It's not so complicated to compare a couple of sound sources.

There are three minimal signal paths for listening to the Virus, not including the headphone jack:

1. Virus USB -> D/A
2. Virus SP/DIF -> D/A
3. Virus Analog [ -> A/D -> D/A ]

All three of these can be recorded as digital audio (after an optional A/D step in the last case). You can then play them back through a single D/A. You can use a MIDI sequencer to be sure you are getting the same thing all three times. Since you don't care much about the timing in this case, you could probably record all three in one pass if you wanted to. In any case, it's not any harder than recording multiple tracks or takes in a song.

None of the major DAWs changes the bits of a track that is simply recorded as audio and played back at unity gain (and at the original tempo, in the case of Live). Live is the only DAW that silently applies time-stretching to audio (!) so it's the only one where it's really necessary to be so precise about when the warping algorithm is being applied.

In any event, the real question is not better or worse, but rather: are there more bits of precision feeding the internal D/A converters than there are coming over the USB and/or SP/DIF connection? This simple question would be easy for Access to answer, but as far as I know they have chosen to remain silent on the point. Consequently, the only way to get at the answer is to probe with an experiment like the one we're discussing here.

Marc's proposal is nice because it uses a single D/A (in the Virus) for everything. On the other hand, it depends on the return audio path over the Virus's USB link. If that link truncates the audio to 16 bits, then it will give a misleading result -- it removes any extra bits of precision (beyond 16) that the SP/DIF or analog outputs of the Virus may have.

-Luddy

Hi guys,

SUper nOOb question here :P

I had Ti for a year, i know how to make sound n design from it. But believe it or not i havent even tried single mode? Can we write midi patern like we use in SEQ mode? and why is it better.. and maybe what is the best routing with Logic pro 8?

I am running on OSX10.5.7, and this 3.0.3 is really a mess in my Logic... I usually can run maximum 8 channel in Seq mode together.. but this time when i ran 2 channels, one of the channel will goes out of tune..

May someone guide me here? *i dont have a sound engineering background*

Thank you.

Din

Nop...But you can use Multimode for that


Wow lucky you...

Unplug Virus from every cable and then plug back with a Hard Reset(Hold edit button next to arp for 10 secs) and try again

Wow.. thanks mate for solving it ;)

Appreciate it!

I also use my Snow as my soundcard and I also have to admit its soundquality drops down significantly when using Viruscontrol within Cubase.

It's THAT obvious, uncomparable.
Actually my Snow doesn't even sound much better than all my other virtual synths.
Only when playing in singlemode it sounds a whole lot better than anything else I have.

Which is quite annoying as how my Snow sounds in my sequencer, I don't find it inspiring at all.
Do I now have to make patches in single mode and scroll thru every function by pressing buttons and going into submenus?
As that's the only instance where my Snow sounds 'alive' and somehow only then inspiration comes.

Sometimes I wonder if that little Viruscontrol isn't just a vst on itself and the Snow is just there as being the dongle.

using external MIDI connectors
 

how does the TI sound when using it with MIDI in the traditional way (with the external MIDI connectors) and bypassing Virus Control altogether. Is this effectively the same as using it in Single mode.

Then why not using VC and send every track to it's analog out (OUT1+2)???
Or like i do if you want to process eatch patch individualy with external FX using 4 mono outs + 1 Stereo (or whatever comb).Of course you must have available ins on your soundcard to be able to do that...


Cheers!

whats the difference between the Analog out and SPDIF on the Virus TI. i thought SPDIF was superior to analog.. why would the analog carry more bits? also how would i hook up the TI in analog to my sound card?

S/PDIF is digital. It's locked to either 44.1KHz or 48KHz 16-bit, I'm unsure.

Analogue is.. analogue. It has no limits, except for physical factors.

It depends on the D-A (Digital to Analogue) converter. If the D-A converter is good, you stand to get a more dynamic signal on the output. I believe the TI uses a 192KHz 24-bit D-A. It wont be digital when it leaves the jack output anymore, but it will be high fidelity balanced analogue.

But.. it also relies on your external A-D converter (your soundcard) and the connections (cables) you use as to how much fidelity you actually retain and/or capture at the other end.

It also means the signal goes through two stages of converters... the D-A converter (from the Virus) followed by the A-D converter (on your soundcard), each affects the signal in their own way, and also the connectors and cables affect how much additional noise is physically created/picked up and/or how much interference is rejected. Luckily, the TI uses balanced (TRS) connections which is more professional and should reject a large deal of any acquired noise/interference if you use balanced cables. So if you want high-grade sound, all you'd need is decent A-D converters on your soundcard and relatively decent cables to connect them both up.

Connect the analogue outputs of the Virus to the analogue inputs of your soundcard using either unbalanced cables with TS jacks, or balanced cables with TRS jacks. (A TRS jack is the same as a stereo jack, looks wise, but in this case you'd be using a TRS jack for each channel (mono). If your soundcard supports balanced connections, and you want to use balanced cables and TRS jacks for better fidelity, select 'balanced' or +4dBV from your soundcard control panel or via physical switches.)

Or, if you have soundcard inputs that use balanced XLR connectors, you'd need a balanced TRS-to-XLR cable & jack config.

i was planning on using the virus via USB, but if analog is much better quality then analog it is. i just havent used analog before.. its the blue port on the sound card correct?

id use this cable to connect from the virus ti to the sound card, assuming im right about the blue port?: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1093469826662