VSTis as good as hardware? Similar to Access Virus Quality?

[aciddose]

"you have littered this thread with suggestions that the Virus doesn't measure up to xhip"

i've never said such a thing, and that makes it clear you have some hidden emotional motive for claiming i have. the all too common argumentum ad hominum perhaps?

what i have said is that a virus doesnt stand up to all the software available out there. a virus will never be better than a current equally priced pc and software to run on it. imagine in a few years?

if you can attack me, rather than that statement, you hope some how you might be able to invalidate the statement through association. sorry, but i think just about everyone agrees with that statement, and many individuals other than myself have made it.

xhip is only one of the peices of software available, and for free no less. i fail to see how there is any validity in your comparison, or what it attempts to prove. are you meaning to say xhip does not equal a virus? i'll say a virus does not equal xhip. we're agreed then?

if you refer to my suggestion that a virus can not reproduce the sounds in some of the clips i posted of xhip, i'd love to hear your attempts to refute that.

[phattslagg]

Whatever, mate. Fact is, I have a lot of very good, highly regarded softsynths on my PC (which isn't the fastest, but fast enough) as well as my Virus TI.

As it happens though, I still use the Virus far more than any of them.

It's just the way I like to work - for me, it's more than the perceived (or even measurable) quality of any particular element - it's about playing a musical instrument, which for whatever reasons, is more than the sum of it's parts.

YMMV.

[aciddose]

i can understand that, if you've read any of my posts in this thread where i've actually talked about how i feel for equipment like the virus, you'll see i've accounted for individuals like yourself with such a preferance. i acknowledge you exist, and there are a lot of people like you. i've attempted to weigh the different perspectives, the pros and cons of each possible situation.

a virus of course is just a pc in a keyboard chassis, running a particular software, with particular hardware. what makes the difference between a pc and a virus is that in a pc, you can change both the hardware and the software yourself.

for simple enjoyment, my preferance is to play an instrument like my sh-09. it is simple, does a good amount of what i want it to, and is neatly contained in an organized package. generally when playing for my own enjoyment, i use the filter on self osc with the envelope disabled entirely.

i personally wouldnt feel comfortable using a virus for a composition though. you need not take that point of view too seriously if you do not want to, since i almost never compose anything anyway.

[pdxindy]

i remember a thread about 1-2 years ago where the virus is just software in a box crowd finally got a test to prove it once and for all - 24 trance patches (12 froma virus 12 from zeta) were put up blind - people had to find the virus patches

alas they could - one guy got 12 out of 12 i got 9 out of 12 etc etc etc

now the obvious explanation is that the zeta patches were no good - but it really wasn't like that - the patches were well made and covered the same areas

but anyway it stopped the nothing great about virus hollering for at least a month

do we need one again ?

This is a logical fallacy. Just because you can hear a difference between two synths says absolutely zero about sound quality. It only means there are sonic differences between the two. Nor does it have any bearing on a discussion whether vst's are intrinsically as good as hardware digital synths.

Virus IS software in a box. It is high quality software. You may like that particular software. Plenty of softsynths are just as good a quality sonically as the Virus. There is no inherent sound quality to a digital hardware synth that is not equally possible in a vst. If a Virus happens to do it for you, get it. It does not do it for me. I have softsynths I like better and please me better sonically.

I've enjoyed people posting versions of that virus arp from different synths, hearing the differences, learning something about synth programming, learning to listen to the more subtle characteristics. I can post some sound clips of Zebra2 presets I've made that the Virus could never duplicate. Does that mean the Virus is bad?

It is so much more interesting when the discussion is about learning and sharing synth knowledge, rather than when it is about proving some sort of superiority.

[The Chase]

Is there a reason no one talks about the Roland SH-201?

[VladimirDimitrievich]

OK, here is a stripped own WaspXT sound. It uses PWM so you can chuck those saws away for this and do something decent for a change. No Unison or Dual mode, just the synths unaugmented oscillators and filter. No effects, no EQ, no post-processing.

One synth to rule them all

See how Virus goes with this. Give xhip a spin as well if you like.

i promised myself i wouldnt reply to any thread i started. but you know what, if that really is just WaspXT without dual mode, then I'm pretty impressed. Its not "taaarnce" but damn it sounds raw good.

Mind posting a screenshot of that patch?

[bryanf]

acdddose, this thread really got hijacked for your own evil purposes. I will never use xhip because there's *NO* interface. I would use a virus in a flash if I could afford one. No point in talking it down, its damn good. No point in arguing that its trying to be a workstation - and this somehow prevents you from using it creatively. If you can get past that xhip interface then you should use your powers for good and make sounds out of a virus too.

I still like the original virus snippet, its not a whole lot better but it is very very nice. Damn it, I still think its the best.

B

[the_nihilist]

Is there a reason no one talks about the Roland SH-201?

Probably because synth1 blows it away in features and sound quality.

[Vonbrucken]

this thread is useless without pics

[The Chase]

Is there a reason no one talks about the Roland SH-201?

Probably because synth1 blows it away in features and sound quality.

If "blows away" means "in some cases better". The SH-201 sounds better then the virus and the digital VST implimention actually works, too. Yet it is barely mentioned here.

[aciddose]

"for your own evil purposes"



always bringing up the interface! boohoo, draw one and i'll implement it. does a virus even have an interface? last time i checked, no, it doesnt. you should set up a virus sending cc to control xhip

[The Chase]

always bringing up the interface! boohoo, draw one and i'll implement it. does a virus even have an interface? last time i checked, no, it doesnt

You should try staring away from the computer screens because the interface of the virus is most the reason people buy them.

[Fi.Re.]

I think everyone must work with stuff he likes best.

But I like more flexibility that virus cannot provide.
As I said earlier - Albino, Absynth, Blue, Rapture, etc.
Not to be talking for nothing: listen to my last tune:
http://aktraiz3r.promodj.ru/ select diskette icon in the left of "Airborne Invasion" to download (mp3 ~5mb).
Created with ABSynth3, Albino3 and Blue (+some minor VSTis). Check it, if You Like It, Leave comments here http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=145415

[bryanf]

aciddose wrote:

does a virus even have an interface? last time i checked, no, it doesnt.

I would prefer my V-Synth for the knobs and bigger graphic touch screen, but a multi line LCD display is do-able. An interface is about immediate feedback and having every element of the interface in front of you.

Mapping a knob to a control in a VSTi isn't quite the same, I'm still not comfortable with turning away from the keyboard to pick up the mouse and drag something. I do use VSTi and my choice is Albino3. Purely personal choice: sounds I like and interface I like. A virus interests me on both features too.

Cheers,
B

[Arksun]

I think yellow is definitely better than orange, I can prove it by putting up some jpegs of a spectrum analysis I did at room temperature. Then you will all kneel before me and say "yes Arksun, you are right, yellow IS better than orange".