Considering Virus TI

[SuperSX4]

Well i can say that i never expected this.

I am not new to music production at all, I have been working with DAW's and Soft-Synths for about 3 years and have been making trance style music.

Heres and example of my work.



I personally don't think that song i good enough but many others disagreed with me so i uploaded it, and i provides a good example i guess.

So in my quest for a great synth i have tried many many software synths and they don't cut it, They don't sound on par with hardware. I have tried a lot of Roland stuff but again they didn't suit me and i also don't believe that one machine can "do it all".

Nothing at guitar center really suited me, i want easy, seamless, and versatile and a lot of stuff either doesn't sound right or is a big CF as far as layout.

So im looking at the Virus TI. It is expensive but it almost seems perfect.


I have not done a lot of custom synth work. I know how to make sounds in soft synths like z3ta, vanguard, and 3xosc but thats as far as my experience goes into that.

But i wan't to make my own sounds, there is nothing like hardware knobs, using a mouse does not come anywhere close.

So would you recommended this for me? i can't try it out because no one here has one. I would be learning what probably half of its features are. I hear the Nord lead is easier to learn but i don't want to spend this much and not be totally satisfied.

Secondly what about the desktop vs non desktop. Can i fully integrate a USB midi keyboard (akai MPK series) and have it work just as well as the versions of the virus with a keyboard?

Now i use FL studio, but i'm converting to ableton and will be using it for everything.

[maelstrom808]

In my opinion, the TI will be a good choice for you. It is probably the best workhorse VA on the market. For workflow purposes, there is nothing easier to use and integrate into a setup. Soundwise, it's a jack of all trades with all of the types of synthesis and features it has. You can almost always find something that will produce a given sound better than the TI, but you will not really find anything that does everything it can do, as well as it can do it...if that makes sense.

As far as keyboard vs. non-keyboard, I would say you'll be fine with a seperate midi controller. The keybed in the TI is better than almost any reasonable MIDI controller, but unless you are particularly picky, I doubt you'll miss it. I'm planning on selling my TI-K for a Desktop and AKAI controller. It'll give me more control versatility, and reduce the wear I'm putting on the TI.

[MBTC]

Well as a fellow FLStudio user, I can tell you that you might be in for a whole new level of:

- Learning curve
- Frustration
- Workflow modification

I had a Ti2 for a while and could never get the USB integration working properly with FLS on Win7 64bit... the latency and timing issues were unbearable. It's almost as if Access has not worked hard enough on compatibility with this enormously popular host.

Also it is a bit of a myth that software doesn't sound as good as hardware. It's true that you are not going to get z3ta, vanguard or especially 3xosc to ever truly mimick the Virus.... you should look at a better category of softsynths like Dune, Zebra2 and Sylenth1 for making trance music.

Now, don't get me wrong.. there are certain types of sounds you can get out of the Virus that most of the synths cannot do or cannot do easily. There is something amazingly musical about tweaking knobs on hardware in real-time. Hardware can be so addictive that it can completely remove you from the actual process of making music. But, at the end of the day if you are making trance, the extra stuff the Virus can do is largely irrelevant to your genre of choice, and all of it can be achieved some other way (i.e. via plugins). And what a lot of people don't realize is that once you master your track through the DAW and compress down to MP3, any sound advantage that hardware has is really lost and you will not be able to tell the difference between hardware and software generated sounds (again, partially dependent on genre). I've heard some nice tracks that were produced with a Virus, only to find out that the sounds like leads and pads that really caught my attention were created by Sylenth or Zebra or something else.

I got rid of my Ti2 and went back to all software environment for workflow reasons. I might try a future iteration of Ti2 to see if they have made advancements with regard to total integration (like true USB 2.0 support). I also found polyphony on the Ti2 to be rediculously low compared to what my Core i7 processor can do with good soft synths. The out-of-box Virus patch for a Roland D50 FM synth bell type sound was eating up all available polyphony all by itself just playing a few chords. Not that I want any of my music to sound like a Roland D50 bell synth, but that should NOT be a DSP intensive, polyphony-robbing patch.

[feedingear]

Runs fine in Cubase 5 occasionally loses clock sync. It has killer sounds and is capable of some incredible tones. It will not replace every plugin, but theres some sounds the Virus does better then any other hardware or software synth. Learn to work with it and you will be fine, it may take some time to adjust your workflow but I feel in the end it is worth it, particuarly if you are a trance producer.

[Timo]

For trance the Virus is the definitive synth, however it's versatile far beyond that. I find it's equally great for film scores, but the list is inexhaustable. I don't think you'd be disappointed if you choose to get one, it knocks VSTi's like Vanguard into a cocked hat blindfolded with one hand behind it's back. Vanguard sounds so toy-like and plastic in comparison.

[MBTC]

I agree about Vanguard. However much better is available. Download the Dune demo... really... and tell me what you think.

http://www.synapse-audio.com/dune.php

[SuperSX4]

I decided to go with a virus C. First off its fits the budget nicely and i think that it is more than capable for what i want.

I don't care about integration with VST's so the TI is almost pointless. Personally i like knobs more than using a mouse.

So tell me if i have this right. Im my DAW i can output to MIDI port 1 and tell part 1 on the virus to listen to port 1 to get the midi info. Then i can output another channel out of midi port 2 in my DAW and tell the 2nd part of the cvirus to listen to port 2. and so on and so forth.

I can also tell both parts to output out of separate analog outs and mix them together with a mixer and then back into my AI.

[Roby31]

Yes.
The only thing you "missed" if I can say so, it's the fact that the TI isn't "Virus C + Integration" but it has a good deal of features that the C doesn't provide (Additional oscillator modes: C has standard virtual analog waves + 62 spectral waves, TI has those + wavetables (wavetable/wavetable pwm/graintable/formant shifting) + hypersaw. Additional saturation/distortion modes. FX in VTI are all available per part. Soon-to-be new chorus modes. And so forth) which make it different and capable of different sounds. I'm not saying a Virus C isn't the optimal choice, just clarifying that you might not be considering all the picture.

[SuperSX4]

I new about most of those. I knew the C didn't do hypersaw but i doesn't do PWM either?

its not a huge deal and isn't changing my mind about the C but i thought it did do PWM.

[Roby31]

Yes it does pwm. I'm sorry for not clarifying that "wavetable pwm" was a feature of the wavetable osc mode only, that simulates pwm on wavetables.