Stories on what interested you to buy the VIRUS TI!

[synthfiend]

I used to mess with electronic sounds some ten years ago, then about 3 years ago came across some money and bought a Mac Book Pro, Logic Studio and a Remote SL controller. I had some fun with that kit, but got sick of having to boot up the Mac then load Logic to get any sound.

I thought I would like a hardware synth for the imediacy and power it could offer. I remembered seeing a Polar in my local keyboard shop around 2005 and thought to myself that looked and sound devine, but realised it was out of my reach.

When the Snow came out I demoed one and thought the sound was mind blowing. My 40th was coming up and I thought I would love a Polar. I sold my MBP, Logic and the remote SL and bought the Polar.

It would have to be one of my best purchases, it is soo deep and I know I will spend the next 5 to 10 years exploring its potential.

There is something to be said for a piece of hardware, it has character and presence, something software lacks.

Great thread by the way.....

[cl516]

Ok here's mine:
It was 2003 - I'd just bought my first real synth (MS2000) and I wanted more. Living in NYC at the time, it was easy to check out the Virus in person either at 48th St. or in my case, at "two lines music" cuz I lived downtown within walking distance. But the lowest price I could find was from Novamusik, so I bit the bullet and ordered it. Then the day came and it arrived, I remember being so excited. A brand new Virus C desktop. I setup a keyboard, plugged in the power, grabbed some headphones. I wanted to focus and dedicate a whole afternoon staring at that delicious red screen.

I turned on the power. Cooooool, so excited. Played a few notes. Sounds great! So I decided to go deeper... I grabbed the filter knob and proceeded to engage in my first filter sweep and then...
































...the power went out. 2003 North America blackout.

[plaid_emu]

Originally Posted by cl516

...the power went out. 2003 North America blackout.

Great story! I can only imagine the harsh profanity that must've flowed from your apartment windows.

[Hell Yeh]

I got into production just before it was common to have software-only studios. It was recommended to me by a friend of mine that all you need to make trance was a JP and a Virus so I bought both (started off with a Virus B). This was a time where, I was contemplating all the keyboard synths that I was going to end up buying and now have way too many VSTi's than I know what to do with.

[jdmmade]

WOW The stories are great! Keep em coming this is good stuff, pumps me up lol!

[feedingear]

I live in Perth, WA, and the prices for the Virus TI retail were sitting on 5.17 AU retail, best knockdown was 4.5 or so for a Polar or Keyboard version.

I dreamed about it for 3 months, worked a job where I would stand in the cold from 4am-2pm every day in a hospital parking lot during the middle of winter working 7 days a week, dreaming about the Virus.

I bought a new Polar from an ebay seller from America for 2.7AU, after a long nervous week and a half and import taxes and shipping, all up it cost me 3.1AU.

I then got a converter plug for it, processed to nervously turn it on and - BOOM - all the lights flashed white. Scared the absolute shit out of me, I thought I had somehow blown it.

Never had a problem with it bar a dodgy USB cable, and never thought I could get such deep sounds out of a synth. I was new to synthesis having mostly used workstations like XV5080, Triton Extreme, and currently an M3. My M3 is collecting dust now.

And since I've hooked it up to my new addition, Sherman Filterbank 2, the sound is so incredibly fat its almost scary.

[Arch]

Originally Posted by cl516

...the power went out. 2003 North America blackout.

Wow, I didn't know the Virus was that powerful!

I came from Rebirth (1997-98, pre vst era - spending all that time trying to make the 303s not sound like 303s LOL). Then Buzz Tracker (the modular aspect was cool, I made some amazing sounds by accident, but they weren't always so musical). Then Reason and an Alpha Juno, although I never actually used it in a tune (all I did with it was hoovers, but I didn't write techno then). Then ill health stopped my from making tunes. My health is still not 100%, but at the back of my mind there was always the thought that I would write tunes again. At the start of '09, I made a fateful stop at a music store in town, wondering how much midi keyboards were these days. Perhaps this was the time? Then I started finding out how cool the gear is these days (especially the VSTs which were pretty shithouse back when I was using Reason 1.0). And of course the computer integration of certain synthesizers. I live in a 1br flat and can't deal with multiple keyboards, big mixer etc. I bought a few bits of gear, an M3 with the radius upgrade, motif rack es (sold), a few other cheap bits (sold), and finally there was a Virus TI desktop available in my town, from a dj gear store! I was reluctant to buy interstate as most people don't know how to package gear if they don't have the original packaging - they think that 5 layers of bubble wrap will protect it (one of the bits of gear I tried was damaged this way - but they accepted a return). And no one bid on it! I had to sell some other stuff before I could buy it, but I ended up getting it for $1800aud.
I'm still learning how to make some more interesting sounds on it of course as I haven't had it that long.

[xerxes]

i saw a picture of the virus ti - and thought to myself: "i need to have that, or i will lose the will to live." this is actually true.
so i got one, and i have been in love ever since. the only synth where the sounds are as good as it looks and vice verca.

[tranqui]

haha, my story is similar to xerxes'

the only thought I had in my mind after trying the TI desktop for the first time was, quoting terry pratchett, "a statement, a threat and an ultimatum: MINE."

[jdmmade]

HAHA nice! Seriously! I need to have the Virus TI 2 or it will be the end of the world (feeling).