The Unofficial Access Virus & Virus TI Forum - since 2002

Andromeda sure has less bugs than the Virus TI but there's one thing you should know. I haven't yet tried to use the andro in multimode or tried to automate the cutoff with midi cc's for example. I have always recorded the cutoff tweaks manually because andro doesn't have a complete midi cc map and the knobs don't send midi cc. However there is a modulation matrix type of system where you can set up to 30 different midi cc's to work with any of the synth's parameters, like cutoff, so I guess you can control the cutoff and others with midi cc's if you want. I will have to test this today. I have been lazy and I haven't tried it yet. In fact I have to try the multimode now too. I have programmed so many new sounds with my andro that I want to use it multitimbrally.

The OS works very well and I haven't noticed anything strange. Some earlier OS's had some worse bugs but the current one is pretty solid. Never had problems or had to reboot the synth.

Also another warning... The synth is _very_ complex at first. It has 5-10 times the parameters of the Virus TI. You can search some of my earlier posts of what parameters can be tweaked. And because it's analog and has so many parameters, the sound programming is sometimes more difficult than with digital synths. You have to be very careful with the parameters. And the presets aren't very interesting if you're into trance but if you like sound programming alot, it's not a problem. The synth is a sound programmer's dream and when you start to understand how the synth works and what tricks you can use it will be the synth which you love the most.

So the andro has it's downsides too but it still is my best synth.

I noticed that I used some heavy equalization when I was making the demo but andro still has alot more high end in the sound. It DOESN'T aliase because every sine tone is pure sine because it's analog. And the filters are amazing, from another world compared to Virus again. Virus sounds very damped compared to andro.

In fact the most exciting moment in my life has been when I took the andro out of it's box and turned the power on. For the first minutes I just looked at it and didn't know what to say. I had a dream earlier that I had one already but woke up without one so I decided that I just have to get one and so I did (after selling some other synths).

How did I program the Sublime sound?.. Well I just listened to the song and tweaked the synth to sound the same. I cannot give detailed instructions right now but it's just a 1 oscillator sound with some modulations. A friend of mine said that the Ferry's own patch sounds more digital. And that may be true because I read that he might have used a nord lead or some other VA synth for the sound.

Andro and TI are totally different kind of synths. With Virus you get tons of great presets, better effects and polyphony but andro gives you more tweakable synth with a pure analog sound.

And remember that andromeda once was a very expensive synth, 3290 euros list price. I paid 2800 euros for mine. If I had lots of extra money, I would buy another and put it under my bed just to wait the day when my first andro breaks. :cry: