Is it something to bet on a Virus synth?

[jupiter8]

With polyphony in mind, even if Access released a Virus plug-in, you wouldn't be able to run it even on a fast machine.

Why not ?

[Bronto Scorpio]

Again, I'm not saying the Virus sounds better than VSTs but it sounds unique.
Check the Grain- and Formant Oscillators video: http://virus.info/page/render/lang/en/p ... urces.html

Please do that with, Dune, Sylenth, Zebra....

The only VSTs which have similar features are Massive and Zebra but they sound completely different.
Most people still seem to think the Virus can only do trancey "Hyperswas", that's really not true! I completely agree that these trancey sounds can easily be replaced with VSTs.

Cheers
Dennis

[osiris]

Oh goody, a Virus Easter thread....


Deja Vu, Jamais Vu
Let's call the whole thing off...

[CT]

The innovation is in native software these days - Access are just playing cash up.

The way I see it (and I have owned a Virus Ti) is that Access need to make the Virus VST truly work the same way that any other VST does. Being able to open only one instance with only 3 outputs severely restricts it's usability imo, and it was the main reason I sold the Ti. Take that feature away and you're left with a great sounding, but fairly standard instrument.

It also needs a huge increase in DSP power to justify the cost, otherwise standard VST plugins are just so much more convenient, and equally as powerful. The Virus does have a unique flavour but i'd never buy a new one. It's just too much money.

Similar story here. Had a TI2 but sold it. Felt much lighter after selling it, and richer too

Bought a bunch of soft synths thereafter, including alchemy, zebra, dune, twin 2, synth squad. And still had enough money left for a pair of decent monitor speakers. One major plus point about all the hype surrounding viruses (or virii ) is that they have good re sale value

Couldn't be happier.

[hakey]

Again, I'm not saying the Virus sounds better than VSTs but it sounds unique.
Check the Grain- and Formant Oscillators video: http://virus.info/page/render/lang/en/p ... urces.html

Please do that with, Dune, Sylenth, Zebra....

The only VSTs which have similar features are Massive and Zebra but they sound completely different.

Sorry Dennis, I have to respectfully disagree with you there.

In the grand scheme of things the differences in sound between VA synths are really not *so* great. If they were that obvious, the various guess the synth threads here would not end up as the more-or-less random lists that they all do.

And I watched the Virus vowel filter vid and don't hear anything startlingly unique there - at least I'm not sure that, without reference to known examples, I'd be able to recognise it next to Zebra doing something similar.

(Btw, in that recent Diva/guess-the-synth thread I managed to convince someone that Diva has a "very good vowel filter" - so getting one synth with a vowel filter [and loads of other tricks] to sound close enough to another synth with a vowel filter isn't likely to be so difficult.)

...couldn't find the "grain" vid on the Access site, but I'm willing to bet you could find a plugin that would get you in similar sonic territory.

[liquid wind]

Most people still seem to think the Virus can only do trancey "Hyperswas", that's really not true! I completely agree that these trancey sounds can easily be replaced with VSTs.

That's why the hype is so maddening really, the synth is versatile and worth a lot of respect, but the unshakable "does it sound like a virus?" meme is geared mostly towards a particular sound that dozens of other synths can do. Good synth with way too much obnoxious mysticism surrounding it.

[osiris]

Was that Diva? Cause you know that was me...I thought it was that piano pluggy......
I still stand by what I said. It sounded like a very good vowel filter.

[hakey]

Was that Diva? Cause you know that was me

I do now (had to go and check) - yes it was Diva.

I still stand by what I said. It sounded like a very good vowel filter.

Not sure which bit you were referring to - the choir or the talk box bass - but thanks anyway.

And that wasn't a dig at your expense. It was more an illustration of how supposedly very unique, identifiable sounding synths are anything but when tested blind. I've never guessed one right yet.

[Bronto Scorpio]

Again, I'm not saying the Virus sounds better than VSTs but it sounds unique.
Check the Grain- and Formant Oscillators video: http://virus.info/page/render/lang/en/p ... urces.html

Please do that with, Dune, Sylenth, Zebra....

The only VSTs which have similar features are Massive and Zebra but they sound completely different.

Sorry Dennis, I have to respectfully disagree with you there.

No problem! That's why we are here, to discuss things. And to feed our GAS

In the grand scheme of things the differences in sound between VA synths are really not *so* great. If they were that obvious, the various guess the synth threads here would not end up as the more-or-less random lists that they all do.

And I watched the Virus vowel filter vid and don't hear anything startlingly unique there - at least I'm not sure that, without reference to known examples, I'd be able to recognise it next to Zebra doing something similar.

(Btw, in that recent Diva/guess-the-synth thread I managed to convince someone that Diva has a "very good vowel filter" - so getting one synth with a vowel filter [and loads of other tricks] to sound close enough to another synth with a vowel filter isn't likely to be so difficult.)

...couldn't find the "grain" vid on the Access site, but I'm willing to bet you could find a plugin that would get you in similar sonic territory.

I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a Boesendorfer and a Steinway without reference, can we burn all Steinways now?

If you go down that route you probably only need Synth1 (there is even some truth to that).

The Virus is different than Zebra just like Diva is different than Zebra.
All 3 have their uses

Cheers
Dennis

[Bronto Scorpio]

Most people still seem to think the Virus can only do trancey "Hyperswas", that's really not true! I completely agree that these trancey sounds can easily be replaced with VSTs.

That's why the hype is so maddening really, the synth is versatile and worth a lot of respect, but the unshakable "does it sound like a virus?" meme is geared mostly towards a particular sound that dozens of other synths can do. Good synth with way too much obnoxious mysticism surrounding it.

This!

[4damind]

But if we talk purely about sound, the Virus is still way ahead of it's VSTi clones. Soundtoys' Filterfreak is the only filter that matches the quality of TI's ones. With polyphony in mind, even if Access released a Virus plug-in, you wouldn't be able to run it even on a fast machine.

I think this is not true. Access is not the only company able to design filter algorithms. There are a lot developers with the same or better knowledge.
U-he, Fabfilter, FXPansion, Tone2 are only some companies with excellent filters.

TI has 2 Motorola DSP I guess, this is not the same processing power like a actual Intel CPU. I expect that a Virus plug-in would not use more CPU than NI Massive or U-He Diva with highest oversampling rate.
It's not the processing power it's more the realtime behavior and how processing power will be shared between different processes (and interrupted).
With a Virus you will not have the problem that other processes will interrupt operations. You have no boot time, no problems with latency or bad developed plugins crashing the host.

But also Access is not free of problems. Their operating systems for the Virus had a lot of bugs with every release. I remember it needs some releases to have a proper timing with OS6.5 for the Virus C and the Virus TI was full of problems and bugs when released. Access is not better than others, they are not developing better or more stable software than others or have more knowledge than others.

[hakey]

I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a Boesendorfer and a Steinway without reference, can we burn all Steinways now?

Haha - yes, that's a closer analogy than violin/piano.

Burning all Steinways might be taking it a bit far - but I certainly wouldn't recommend someone buy one if there were much cheaper and equally-good/better pianos available.

[izonin]

With polyphony in mind, even if Access released a Virus plug-in, you wouldn't be able to run it even on a fast machine.

Why not ?

Because quality filters use a lot of CPU cycles. Try running 32 instances of Filterfreak, and you'll see.

[chk071]

Most people still seem to think the Virus can only do trancey "Hyperswas", that's really not true! I completely agree that these trancey sounds can easily be replaced with VSTs.

That's why the hype is so maddening really, the synth is versatile and worth a lot of respect, but the unshakable "does it sound like a virus?" meme is geared mostly towards a particular sound that dozens of other synths can do. Good synth with way too much obnoxious mysticism surrounding it.

I'm pretty sure you can reproduce most of the more versatile sounds you're talking about on other synths/soft synths too. It's just that many trance sounds, arpeggios, supersaws or whatever are pretty much standards of sound design which just get produced/reproduced a lot.

Not sure why there's so many threads like "which soft synth to replace synth x" either though, every synth, be it hardware or software, sounds slightly or completely different. The pure fact that there's no "which hardware synth to replace my plugin" should show that there's pretty much of a irrational hype about hardware synths. I can understand it to a certain degree though, nothing beats real "hands on" feeling...

[tectonica]

.

TI has 2 Motorola DSP I guess, this is not the same processing power like a actual Intel CPU. I expect that a Virus plug-in would not use more CPU than NI Massive or U-He Diva with highest oversampling rate.
It's not the processing power it's more the realtime behavior and how processing power will be shared between different processes (and interrupted).

As info:
One instance of the Virus Powercore Vst-Plugin (compares to Virus B, up to 16Voices + effects ) also even runs on only one single Motorola-DSP of a TC Powercore Element.
It's old Dsps have 100Mhz each.