The 37-note Virus keyboards:

Indigo 1 (2001) used Virus B engine.
Indigo 2 (2002) used Virus C engine.
Redback (2003. limited edition.) identical to Indigo 2, just different colours (black and red LEDs, instead of silver and blue LEDs).
Polar TI (2004-present) uses Virus TI engine.
Polar TI2 (2009-present) uses Virus TI engine, but with 25% more polyphony.

As such, the Indigo 1 is the least powerful and has the fewest features. Polar TI2 is the current model and is much higher specified.

Differences between ALL Virus models in their entirety, starting from the Virus A:

• Virus A has 12 voice polyphony, 2 main oscillators + 1 sub, 2 LFOs, one FM mode, Chorus, RingModulation, Distortion effects, but no Phaser effect, 3 sources and 6 destinations for modulation matrix, 16-part multitimbral (including aux-bus & audio output channels), and 20-Bit D/A.
• Virus B/Indigo/kB =, same as Virus A but with 24 voice polyphony, up to 3 main oscillators + 1 sub, 3 LFOs, 5 FM modes, additional Phaser effect, surround sound capability, PureTuning (microtuning), and 24-Bit D/A.
• Virus C/Indigo II/kC = same as Virus B but with 32 voice polyphony, MiniMoog Analog filter (selectable from 1-to-6 poles), 6 sources and 9 destinations for modulation matrix, 3-band EQ with parametric mid per part.
• Virus TI/Polar/TI-KB, same as Virus C but with up to 80 voices polyphony, Total Integration, additional HyperSaw, Wavetable, Graintable, and Formant oscillators, independent reverb and delay, programmable arp', 6 sources each with 3 destinations for the modulation matrix (18 destinations total), refined Oscillator Sync', tap tempo, knob-quantise, PureSemitones, USB (16Bit/44.1KHz) and S/PDIF I/O, 6 balanced (+4dB) 1/4" TRS outputs, 24-bit analogue inputs and outputs, 512 RAM & 2048 ROM patch storage, Atomizer [pending OS v2.7], 4x stereo outs via USB [pending OS v2.7].
• Virus TI Snow = A cut-down Virus TI. Identical sound engine but only up to 50 voice poly, 4-part multitimbral, 512/512 RAM/ROM storage, and only 2 analog audio inputs and outputs.

Well now if you could throw some prices at me of these keyboards id be happy. Its either going to be the Virus Indigo 2 or the Polar Ti. Which one of these will be better, i mean whats the difference between the two, and now knowing i can put those patches from ebay on it without a sampler im into getting either one. I don't think id get the polar ti because its too new and probably going to cost quite a bit.

You want me to wipe your arse too? ;P

Both (Indigo 2, TI|1 Polar) hardware models are discontinued so you'd have to source them second hand, Ebay, etc., although some music stores may still sell the Polar TI|1 as it's still almost the flagship model (aside from the recent TI|2 "refresh").

The Polar TI|2 is the refreshed and current model.

On the second hand market, Indigo2 would likely be substantially cheaper than the near-current TI|1 Polar, as the biggest evolutionary change in Virus history occurred between the Virus C and Virus TI engines (Indigo 2 and TI|1 Polar respectively).

See previous reply (26th August). It outlines what was added with each evolutional increment (A > B > C > TI). The Indigo 2 uses the Virus C engine, so you are comparing the Virus C to Virus TI engines.

Check out the links to the Sound-On-Sound reviews I gave here: http://www.infekted.org/virus/showth...404#post297404

Read about all the models. Print them out. You'll soon get a grip on it all. :)

If you require the Hypersaw, Wavetables, Graintables, Total Integration, extra polyphony, then the only option would be Polar TI|1. If you want the core Virus sound without these features, the Indigo2 would be great.

Another possibility would be to do what I did.. buy a new Virus Snow and a midi keyboard controller. I got a deal at Novamusik for $1300.00 for the Virus Snow and the Novation controller. It was a cheaper alternative to buying the TI keyboard. Just a suggestion. Good luck!

Jeff

Sorry I don't think I ever got back to you. The piano roll in FLStudio is very powerful at letting you pencil in notes and such, but make no mistake you can absolutely play using your keyboard and you probably should (thats what I do). That was what my suggestion for a decent MIDI controller was about. I am one of those that likes to play my chords as well. You are going to want quantization (note timing correction) in trance one way or the other, which any sequencer offers, but if you want things to sound live with all the imperfections that go with that, you simply don't quantize. Once you connect any USB midi controller to your DAW (I'm using FLStudio as an example because its so accessible/relatively easy to get started with), its not that much different than a hardware synth, its just that the oscillators, filter algorithms etc are taking place on your PC instead of a dedicated DSP (and your PC is much more powerful than the processor in any hardware synth). With the exception of true analog synths (the Virus is not true analog), the differences between hardware synths and soft synths are surprisingly small. The big difference in the past was that even a weaker, dedicated chip in a hardware synth would generally process algorithms and filters and such faster than a PC which was running a general purpose OS. What has changed recently is that PC chips have gotten so powerful and acquired more cores that allow them to handle the general purpose tasks and still have plenty of punch left over to simulate dedicated hardware level performance.

In terms of a sampler, if you're using software like FLStudio, Live, Cubase etc you don't need a sampler at all. In fact you would probably cringe at the thought of a hardware sampler after you see what can be done with software. Samples are just soundbytes at the end of it all.

As far as a desktop, a keyboard, workstation, laptop etc.

Desktop = on this board often means the Virus Ti2 Desktop, which is a synth without a keyboard... normally it means regular PC (tower or mini-tower, non-portable PC)

Keyboard = usually means your synth/music keyboard or midi controller on forums like these, but some folks mean the PC keyboard you type with.. lol

Workstation = in music circles this can mean an "all in one" synth like Korg Triton, Yamaha Motif, which often have built in screen and are not only a synth engine but a built in sampler, sequencer, mixer etc. When I said Digital Audio Workstation I was referring to the DAW acronym that is usually used to describe a software based host like FLStudio, which is an application that runs on a computer and you connect a (music) keyboard controller to it.

Ohh, the Virus C KB still remains the sexiest. It was that very model i fell in love with.

In my set up I've got a few hardware synths and a ti as my controller keyboard & main synth too. The after touch is really quite good. I'd have to say my novation ks rack has the best collection of jst pure trance sounds init. The virus has hundreds of patches, with a lot of them been random and altenative, it was amied at a wider range of producers.