I was thinking about getting another synth, either the virus of the alesis a6.

It either goes like alesis andromeda a6, virus powercore or virus c. I see the virus c going down in price a lot soon since the ti is coming out, so it would be a great time to buy.

The andromeda a6 is a great synth too and they are going for real cheap these days.

The alesis and the virus are two quite different sounding synths - obviously. As far as analog goodness, the alesis is phenomenal. It's all about what type of sound you're after. Dj Igloo has an A6, so maybe he will post some samples for you (me ). I'd love to buy that synth too, but I think the virus would be a better all rounder for me.

the a6 isnt cheap?!

it depends on what you want. the only way you can really tell is if you play on both. a6 is totally analogue and sounds it. ALOT of modulation options. virus - all modules are fixed but you can modulate pretty much anything. the virus sounds darker and doesnt quite have the warmth of the a6. ive also heard the a6 isnt as warm as some of the old analogue polys like the prophet 600s, prophet 5s, jupiters and the classic analogue monos like the pro one and minimoog. although if you ever heard a virus its warm and bassy as fuck. the a6 is generally considered the better sounding synth but the difference is not big. at all. the difference in price is though. but thats to be expected really since the a6 is totally analogue. and the virus is a digital synth emulating analogue type behaviour. the virus is probably one of the best VAs out there though and its crazily versatile. not to mention that on the virus you can run completely digital wavetables for the oscillators. the virus does pretty good digital FM type sounds. obviously you cant do that with a totally analog synth.

you already have a nord lead 3 right? why do you need 2 virtual analogues? virus/nord lead definitely have 2 differentsounds but if you are starting to collect synths you really need to think about keeping your options open and going for the widest sonic palette possible. i.e. you might want to think about getting synths that do something the ones you have got cannot possibly ever do anything like it.

for instance if you had an analog poly like a jupiter 6, i would say you were set for analog sounds. i would recommend looking at a digital synth like waldorf Q or a sample playback synth like yamaha's motif. because those synths can create sounds you can never make on an analogue synth. ever.

ideally id like to have these bases covered:

virtual analogue
real analogue

(these are for mainly synthetic sounds)

sample playback
physical modelling

(these are for replicating real acoustic type instruments)

digital

(because theres a little bit of the 80s in everyone. and cold clinical digital sounds have their place.)

i find theres little point in buying up all the VAs on the market - you just limit the sonic possibilities available to you. that said, theres a mind boggling amount of shit to learn on just 1 VA. just 1. so my advice would be to master the stuff you've got before you start thinking of going on to insane almost modular analog monsters like an a6. and if you really want the virus i would recommend selling off your lead 3. going for a virus kb + nord lead 2 rack (if you miss the nord sound - otherwise wave goodbye and spend it on something different) and using the rest of the money at your own discretion. obviously it helps to learn the stuff you got. ive had a virus b for about 6 months and im still finding it tough going. and im still not scratching the surface of the machine. and its frustrating. right now i dont want any more shit cuz it would just confuse me even more.

but yea. with the rest of that money i would probably put it towards a sample playback type synth for the future. hmmmm. v synth. or motif. or something along those lines that comes out in the next few years.

A) the virus doesnt sound remotely analog... Not that, that is a bad thing its got its own unique sound.

b) the a6 can be pretty fat. But again for some reason it has a very sterile almost mechanical sound..

Both unique intruments..

___________________
"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"

I have a yamaha ex5, which is the previous synth in the motif line. It does everything the motif does, so I have sample playback synth + it has flash ram so I can load any sample and make a sound from it.

The nord lead 3 is ill, don't get me wrong. It owns at basses and kicks ass at warth leads, fm sounds are excellent as well. This is cool and all, I was looking into getting a roland jupiter 8 or 6 for a long time, I almost bought one more than once trust me.

I would never get a waldorf q now because they used to go for $600 on ebay 3 years ago but now they are defunct and the waldorf q's sell for $1,300 which is ridiculous.

I bought a roland tb-303 and after a month it broke, it cost $300 to fix. That kinda pulls me away from buying a roland jupiter 6-8. I would have to go with the jupiter 6 and europa upgrade, I have seen that go for $1,000 on ebay before.

I really use all the gear I have, except I have this korg t1 88 wieghted keys synth that is used as a nice wieghted keyboard controller but I never use it for its nice keys... it just sits there pretty much for the inputing midi data. I mean It would be nice to just rip out the guts of my nord lead 3 and put into that synth and throw away the synth engine in the t1 and just have a wieghted master keyboard as I use my nord lead 3 as my controller in front of my desk.

Over to my left I have my ex5 and korg t1. I just really don't use either as much, but I really never use the t1. Some guy just sold the t1 for $800 on ebay... but honestly I should just use it as a nice wieghted keyboard. The thing is, when I am groving now I just program so fast right at the computer seat, drums via microtonic and emu xlead, play a melody on the nord lead or use a soft synth and just pump out a song. I work really fast and don't really like to move, I like to be in one place. I hate having to get up even to use the bathroom when I work lol.

Maybe I don't need a new synth and I am just having GAS=Gear Acquistion Syndrome lol. On the other hand, I like making not only trance, but psytrance too and the virus and andromeda own for psytrance. The nord lead can make some special effects sounds and my ex5 can too, but with the virus and andromeda you can weak them so much harder and longer then the nord lead 3 or ex5.

Honestly I would never sell my nord lead 3. I would get a virus table top to set next to the nord... but I guess I am ok for now. I might just get a powercore element and get a virus later or something for it.

Last edited by Flashback on Apr-12-2005 at 23:36

quote:

the virus doesnt sound remotely analog... Not that, that is a bad thing its got its own unique sound.

i disagree. its all in the modulation. the dual filter set up combined with recursive modulation of the filter envelope can roughly simulate almost any analogue type filter - that is modulating aspects of the filter envelope which modulate the filter. hell, if you are going for subtle you can even modulate the amount that a modulation source modulates its destination. you can change the slope of the envelope. you can set the slope to change over time so that it can simulate imperfections in analogue filters. you can even get a a 3 pole 18 dB filter out of the virus for making teebees (series 4 routing, both low pass, filter balance to +32 and modulate filter cutoff 1) although owing to the saw and square waveforms on the oscillator, virus 303s just dont sound right. but to be fair, no synth has ever been able to replicate the tb's square waveform. thats probably why tb prices are so high. the filter on the virus is the most programmable, most versatile filter on any synth. bar none. whilst it probably wont emulate a moog filter perfectly i assure you - you can get fucking close.

to further prove my point on the modulation possiblities of the virus you can modulate oscillator tuning, either via the lfo, recursively or randomly to simulate pitch drift in analogue oscillators. obviously if you spend bloody ages trying to replicate the sound and you know what you are doing you can get pretty damn close. and when you consider how many other analog synth sounds the virus can emulate whilst also having its own distinctive sound - not many synths have that claim to fame. the virus is also capable making an almost exact replica of a generic oberheim brass sound. once again - half of the work is in the mod matrix.

most of the people listen to the presets and think - that doesnt sound analogue. or they dont even know what the fuck the mod matrix does. there is so much movement that you put into the sound, to the tiniest subtlest of touches just through using the mod matrix. no other VA synth to my knowledge comes close to the kind of modulation capabilities you have on the virus. and thats before lfo modulation and before any additional effects you put on it.

the point is you need to know what you are doing and you need to be meticulous about it. check out howard scar's tutorial on programming single virus patches - its an illuminating read (About the size of a small book). even better if you have a virus to follow along with it.

edit: i only recommended selling the lead 3 because the virus kb keyboard is better than the nord keyboard (with the exception of the pitch stick which is the greatest thing for natural sounding vibrato. ever.) you get a good resell value on the lead 3 if its in very good condition. and you not only get the virus sound + a superior keyboard but you have enough money left over to buy a nord rack 2 (and the nord lead 2 is universally regarded as sounding better than the nord lead 3 and is one of the most used synths in psytrance by far). that said the lead 3 looks damn groovy with those lit up rotaries and the pitch stick is such a genius patent i wish everyone were allowed to have them on their synths.

Last edited by Derivative on Apr-13-2005 at 07:48