I'm sorry, Marc, I didn't want to hurt anybody's feeling about the Virus generally and especially the TI or Snow, which are
without any doubt excellent instruments. But when I look at the pricetags, I do that in an absolute rather than relative way. About 1,7K Euros for the TI Desktop and more than 1K for the Snow is a lot of money for me to spend for a synthesizer, although I'm living in Germany, the country where these instruments are produced. People in US and other countries with somewhat weak currencies (against Euro) are having an even harder time to decide to get one.
So, when I'm considering an instrument, I have to take a good look at it, compare it to alternatives, and decide at the end, which one delivers the most 'bang for the buck'. Then I have to compare it to what my bank account delivers. Everybody knows that, everybody does it this way, except for those running a multimillion $ studio in LA, where some thousands more or less are nothing.
Apart from the money, in
my ears, there's isn't that big difference between the TI range and the older C or B model soundwise, in
my opinion. So I just couldn't justify to pay that much for a TI or Snow at the moment. Also, the B/C-engine works very well for me, so no need for TI right now.
Regarding 'Total Integration' it's just my experience and the fact, that a lot of people are complaining about it. And yes, I know, that, on the other hand, all those thousands of satisfied TI- and Snow users don't make a buzz usually.
But let me tell you this: I've been testing the Snow and the TI Desktop (both connected to a Polar and a PC) at a very big store here in Germany. The guy in the shop told me, that they had continueing trouble to get things to work with Virus Control and a DAW, and actually it took quite a while to set things up. Then, when I played, some strange sounds occured from time to time when switching between presets and sometimes when just playing a preset. Then, shortly before I was through with my test run, the Polar produced something that I would call 'MIDI salad'. It wasn't possible anymore to just play single notes or chords, the Polar instead decided to play lots of chaotic notes of it's own gusto - we had to switch it off and on again to stop that frightening cacophony. It was already disconnected from the PC then and just MIDIed to the Snow.
So, as I said, it's just what I've heard and what I've seen, and at the moment it's just too much money for the
possibillity to get some technical trouble with the unit
. But for sure most of the units work allright, and for me the TI range will be worth to be considered again, and I will keep an eye on it, because these instruments are very special and inspiring. At the moment I'm very happy with my Virus B - until my next acute GAS attack
Best Regards to all
Arndt