Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Jon

Anyone on here played on the Access Virus kb?. I like the looks of this synth with it's vintage appearance and have heard good things about the Virus products. But looks are not everything. YouTube really has no decent demo vids of the 'kb' and I'm already aware of Per Kristians site, but can anyone else shed some more light on the synth.

I am on the look-out for one.

Listen to Depeche Mode, especially in the pre-SOTU-era. All they used live were Virus products. All I hear is they are very versatile virtual analog synths

Jon

GeeJee wrote:Listen to Depeche Mode, especially in the pre-SOTU-era. All they used live were Virus products. All I hear is they are very versatile virtual analog synths

Such as 'Touring The Angel'?

emax 2

On turing the angle depeche mode used m-audio mIDI controllers connected to computers.DM is currently using acces virus synths connected to computers running variouse soft synths.The piano that Alan used on sombody on the current tour is a yamaha digital piano.The yamaha is used by coldply,david gray and the wallflowers

Equinoxe

IMO,Perhaps the best VA synth range ever built.

Virus can do all manner of sounds,the engines are pretty much similar sounding across the various Virus Models,with most patches being cross compatible over the Models,I think Access produced one of the better VA with the Virus Range and hence why they tend to refine the models rather than completely try to better what they did certainly there support for the TI and older models is second to none,even though the TI range is a good few years old now(when most other companies tend to drop machines after a Couple of years of production) Access still continue to offer OS upgrades and on a regular basis,TI model is almost in awe of V4 OS,and they are always fixing bugs and stuff with the refined upgrades after beta versions,One of the best and most supportive Synth companies i think they've given around 12 or 13 OS upgrades since I Bought my TI 3 Years ago(Hey korg??????????cough***Drop Oasys**cough--- Tossers!!!!)

I've got the TI model and its used almost on everything I do,it does have what people call "the Virus sound" which defines it from every other VA,certainly with the TI it has an aggressive sound,kind of what makes it stand out,but much of what most people utilise it for perhaps doesn't do it justice as its pretty much got a stigma of being a Trance Machine,but there are plenty of patches and enough oscillator choices onboard that it can cater for all tastes and genres

I don't really use it in the Software environment that the TI is as much at home with as it is in a hardware sense,but its easy to navigate and create your own sounds from scratch,infact I've never bothered with the software side of things as I haven't ever needed to (and because I avoid anything associatted with VSTs)

I have nothing but praise for the Virus machines,as GJ said they are very versatile and flexible machines DM use them Live(how much there is on the songs who knows),there is a Patch set availible for the TI line on the Access Site that they used for TTA with some bass patches and Leads for some songs,they've used TIs on the latest tour Fletch and Gordeno playing them

even 3 years on now its still as refreshing and unique as the day I bought it,given the amount of synths I've used and owned over the years the Virus is among the best of the best,(certainly gives the Voyager a run for its money in Bass patch Territory)

The prices of the older models such as the Older Virus kb still hold there values some years later and this tells you as much as you need to know about the Virus Legacy

Jon

Andy, thank you for the insight. I recall you having the Ti and was hoping that you would chime in and give your views on the Virus.

As you say, the kb is holding it's price, which suggests that the machine has punch and charactor. Although I would like a Ti, I cannot afford one. My budget is only aimed at the earlier Virus products and of the lot, the kb stands out better for me.

Equinoxe

Your still getting a good bang for your money with the older Kb version,as I say the engines are very much similar,obviously as the newer models came out they refine the System and add various other options over older synths,but You'll still be getting that Virus sound.pretty much most of the Older Virus models presets are compatible on the TI.

Easy to program synths (certainly the TI)has loads of options for Routings and modulation for adding movements and variations to sound,they can sound as hard or soft as you like,and there are more than enough Patches to keep you happy,and the panels are easy to follow and create your own sounds anyway.

I Personally don't think you can go wrong with any Virus Model,Doesn't matter if you create Dance,Trance or swing your pants,they cover all timbres,of all the VA the virus older models came out on the back end of the VA popularity when all the Nords and JPs had stolen the crown so were kind of forgotten about or past by without so much as a Whisper and I'd say this has a lot to do with the higher prices of the second hand market(and because of the over the top price of the Polar and TI2 61 models) now people are discovering the power and sound of the Older versions.

Not sure of the average price of the Older models,but many owners tend to keep them which kind of inflates the going rates on Ebay and the like when they do come up,i'd say you still pay in the region of between £350-500 For a Kb model,Rack models tend to also fall in this region,Second hand TI Kb tend to still be fetching in excess of £1100

matt222

Yes, this does look like a good synth and Perkristian's patches are very encouraging to say the least.

I am pretty tempted myself. I know that advances in later models inevitably give some user interface possibilities but does the actual raw sound improve ?

Is that little white one with blue leds any better in terms of just it's sound? If not, might as well get the original had you not?

I have never seen one of these for real so have no idea but am equally interested.

Matt, I guess you mean the TI Snow?

It's the same as the TI, but with half the polyphony and multitimbrality

matt222

Ahh, and the TI is the fullsize blacky then?

Yeah.

Still the TI Snow is attractive, as the regular TI has huge polyphony which you may not need.. so if you want to save some money and still want the TI... go

Equinoxe

GeeJee wrote:Yeah.

Still the TI Snow is attractive, as the regular TI has huge polyphony which you may not need.. so if you want to save some money and still want the TI... go

The Polyphony count in the TI is dependant on what settings you use in a patch,in most Synth cases,if you use a Double osc program you would be using 2 voices of polyphony per note pressed.

However in the TI the Polyphony count is varied upon by what oscillator type and EFX and other settings inside the patch makeup,so although you may use a double oscillator program you would think you would be able to play 40 notes at once,this is not the case,as the polyphony is shared by the Processor so the FX used and other patch makeup reduces the Polyphony which is a bit of a con really...you may only be playing one note on the TI but might be using 4-5 note of polyphony based on the way the Patch is made up in terms of osc choice and FX

I've had allsorts of Note drop outs and cutoffs when layering patches in Multimode and these were simply modest layers of around 4-6 patches,which isn't a great deal with the Workstations I've got and most of them handle this easily without any issues

The TI Polyphony count is varied by the type of patch your using not simply a playing note count,its the only annoyance I have with the TI it would benefit from being at least 160 note poly

Equinoxe wrote:
GeeJee wrote:Yeah.

Still the TI Snow is attractive, as the regular TI has huge polyphony which you may not need.. so if you want to save some money and still want the TI... go
The Polyphony count in the TI is dependant on what settings you use in a patch,in most Synth cases,if you use a Double osc program you would be using 2 voices of polyphony per note pressed.

However in the TI the Polyphony count is varied upon by what oscillator type and EFX and other settings inside the patch makeup,so although you may use a double oscillator program you would think you would be able to play 40 notes at once,this is not the case,as the polyphony is shared by the Processor so the FX used and other patch makeup reduces the Polyphony which is a bit of a con really...you may only be playing one note on the TI but might be using 4-5 note of polyphony based on the way the Patch is made up in terms of osc choice and FX

I've had allsorts of Note drop outs and cutoffs when layering patches in Multimode and these were simply modest layers of around 4-6 patches,which isn't a great deal with the Workstations I've got and most of them handle this easily without any issues

The TI Polyphony count is varied by the type of patch your using not simply a playing note count,its the only annoyance I have with the TI it would benefit from being at least 160 note poly

True, but I was only comparing the TI and the TI Snow which apparantly has less processing power.

Jon

In no particular order, is this the complete "Virus" group of synths?

Ti

Indigo

Polar

kb

kc

Ti 2

Snow (DT)

Ti (DT)

C (DT)

B (DT)

A (DT)

Yuo.