It depends how you setup the TI. You can use it as a std midi synth where all sound is generated by the TI and the DAW is used only to send midi. This uses standard midi cables. Or you can use the Access Control which connects to the pc via usb and is effectively a VST giving you all the control via the plugin. This is the main feature of the TI so you would be silly to use option 1 which you could do with a earlier version Virus C.

However the VST still requires memory and CPU and although I'm not sure how it compares to typical software only VST's, I'm sure it is pretty close in resource usage if not more than some. The one advantage however is that there are 16 channels available which means hyperthetically you can load up to 16 patches all in one VST. The reality is there is a voice limit (128 I think). Oscillators and effects take up voices so you could find that 4 really phat patches could use up all the voices meaning you're limited again. Also you cannot load more than 1 Access Control. You could offset this by recording one layer and converting to audio.

Using the Virus as a sound card is also possible with usb connection but I don't recommend it. You get better performance using a dedicated sound card in your pc, even inexpensive ones.

In summary Virus Control does take a bit of CPU and memory and it is not going to solve your cpu problems.

I would say however that the Virus is a great piece of kit and hours of fun and in my view worth the money. If CPU usage is your main concern however, you better off buying a new pc. It's probably less expensive.

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I think Reno is wrong.

I have a TI desktop and use the vst to control it. As far as I can tell, it uses none at all or very little cpu. It has its own dsp's or whatever they're called inside it so does all processing itself.

The virus would be an excellent choice and would indeed free up a lot of cpu for you

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If you are going to use the Virus instead of a bunch of softsynths then yes. If not spend that money on a new computer.

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Yeah perhaps I was wrong: http://faq.access-music.de/index.ph...n&highlight=cpu

I'm aware the sound is created by the Virus so there is no CPU overhead there but the software is still a windows API with various interfaces into the sound card, DAW and Virus and I have noticed performance issues before when loading many Virus patches with lots of automation but to be fair, I also had softsynths and Reason rewired. Rewire is a cpu nightmare.

Thing is it would be very difficult to only use a Virus for a track so I don't see how you can avoid other softsynths, particularly for drums.

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quote:

Originally posted by G-Con I think Reno is wrong. I have a TI desktop and use the vst to control it. As far as I can tell, it uses none at all or very little cpu.

Same here. Although, I agree with Reno that using a dedicated soundcard is preferable to using the Virus as one.

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quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik Same here. Although, I agree with Reno that using a dedicated soundcard is preferable to using the Virus as one.

Agreed. The Ti uses next to nothing in the way of CPU cycles however I would not recommend using it as your soundcard. I tried that once and it was horribly latent.

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Yeah I've been using mine as a soundcard recently and am not particularly happy with the results.

That said, the thing is a fucking beast and has provided me hundreds of hours of entertainment. I would recommend it in a heartbeat to anyone.

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Thanks, really good info. That thing looks fucking wicked, I have to just nut up and buy one. Guitar Center has 12 months no interest, these ******s are still giving money away!!

quote:

Originally posted by Bayou Boy I was thinking about getting a hard synth for sound and saving cpu. Saving cpu is my main question. I see that it works as an audio unit and the plugin lets you control all the synth parameters. So my question is..does this thing eat alot of cpu using it as an AU or is this something you can turn off. This maybe a noob question, but I have only used soft synths, so I really have no clue about any of this stuff. I'm running a power book 1.5 with 512 ram, osx 10.4.11

Upgrading your computer would be alot cheaper and more effective

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quote:

Originally posted by dainja Upgrading your computer would be alot cheaper and more effective

...but not nearly as fun.


But, yeah, looking at his specs, I think you have a good point - I think I'd opt to upgrade my computer first if it was my decision.

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It's pretty sad, I use to think my computer was a beast of a laptop. These newer computers with dual processors, could run NASA. I think you can buy a mac desktop with six chips in it, thats crazy!!!