Ti 2 Keyboard - is it really hands-on?

[Noelb]

Hi, I'm thinking of buying a Virus Ti2 keyboard (61). I think the sound possibilities are amazing, and the integration capabilities look very interesting as well.

BUT what is most important to me is the ability to program and contro directly from the front panel. In other words, if I wanted to use a mouse all the time, I would stick to soft synths. But I really love to be able to program/modify my sounds directly on the instrument, this is how I get inspired.

Most videos I see about the Virus always use the Virus Control software for programming. And I know that some parameters are harder to get to from the front panel than from VC, but what I want to know from the Virus users out there is this: How far into the programming can you really get to from the front panel? Can you do most of what you want to do, or do you find yourself reaching for your mouse all the time?

As a comparison, I use NI Maschine for my beats and I find that their hardware/software integration is very well accomplished - most of what you want to do on the fly quickly is right there on the front panel, then the software is there for extra support when you need to dig to a deeper level.

Thanks!

[TweakHead]

All the parameters are accessible in the physical interface itself. What happens is new oscillator modes have been added to the TI line that were not present in previous versions, so you need to get used to it - as some knobs are used to different functions for different oscillator modes.

You can find that information on the manual and you'll see it's easy enough to get lost using the interface without even looking at the screen.

[DJKeys]

I bought a TI2 Polar a couple of weeks ago and can tell you that for the depth of the instrument (it is very deep) the front panel programming is very intuitive and well thought out. It is much less cryptic than Yamaha, Korg, or Roland by a long shot. There are Edit buttons for every area, and navigation of each area is consistent.

-dj