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.
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