy as a Waldorf Microwave.

So it's a decent synth with but not much better than the previous generation of Virtual Analogs (ie Waldorf Q, Alesis ION etc). However the DAW Integration vi TI is unmatched and excellent (I never had any problems with it).