Latest news on the USB 'issue'
Taken from Virus mailing list:
I'm a great believer in asking questions and even though I personally don't
agree with the way those questions are being ask.
in general be assured that we don't take those basic decisions easy. also
don't forget that the majority here at access are active musicians and
therefore we tend to know how people work (and want to work) with our
instruments
here's a couple of insides
- you are right in the respect that the actual USB chip does not make the
huge difference in price. the price is determined by the engineering effort
to make those chips do what you want them to do
- there are specialised USB "1" audio chips which allow a fast and
relatively easy integration of USB audio into a synth like the virus.
- most of the specialised USB "2" chips recently released would offer more
channels but would not allow an integration of USB MIDI at the same time.
- as for firewire, I personally don't know ANY specialised and available
chip that would support the 32 channels you guys are asking for all the
time.
- in order to use an off the shelf USB2 high speed chip to transport 32
discreet channels of audio you would need to develop all the software from
scratch which not only takes a very long while but also would significantly
change the price of the virus TI.
best, marc