Some newbie Virus questions
 

Hi There,

I have a few questions about Access Virus that I wonder if anyone might be able to answer please? I am considering a 'Snow' and wondering if it might be powerful enough for me, I am not a heavy user, basically I want to get access to a big library of Virus preset sounds, use a few at a time in Logic and do some minor knob tweaking like cutoff and resonance. I am not really a synth expert so I am having trouble understand the difference between the definition of their terms 'voices', 'patches' and how this relates to the amount of library sounds I will have available to me.

The TI2 desktop has a lot more memory and I am wondering if this relates in real world use to the amount of Presets the Snow will offer Vs The TI2 or if it relates to the polyphony and the amount of things you can do at once. I am not going to be making hugely layered or polyphonic sounds, I just want a big selection of Virus sounds, do do some minor tweaking and to be able to run a few or more at a time within Logic without running out of resources? Do you think the Snow will suit me OK or am I going to run into problems and need the TI?

Many Thanks!

Simon

Never buy the cheaper version of anything!

Wow. Any other thoughts?

Hello simonharris!
The Snow is a really powerful synth! The main reason, why I personally didn't buy the Snow, is the polyphony. Because you said that you are a newbie, I will try to explain you: The Snow is a 4 part multitimbral synth and the other synths like the Ti desktop / keyboard / Polar etc.. are 16 parts multitimbral. This means, that with the Snow you can only use 4 patch sounds simultaneously for a project. With the others, 16!
The other thing is that you have less knobs and buttons and you have to beaa through the submenues. If this doesn't matter, you can go for a Snow! To say it again: The Snow has the SAME SOUND, fewer knobs, fewer voices and only 4 part multi timbrality. OK, it's cheaper than the desktop and it's really small.
I would buy the desktop version because of the 16 parts multitimbrality, but it's your decision. Perhaps you can find a comparison chart between the Snow and the TI's specifications if you use google.

Greets!

Hey simonharris,

Good to see you here. You posted the same question at gearslutz and already posted some suggestions on your thread.

Like what hvyen stated, i would advise you to get the TI Desktop as well.

Cheers

Hi, welcome.

A "patch" = a programmed sound. A preset.
"Voices" = polyphony. The number of notes it can play together before the unit runs out of system resources and cannot generate or play any more.

Sound engine wise, one voice (of polyphony) consists of: three oscillators + sub oscillator, two filters, two EGs (envelope generators) for amplifier and filter, three LFOs (low frequency oscillators), and a wealth of waveform distortion and modulation capabilities.

From what you say:

• You're not a heavy user
• You want access to the Virus presets
• You want to do some minor knob tweaking
• You work in the box (DAW).

... a Snow would appear to be suited for you if you didn't want a full TI. You will have to make sure if Logic is fully compatible with the Snow first though - I think it is, but please make sure with Access first.

As for the library/storage of sounds, I am not totally certain about the specs but this is what I believe the Snow has when compared to a full blown TI:

Snow:
• 512 user-editable RAM patches, and 512 ROM (read only) patches.
• 64 Multis (a multi is a combination of up to 4 patches at a time).
• The Snow is 4-part multi-timbral (it can play up to four patches together at the same time).

TI:
• 1024 user-editable RAM patches, and 3328 ROM patches.
• 112 multi slots, and 16 embedded multi slots (a multi is a combination of up to 16 patches at a time).
• The TI is 16-part multi-timbral.

... again don't quote me exactly on those as I've never had the chance to play with a TI or Snow.

The sound engine that the TI and Snow uses are identical. Patches are fully compatible with each other.

The difference between the two (Snow and full TI) is that the Snow has reduced polyphony (up to 50 voices compared to up to 100 with the full TI), reduced multi-timbrality (4 compared with the TI's 16), smaller patch storage (as previously mentioned), fewer hardware analogue audio outputs (2 compared with the TI's 6), and obviously far less knobs.

The multi-timbrality is also dependent on how complex and voice-intensive the individual patches are and how many notes you play. As such, the voice usage is the real limit as to how many patches and notes you can play at once.

Thanks for the advice - Yes I discovered this forum just after I discovered Gearslutz.

Thanks sincerely for the advice, I am edging towards the TI2 because of the long term issue, I am sure the Snow will be awesome at first but I don't want to regret my purchase later. So I am being careful to do my research and ask questions to experts like you guys! I do have a few more questions please - firstly if I do find myself running several Virus tracks at once in Logic, will this eat up Logic's resources more or less than if I were running the same amount of software instruments like Sylenth (which I currently use). I know Virus has it's own processors so to what kind of extent is this beneficial when using Logic over pure software synths? Thanks for the detailed reply Timo - much appreciated.

Simonharris,
you have answered your question by yourself! :) Because of the 2 CPU's by the TI2, it won't use the capacity of your computers CPU. If you use soft synths only like Sylenth (very good synth), your Computer CPU has much to do!

Greets!
Marcel

OH, I forgot something: TI means "Totally Integration". With the TI, TI2 and the Snow you have the possibility to use your synth like a soft synth in your DAW (Logic). This make sense, if you want to process your Virus audio output with software effects by Logic for example. But then it stands for reason that your computers CPU begins to work, but only for the effects, not for the incoming Virus sound.