Most of the musical instrument stores I've been to here in the US do not stock Access synths, nor do they carry other more expensive synths like the Moogs or Dave Smiths. Everything is mostly Yamaha, Korg, and Roland. Maybe Alesis. There is one Guitar Center store here in Chicago, however, that regularly has TIs, Voyagers, Novations, Evolvers, etc.
The MIDI sockets on my TI Polar are very tight, but it is certainly possible to use them. The socket for the power cord is also very tight - on the earlier models, it was quite loose. Seems as though maybe Access tightened up all the sockets.
I actually find the TI OS quite easy to use, but I don't do an awful lot of editing. But if you don't, remember that the Virus Control software that the TI comes with can be easily used as a patch editor. And you don't have to use the TI's USB audio output to do this - you can still route the TI through the analog outputs, if desired.
If you have other VA synths, the TI may not be of great value. I traded away my other VAs after using the Polar for a few months -- for multitimbral sequencing, the dedicated effects and arpeggiator for each part are just too delicious to pass up.
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