Why Virus is discussed more than other HW synths?

[jeffb01]

...but it was downright infuriating that you couldn't modulate wavetable position with an LFO or envelope...

It's possible now in the virus ti. I love the virus. I bought it because a. it sounded great, b. It's ability to work as a vst, and c. I was in the market for a nice midi controller (I use the polar).

It has great support from access with lots of updates and top notch patches for free. It's a pleasure to program using virus control (a few too many sub-menus on the board, but tons of nobs). I love it and I could get rid of all my other soft synths if I had to. The "virus sound" to me is this real thick sound that sounds great, but can fill up a mix with just one instance. It is very versatile and that is just the sound it has a reputation for. I can't compare it to any other hardware synths (nord, radius, etc) since I haven't really used them outside of guitar center, except to say that since the virus ti (total integration) can act as a vst, it is very simple to use in compositions. It's also fun to just press keys while I'm working on bullshit in a word processor to amuse myself.

Not that this is important or legitimizes the instrument, but here is a list of artist that use the virus (most of which are not tarnce):
http://www.access-music.de/community/hall_of_fame.php4

[prophet08]

As a long time virus owner, I sold my virus rack and got a TI this year, and what I can simply say that it has really great features and gives top quality virus sound to my works. It has a wide sonic content so can be used in a vast array of musical genres. Ultimately, it can be better checked direclty

[aMUSEd]

Because it's a VERY good synth.

It is.

But it's also a VERY good Meme (hence the clever name)

[fatjack]

the virus releases a variant of lsd fumes, not addictive, and extremely pleasant
love it

[kilon]

I don't get it. There other great HW synths out there like the Waldorf synths, Dave Smith's synths, Nord synths...etc, but the Virus is the only one that gets talked about to death. It really isn't necessarily better or more unique than the other HW synths on the market--so why? Is it because it's characteristic sound is what's hip ATM?

Actually at this moment VIRUS is clearly the best and with some distanc from the others. I would not buy a virus , waldorf synths look to me closer to what I want but I can fully understand why VIRUS monopolises the market. The advantages are:
1) Increased polyphon --->powerful synth
2) supersaw-hypers-suboscilators---> People love this stuff
3) Simple interface
4) TI ---> now this is the big seller , the way it cooperates with the computer is very special
5) OS---> Access updates it regularly , and the incredible is that the add new features to the synth not only the TI which means that like any real life virus , VIRUS TI can envolve.
6) Great company which know how to market their products.This the biggest plus Access makes only one synth but they devote the whole company to supporting it and that is what it relly counts.

I find waldorf synths (Q+) more to my taste , because of their more knobs, wavetables synthesis and ability to be half VA and half analog. I think though that is very fair that VIRUS is in the top . Waldorf and his new line of synth seems that directly attacks the VIRUS (I have my eyes on Blofeld , which is a huge value for money) but those synths have not been released yet and WALDORF does not support the same its synths as ACCESS does. Virus is the safe choice.

[advaya]

Actually... three-month-old thread, and only three pages long...

Kinda makes me wonder just how much the Virus gets talked about at all anymore...

I still like the Ti Polar very much though.