This has been done to death...

The TI is only usb2 compatible, which means it will work in usb2 or usb1 slots....wow, cool huh? :) It does not run at usb2 speed, though...it is only 12mb.

In fact its not all about the speed, its the medium, interface and actual protocol. Usb2 may well be faster than firewire 1394a (400), but the protocol itself is piss poor. Remember, usb was designed for anal things like mouse's, keyboards, joysticks etc....firewire was designed for highend streaming video, backup hard drives, dv camcorders. Again I stress its not purely about speeds, its about protocol, communication, quality and reliablility...all of which firewire is > than usb buy a LARGE amount.

I wouldnt be at all suprised if the usb implementation is whats causing the delay, being the root of the problems they are having because its actually a bollocks protocol to use for anything audio, especially low latency devices like the TI NEEDS to be. Usb soundcards are reknown for being utter shit, have large latencies, being generally unreliable and basically cheap alternatives......which at the end of the day is what it all boils down to, money. Firewire would of been a costly (a lot? I very much doubt it and the large number of virus purchasers WOULD of paid more for it) to implement and it would of seriously culled the market of the synth.....everyone has usb ports right? especially the shitty ones that run at 12mbs? Huge market there, much more appealing to a company selling a product like this :)

Only time will tell if that was the right decision or not.... personally with 2 stereo chan outputs (over usb) on a 16 sound multimbral synth in this day and age which the technology we have I seriously doubt it........especially if they cant even get that working :roll:

ten

Interesting response Ten. However, Im a little unsure as to just how much potential Virus users would be prepared to pay for it. Surely people who really want the Virus within a host sequencer would be better off with the PowerCore thingy. Isnt that cheaper? Better? Or does life depend on the hypersaw?

I dont know....im skeptical about modern technology. Lets go back to using polyphonic synths using mono outputs and rudimentary midi. It got the job done then...it was good enough :lol:

DS

Of course there are people who couldnt care less about the TI side of things, I am one of them. I personally could live without it and just have hardware implementation as were the older virus's. Of course the TI part would be very cool but its still more of a luxery than anything else. And if you're going to do something at all, do it right from the start instead of a half assed bodge job which this is turning out to be......

.....even in this very basic implementation of TI (usb1 speed, 2 stereo outputs) they are STILL having trouble getting it work, and has set them back nearly a year. As many have already said they could of released it as a full functional hardware version and worked on the TI crap behind the scenes until they finally cracked it, but oooooh no :) Live and learn eh.

As for the virus powercore, its simply laughable and you cant really compare the two. If they did the decent thing and upgraded it to C spec with 32 poly, all the mod routines, new filters, eq, etc and so forth it would actually be a very nifty little synth and worth something......oh and the simple fact its been out for over a year now, is at revision 1.1 and they still cant get even the basic features/functions working shows just how much trouble Access actually are having getting things to work in vst land.

ten

ten - what basic features still aren't working in version 1.1?

Well, perhaps if they havn`t rushed that poor announcment last November and dug themselvs that huge hole they are currently in. they can`t simply retract the TI part now, can they? what a mistake that was...



Best,
midi.

Ben,

Check the powercore forum for all the problems. Some very annoyed people there who have had problems since Day1 with it.

I personally am still having a patch changing problem, the arp still looses sync every now and then (although it is better), and I think there may also be a new bug introduced even with arp note on, although I have to look into it more.

ten

I have no problems with virus powercore unlimited license here. It's working very well in logic now and I have no plans to buy a TI. I get 4 stereo outs directly to the logic's mixer with every single virus instance. TI will have only 2 stereo outputs for 16 channels? With virus powercore, I get a _stereo_ output for every single channel. My default project has 2 viruses pre-loaded with 8 channels and 8 stereo outs. If I need more virus sounds, I just load another.

The virus plugin may still have some problems but I don't see them and maybe not even use all the features so I could see them. I haven't tested the automation yet, so I cannot say about it and I never use the arpeggiator. I will report if the automation doesn't work but cannot say yet. Last time I controlled the cutoff with midi cc and it worked well.

I had a KC, so I know what the C sounds like. They sound the same if you don't use the C's eq. I did some comparison and same sound patches sounded identical after I applied a correct eq for the powercore plugin. I even made some sound clips where suddenly the KC switched to virus poco etc. and nobody could hear that the synth was switched on the fly even I showed them that it really did. I have no use for the "moog"-filter at all. The original virus filter sounds what I like. The eq's are the only thing I miss about my KC but I can replace it with sony oxford eq or logic channel eq and tweak even more if I need.

Maybe I will purchase a TI2 in the future.

It would be nice to think that the Virus TI delay was due in part that they were refitting Fireware instead of USB1 and that the OS had been re-written accordingly. But that wont happen....its just a shame

I wish Access could try and keep us informed on developments over in Germany. At this rate one could justifiably conclude that no progress has been made since December 2004. Im not sure what kinda reaction Access is expecting when they do finally release the TI....are they hoping everyone one will drop everything to get 'more of what you loved' about the original?

Come on, the silence is killer.

DS

'Information' would be just as frustrating, I can assure you. It would give you absolutely no better idea as to when it would be ready, as any one 'issue' or 'bug' is not solved in a pre-determined time-frame, meaning it could be just as misleading in a positive way as it could be in a negative way.

I don't believe it would. No-one wants to know all the individual problems, just the overall picture. None of us know anything about what went wrong, and people are in limbo after having sold their gear and putting their studios on hold since last December. Pre-orders have been paid for, even, I think. (Surely that's illegal, though?!)

Are we looking at the possibility of another quarter, christmas, another year? What?

Not getting on at you, Ben, it's not your doing. You always try to help out where you can, and you're brill. :) Just this wall of silence from Access themselves. They've always been communicative and diplomatic in the past. =/
I just feel sorry for the guys who've ordered and haven't known - and still don't know - what to do for the best, in grabbing other 2nd hand gear for the time being, or holding on, or what. etc.