Wow the virus really isn't that special after all.

[goldenanalog]

I have a VirusTI and compared to the latest VST instruments the Virus doing pretty well (soundwise) and the "Total Integration" is awesome anyway. I didn't regret i bought it and will have good use for it for the next years.

- And Access continues to update your TI through OS revisions - your investment is likely somewhat protected for the future -

It's fascinating that Access has simply evolved their product over time - I still dearly love the A's and B's - years old, but they sound great - 'different' from each other (& the TI), but they continue to stand tall in their own right IMHO - they've stood the (brutal) test of time.

Soft synth's like Spire are awesome - they genuinely are - so it's a completely fair argument that we really don't need synth hardware in mid 2015, but like the passé digital vs analog debate (speaking purely for myself) - I personally gain inspiration from interaction with a variety of instruments: digital and analog, virtual and physical - there's no real 'versus' in my world other then that which is bound to exist within musical and performance context - and even then: the instruments are (at times) only different from each other by a matter of degrees -

What you especially gain from the TI2 is a deep, mature engine, and a fair amount of polyphony that won't tax your CPU -

Think of a topical view of the TI platform as though you are looking at the surface of a body of water, but without a clear reference - so that you wouldn't know how deep the water actually is. Playing with TI presets will give you some indication, true, but that's far from the whole story. To get a true sense of it's depth: you need to integrate it into your work flow, and program your own sounds - Only then will you gain an accurate evaluation of wether it works for you or not.

And if not: My best advice is to sell it, and move on.

[Ingonator]

OK: What about Novation's Ultranova instead? it comes off as both deep and capable, is quite a bit cheaper, but the trade-off is that it doesn't seem to have anywhere near the build quality and ergonomics of any of the Virus's (I really like how the A & B desktops are built -)

I have sold my Virus TI desktop this year after around 8 years and today i finally decided to buy a Novation Ultranova.
It is very new now but i am already blown away by the sounds i could get from this and also the amount of features included (besides the many features of the synth engine an included VST editor and the posibility to use the keyboard as an audio interface). also small and/or flat enough to keep it at my desk as a controller (ooposing to my Ymaha Motif ES 7 and Korg Wavestation EX that i used as keyboard controllers so far...).

The "Density" feature in the Ultranova oscillators (2 dedicated parameters for amount and detuning in all 3 Oscs) is like a kind of HYpersaw/Supersaw and additionally there is also an Unison. Along the waveforms selection there also seem to be additional Multi-waveform modes.
It also has a wavetable implementation with 36 wavetables (wavetables with up to 9 waveforms and adjustable interpolation amount) besides a bunch of single digital waveforms and the "standard" VA waveforms.
"Density" does not just work with the Saw but with all waveforms (like with the comparable feature in the DUNE 2 plugin).

Also the price of the Ultranova is a real bargain IMO.
The only real downsides i see with it at the moment is that it is monotimbral and that is has less controls for direct tweaking (while the TI Snow has very few controls too). While it got tons of parameters editing the Ultranova directly at the hardware is actually more simple than i thought at the beginning.

I am sure the Ultranova will serve well in combination with e.g. my Blofeld desktop, my Pulse 2 dekstop and my plugins.


Anyway after all the Ultranova and Virus are quite different instruments IMO so which you choose is also up to your own taste.
If you got the amount of money needed for a Virus TI which is around 3 times more expensive than an Ultranova (compared to the TI desktop, the keyboard is even more) i think it will be worth to get a TI.

[DrGonzo]

It's good, but not great. The only benefit comes from it's high poly count and high quality effects per channel.
It's old technology. I should say, old digital technology.

I don't know. I've owned the first generation Polar since it came out and I've been through the like/dislike phase about four times now. While I agree that the Virus as it is today is built on older digital technology, it really has it's strengths. Yesterday I hooked it up with a few pad sounds to check the signal flow to my H3000 - and I could barely stop playing. Sure, the H3000 is like a magic sauce that adds goodness to anything you use it with, but personally - it's a quite expressive synth that truly excels at synthy leads and pads.

But for modern flat-lining EDM and Dubstep - no. It does not cut it.

/C

[Mutant]

http://www.perkristian.net/music/perkri ... inoxe5.mp3

[chk071]

Sounds pretty damn good to me, even going by today's soft synth standards...

[MaF]

I had a Virus TI Desktop (2007-2014). Here are my 2 cents on the pros and cons:

pros:
- certainly and by far not only a trance synth
- very flexible oscillators (classic VA, wavetable, granular, formant...), capable of many timbres
- great effects
- well laid out UI of the many functions in the Virus Control Plugin
- with total integration a lot easier to integrate than other hardware synths (total recall etc.)
- leaves your CPU alone
- good sounding filter models
- flexible LFOs

cons:
- dated engine which shows in aliasing, no super snappy envelopes, impossibility of audio rate modulation, clean recursive modulation or clean FM etc.
- some menu diving necessary if you want to edit on the hardware

I don't miss it. While it is clear that you cannot totally replace it with software I think Massive, Largo, Zebra etc. should get you close.Today the Virus is totally overpriced but it's a well established platform with a gazillion of presets. I wonder how Access will handle it in the future.

[MaF]

double post, sorry.

[Mushy Mushy]

I've heard Access are working on a Sylenth clone. It's the first in their new VVA range.

[Nspace]

How exactly does it sound "worse"? Not as detailled? You don't like the character? Filter sucks? Oscillators sound bad?

The bad:
The oscillators alias fairly badly for a synth of it's price range.
There is a "grainy" quality of the summed voices. (running the audio outs doesn't help much)

I don't own a Virus Access, but have been eyeing them for long. Together with my past good experiences with the DIYaudio communities (where many of the actual design engineers take part) and particularly with the good results in reducing aliasing and noise in digital hardware with similar solutions...
Have found this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Access-Virus-B- ... Sw~gRVhJfP

It looks promising. Has someone tried such?

[Wormhelmet]

I didn't read all the responses or the first post, but thought the title was funny.

I finally grabbed a Ti2 this year.

It absolutely is special to me. Very easy sound design and multitimbral functions.

I love the thing. Got the desktop module. I don't use PC's anymore for multitracking and as a hardware sequenced module, it gives me that equivalent of opening multiple softsynth instances.

It sounds fantastic. A lot of other synths sound fantastic too, but I think it is the ease of designing your own sounds coupled with easy multi setups that made it worthwhile to me.

Of course the blofeld is pretty easy in the same way for setting up multi's, but like many others, sure wished they offered a blofeld with as many hands on control features instead of menu diving.

I love good VA sounds and not for their attempt at analog emulation, but for their flexibility in a wide pallette of sounds with more polyphony.

[Uncle E]

I don't own a Virus Access, but have been eyeing them for long. Together with my past good experiences with the DIYaudio communities (where many of the actual design engineers take part) and particularly with the good results in reducing aliasing and noise in digital hardware with similar solutions...
Have found this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Access-Virus-B- ... Sw~gRVhJfP

It looks promising. Has someone tried such?

I guess this would get the Virus B/C/Indigo closer to the sound of the TI's USB digital output. The interesting thing is that most Virus owners seem to prefer the sound of the stock TI analog outputs over the USB digital output. Old Virus's sound great, I'd probably leave them alone.

[chk071]

I've heard Access are working on a Sylenth clone. It's the first in their new VVA range.

Lol. Never noticed your comment there.

[recursive one]

it's a quite expressive synth that truly excels at synthy leads and pads.

But for modern flat-lining EDM and Dubstep - no. It does not cut it.

Yes, that's the Virus in a nutshell

I've noticed that when I've got a Virus I started to mix and master my tracks quieter and give them more dynamics (and some people are saying that my Virus tracks sound worse than my plugin tracks ). I'm far from being a mixing guru, anyway, but this is such an expressive and detailed sound so it feels like a crime to kill it with overcompression (even despite my music belongs to EDM in a broad sense and is supposed to be loud).

Spire seems to be an intentionally thinned out and brightened representation of the Virus sound, and it works better in context of the modern mixing techniques (such as "layer 10 synths and compress the crap of it" )

[Uncle E]

Spire seems to be an intentionally thinned out and brightened representation of the Virus sound, and it works better in context of the modern mixing techniques (such as "layer 10 synths and compress the crap of it" )

That describes Sylenth, as well. Serum is a bit brighter than the Virus but not thinned out, it sounds to me like a modern, hifi version of a Virus, without the graininess that the Virus can sometimes have. I love the Virus sound (especially in the context of No U Turn/Ram era DnB) but I'm liking what Serum brings a little better these days.

[recursive one]

I guess, it depends on the music genre and individual preferences, but for me Serum is no way a replacement or an upgrade over the Virus. I love Virus for its warm, emotional sound, while Serum to me sounds cold and sterile. I'm nevertheless thinking to buy it to compliment my Virus with more edgy, metallic, intentionally ugly sounds (I'm making psytrance, where it's often desirable) , but for "sweet" sounds, like pads, leads or plucks I can't see how it could replace Virus or even Spire for me.