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The difference with the Access Virus

hey all im in the market to buy a synth. i had my heart set on the access virus. i found a second hand one for sale at a good price but its the access virus C not the ti. i was just wondering whats the difference.

as far as I know, only the "integration" part. usb connection, audio interface.

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Originally posted by Pjotr G as far as I know, only the "integration" part. usb connection, audio interface.

no, there are a lot of new features. especially a lot of different synthesis methods: graintable OSC, formant OSC, hypersaw, wavetable. then there is also a much higher polyphony, ...

ah ok tnx. So a virus C won't do for me either

The effects are now multi timbral as well, not only global - as it was on the C. Major advantage.

Personally, I would get virus C. As a matter of fact, I'm on a lookout for one to compliment my TI. Mainly because of the way TI is just....STOOOPID. Here are my gripes about TI:

- Through like like half dozen previoius versions of OS, the synth still has most of the same problems as before.

- Stuck notes (especially prevalent in multi mode)

- Clicks, pops, digital noise (unwanted)

- No ability to export or save Multis

- Generally unstable synth, quite a few revs of OS still cannot make it stable!!!!

- polyphony numbers are BS, it's all virtualized. with 4 patches in multi, my synth craps out of polyphony, even with all FX turned off. puhleez

Dunno, I think virus C is not tooo much different from TI and aside from few new features (e.g. pseudo-formant capabilty, graintable, yada yada) I think Virus C is a terrific synth and great buy, esp now!

I'm seriously thinking of dumping my Ti and getting two C's instead.

Yes, if it's at all possible to get a direct comparison, do it. I have a KC and it's just such a solid synth, solid sound, I've never had a single problem with it. If I see a good priced TI I'll pick it up in addition to my current KC, because it does sound interesting, transferring sound via USB, having it on screen like a softsynth etc. Listening to the sound demos, the TI still has that classic Virus sound, it doesn't sound "different enough" for me to consider swapping my KC for one. I'll probably just wait until they bring out their next one. They'll probably have learned a lot of lessons from their first "total integration" effort, plus the sound will have evolved enough to make it worth picking up for me. For me personally polyphony has never been an issue, since I'm running different synths for pads, basses, leads and so on. I don't have one synth playing more than one part at the same time.

It really depends on whether you want the option to bring in the sound via USB as well as all the other new features the TI has. The C will be a lot more affordable and the sounds in that are fantastic as well. A new version of something doesn't make the sound quality of the previous version worse. My JP8080 doesn't have anywhere near as evolved a sound as some of my other synths, but I use it plenty because it's such a classic sound. My TB303 doesn't really have amazingly versatile sound capabilities, but it's great at what it does!

quote:

Originally posted by aNYthing Personally, I would get virus C. As a matter of fact, I'm on a lookout for one to compliment my TI. Mainly because of the way TI is just....STOOOPID. Here are my gripes about TI: - Through like like half dozen previoius versions of OS, the synth still has most of the same problems as before. - Stuck notes (especially prevalent in multi mode)

Seems I'm faring better then you in this regard.

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Originally posted by aNYthing - Clicks, pops, digital noise (unwanted)

x2

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Originally posted by aNYthing - No ability to export or save Multis

In fairness to Access; this is an issue with what the VSTi protocol can do via sysex in relation to the high and low pages memory pages (ie where multi's are stored)

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Originally posted by aNYthing - Generally unstable synth, quite a few revs of OS still cannot make it stable!!!!

I find mine stable enough. as in it dosn't crash.

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Originally posted by aNYthing - polyphony numbers are BS, it's all virtualized. with 4 patches in multi, my synth craps out of polyphony, even with all FX turned off. puhleez

x infinity.

On the Access website / marketing their boasting "about 80 voices under average conditions" which is absolute shite. Fuck knows how they managed to come up with that figure. I use the Virus live; and imagine my joy of having the occasional note et al drop thanks to it's polyphonic capabilities.

Doesn't anybody else realise how utterly crap the polyphony is on it?

Don't buy a Virus for the "wow awesome" polyphony count. Because you won't get it. My SNII pisses all over it.

quote:

Originally posted by aNYthing Dunno, I think virus C is not tooo much different from TI and aside from few new features (e.g. pseudo-formant capabilty, graintable, yada yada) I think Virus C is a terrific synth and great buy, esp now!

^^ If you don't need the additional functionality of a TI; I would also seriously look at getting a C instead.

quote:

Originally posted by aNYthing I'm seriously thinking of dumping my Ti and getting two C's instead.

Or get a Virus C + another board?

--> All in all; pretty much agree with half of what you said; in my mind the TI is one amazingly overrated synth. I'm not in a rush to sell mine; too much reliant on it; but not head over heels in love with it either.

so what synth do you guys think i should get.

what synth are you head over heels with?

Viruses are absolute trance beasts. In my personal opinion, if you're only going to get one synth for making trance, get a Virus.

If you're looking at getting more than one, then it's a case of what sort of sonic characteristics you're looking to meld together. The Virus sound is very phat, but other synths have more definition/ clarity to them. The Micro Q and Nord Lead 3 have a lot more definition, in slightly different ways. The Micro Q has an incredibly ..."bitey" kind of edge to it. Sometimes I'll have the Virus playing an arpeggio, then just double the phat virus sound with a little bit of the Micro Q up the middle, it's a beautiful combination.

The Nord Lead 3 is great for lead sounds (as the name implies) because of it's clarity, I also find it great for really clear trance basses. For some tracks, the warmer virus sound is perfect, for others the clearer Nord Lead 3 sound.

The JP8080 just has a classic trance character to it. I use it for leads and arpeggios, you drop the JP8080 in your track and it just sounds a whole chunk trancier (since it's the main synth used in many many classic trance songs)

The Supernova II is also a great synth. The bass is just divine. It's just so basic and direct and perfect. I haven't been able to find a space for the lead sounds, or pads, or any other SNII sounds really. That could be just my production style though. For me, absolutely worth it just for the basses I can get out of it.

The TB303 is the TB303. It does what it does, no more, no less. Run it through a distortion pedal, turn up the filter resonance and go nuts with the cutoff! These are very pricey for the limited range of applications you can use them for. But if you want that sound, pick one up and you have that sound.

That's pretty much it in terms of trance synths...I use a few of my other synths in some of my tracks, but I wouldn't recommend them as main trance units...ones like the Proteus 2000, Microwave XT, Korg Triton...

The more sonic options you have, and the more you get to know them, the faster you'll be able to locate the perfect sound.

To sum up - Virus first. Then, for me, it'd be a toss up between the Micro Q, JP8080 and Nord Lead 3. They're all useful in their own way. After that I'd put the Supernova II, for the bass. Of course, there are many many synths I don't have! I'm quite keen to pick up an Andromeda at some point. That synth intrigues me.

I heartily recommend the vengeance soundsets for these synths as well, that'll add a bit to the price but they're well worth it.

what do you reckon for making progressive style sounds. someone told me the moog would be great. what do you reckon

actually progressive (and every other style) can be done on every synth. it's not about the gear. you just need to know how to program them..

well tell me ppl. do i actually need a hardware synth. ive heard ppl say that they are the best investment. or are they overated

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Originally posted by catalystG5 well tell me ppl. do i actually need a hardware synth. ive heard ppl say that they are the best investment. or are they overated

if you expect that hardware will improve your sound a lot then you're wrong. hardware is really nice and the feeling with turning knobs is very nice. BUT if you don't get the sound you're after with VSTs you won't get it from hardware either.
so go the hardware way if you prefer the different workflow and not for the sounds.

Well, yes obviously that's an important question for you - whether you need a hardware synth or not. We can't answer that for you. Do you need one to produce awesome sounding music? Absolutely not.

They're nice in terms of saving CPU, you'll have all these sounds happening and the CPU usage won't budge, so they're good for that.

It really depends whether you like the sound of one of them particularly, or not. Every synth, hardware and software, has it's own sound character. You can't get one of them to sound exactly like another one. It totally depends - if you love the sonic character of the Nord Lead 3, grab yourself a Nord Lead 3. If you love the sonic character of Vanguard, get Vanguard.

You absolutely don't NEED a hardware synth to make great music. But there are great companies out there making them who have been in the business of creating quality sound sources for years, so some of them can create quality sounds.

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Originally posted by catalystG5 well tell me ppl. do i actually need a hardware synth. ive heard ppl say that they are the best investment. or are they overated

yes u need 1 ...... srsly!!!!!

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You absolutely don't NEED a hardware synth to make great music.

But you DO need one to make great sounds... lol! amirite guyz?

A lot of them make it really easy to get great sounds. (I don't have ...16? synths because I'm anti-hardware!)

I don't like the word NEED. But I'd be very surprised if anyone who loves trance wouldn't absolutely love the sound and feel of a virus.

A major difference for me (apart from the ease of quickly getting brilliant sounds which fit perfectly) is the way it feels. I can't really explain it, producing feels completely different these days. I've changed a lot of other things too (I moved over to Cubase). Maybe it is just the access to great sounds, these days when I do a remix, the whole thing's wrapped up in two days. I get the synths going, record the main loop, do some engineering to get the sound pretty much where it'll be at when it's finished, then lay out the overall structure, work out the synth automation etc, then re-record the whole track. Maybe it's just the recording process? I have a bit of fun with effects separate from that, but I commit to sounds pretty quick these days and "lock them down" rather than fiddling with a sound for hours. As I said, these days if I spend more than 2 days on the production/ engineering side of things, I feel like I'm losing my objectivity/ clear vision.

Composition's different though. With remixes you already know roughly where you'll go (though some of them get changed quite a bit).

I do try to keep composition separate from production where I can. Easier said than done. But I find great songs still sound great as blippy MIDI files, even when you take all the production and great sound away.

quote:

Originally posted by catalystG5 what synth are you head over heels with?

Novation SuperNova II & Waldorf Q = m�nage a trois

quote:

Originally posted by thecYrus if you expect that hardware will improve your sound a lot then you're wrong. hardware is really nice and the feeling with turning knobs is very nice. BUT if you don't get the sound you're after with VSTs you won't get it from hardware either. so go the hardware way if you prefer the different workflow and not for the sounds.

then tell me... why do all the major producers have hardware. i was always under the impression that hardware is more for the pros. and tell me do you actually have/had any hardware. are you telling me this from your experience.

i guess this thread is aimed more to the ppl that have hardware and can tell me the difference

quote:

Originally posted by catalystG5 then tell me... why do all the major producers have hardware. i was always under the impression that hardware is more for the pros. and tell me do you actually have/had any hardware. are you telling me this from your experience. i guess this thread is aimed more to the ppl that have hardware and can tell me the difference

Who says they all use hardware? Pendulum use Zeta+ on a tonne of tracks. Robert Nickson wrote Spiral in Reason.

As for the reason why you seem to feel loads of producers have hardware because its inherantly 'better' I can't answer that. If you started producing music before software synthesizers became popular then that kind of workflow (where you build signal chains with cables and modules) is just more intuitive. Personally, I started producing after the software synthesizer became popular and to me doing everything in software is just more intuitive. I read an interview with Babou a while back and he still uses an ASR-10. He uses it because hes familiar with it and knows how to get from A to B. Other guys? They use different gear they are familiar with. And now people use stuff like Kontakt.

Some people like the sound of certain hardware synths which don't have a software counterpart and thats why the use them. But the opposite could also be said to be true. There is no hardware equivilant to Absynth for instance. Not that I have found anyway.

At the end of the day all of these things - soft synths, digital hardware synths, analogue synths - they are just tone generators with some standardized sound shaping tools. If you dont know the basics of this system of sound design then you aint going anywhere. And if you have to excuse the fact that you can't get something done because you don't have the right gear, then you are definitely in the hole.

I've got a Virus B and yeah, its a nice peice of kit. The people who built it obviously cared about what they were making and its a joy to program. Alot of thought went into its design. But its not some magic ticket that once acquired turns you into a 'pro'. If you think that then you need to snap out of it and stop wasting your own time.

Of course, I had to find out the hard way and actually buy this hardware synth, only to find its just like any other sound shaping tool. Ive designed plenty of horribly cheap sounding crap using this synth. MAybe there just needs to be a disclaimer at the top of the forum: a suggestion to buy a hardware synth that doesnt depreciate much in value. Spend 6 months with it and get the 'omg hardware!' shit out of your system. Then sell it on if you don't like it and get down to making some music instead of making excuses for why you cant.

Catalyst, grab the Virus C. If it's a good price, grab it and try it out. I find it hard to imagine that any trance producer wouldn't be able to get extremely usable sounds out of it. You'll still need to learn how to produce and engineer, how to fit the sounds into your tracks, the virus won't do the work for you. But it has a great sound coming out of it. If you don't like it, sell it in a few months and you probably won't lose any money on the deal. That way you'll know about hardware from first-hand experience.

well see here is the thing, basically ive mastered drums, automation, basslines, well thats what ive been told from a verry popular producer, but he says that i need to work on my lead and hook sounds thats why im interested in the virus

You should go and audition one then. I wouldn't listen to anyone's advice with regards to whether to buy it or not. Including mine.

I use my Virus B mainly for soft sounds and pads. I don't think its a particularly good lead instrument because the oscillators are really weak and the filter is...weird.

so what in your opinion is a good soft or hardware for a lead sound.
by the way have you had any success with any of your productions?

quote:

Originally posted by catalystG5 then tell me... why do all the major producers have hardware. i was always under the impression that hardware is more for the pros. and tell me do you actually have/had any hardware. are you telling me this from your experience. i guess this thread is aimed more to the ppl that have hardware and can tell me the difference

i have a Virus TI, Virus B, Waldorf Microwave 2 and Roland JP-8080. i don't think you can't replace them with softsynths. especially the jp-8080 sounds weak in comparison to modern softsynths..

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