virus and preamps?

[Wandering Kid]

well its probably not 'twice' as loud in the literal sense of the word but if you listen to one of my demos on soundclick (cave of orchids being the most apt example) it is alot louder than my virus. theres also my virus pulsar lead on soundclick too and you can run a side by side comparison. when i put my virus into an existing project (like cave of orchids) its really quiet and i have to keep boosting the signal in fruity's mixer using parametric EQs but it sounds blurry and rubbish the more i do that. please note - i can max out the channel fader in fruity and max out the input volume on the virus AND the midi out player in floops and i STILL need to add parametric EQs to boost the signal even further - this cant be normal right?

as for the levels. you can have a signal thats twice as loud as another but peaks at the same level. i admit i used alot of compression on cave of orchids but i also compressed the lead on my virus. but irrespective of this i just notice that i cant make my virus as loud as some of the softies i use. i know loudness isnt the be all and end all but it seriously is quiet. i listened to timo's indigo 1 pulsar lead and that too is waay louder than i can make my virus. play his and mine one after the other. and from the looks of things timo didnt do any post processing whereas i had to skew mine in stereo and compress it to get an extra 2-3 dBs worth of headroom out of it.

[Hollowcell]

Do you record any other harware synths WK? It really sounds like you are having difficulties with the actual recording process, rather than the processing once it's in the box.

If you have setup your soundcard properly and that side of things are sorted, the only other peice of advie I could think of giving you (without being there of course) is double your tracks up if they don't have the presence you want. Sometimes doubling the bass or lead track can give more power. In many cases I will run 3 tracks of the same bassline for example - maybe slight distortion on one of them, then compressed all together. This varies depending on the track though.

[Wandering Kid]

If you have setup your soundcard properly and that side of things are sorted, the only other peice of advie I could think of giving you (without being there of course) is double your tracks up if they don't have the presence you want. Sometimes doubling the bass or lead track can give more power. In many cases I will run 3 tracks of the same bassline for example - maybe slight distortion on one of them, then compressed all together. This varies depending on the track though.

gah! dont you get phasing problems from doing that?!

virus b is my first hardware synth. never recorded from hardware prior to this. i was self raised on softies

[jasedee]

Is no one listening here?

You need inputs on your soundcard that are switchable to -10

Or....you run the virus into a DI

Or....you buy a mixer with switchable +4/-10 line channels

Record the Virus into your sequencer (boosting gain in sequencer if neccessary before recording) at the highest possible level.

[Hollowcell]

Originally Posted by Wandering Kid

gah! dont you get phasing problems from doing that?!

virus b is my first hardware synth. never recorded from hardware prior to this. i was self raised on softies

Nope, not usually, but still have to monitor mixes in mono before finalising of course.

We are listening Jase. All the answers I've been giving are based on my guessing that WK has already set things up properly and is still having trouble. You have followed Jase's sugestions I am guessing WK?!

[Wandering Kid]

yea im kind of already doing that cept of course i dont have a DI box.

this is what i do.

virus audio outs are plugged into the back of my delta 1010 with the switch on both inputs set to their out position (-10 dB). i am using analogue ins 1 and 2.

i open fruity and add a MIDI out channel plugin.

in fruity's mixer i select the input source to analogue ins 1 and 2 on the delta whilst the output i leave on master. the virus now plays back through fruity's mixer via the MIDI out plug but it comes on very quiet regardless of the patch.

what i normally do with my soft synths is to calibrate the channel fader. basically i raise the channel fader until its right on 0 dB using fruity's dB meter and inspector's dB meter just to check it. ive found fruity's dB meters arent always accurate. anywho i then increase the input volume of the plugin until it peaks on the 0 point of the channel fader. i then adjust the channel fader volume until the instrument sits well in the mix.

herein lies the problem. i have the virus master volume maxed. i have the MIDI plugin volume maxed. and the channel fader volume maxed. and its still under the 0 point of the channel fader. the only way i can seem to...

EDIT: sorry whilst i was typing this i discovered there is a patch volume parameter in the edit menu. it was on 80. i whacked it up to 120. it made it louder.

feel a bit sheepish now...

[Wandering Kid]

ooooookay. quick subject change - does anyone here use a DI box/preamp on their virus?

...

[Hollowcell]

I had it wrong too, I thought you were trying to get recorded waves from the Virus loud enough along side the other parts in your software. Oops, it seems as if you were just trying to get the Virus to play along side your software loud enough.

Anyway, glad it's all sorted.

And no, I haven't used a DI with my VC.

[udenjoe]

You really don't need another amp for it. Unless you are using the vocoder right Hollow?

[Panopticon]

I've sent the virus through my Great River pre's for general fattening and warming up. It's pretty subtle, though, because the virus' output is at line level, so you can't crank the pre into it's 'working' zone...