Virus TI and Live 7--> Important Question

cenik11 · Post by **cenik11** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:30 pm

Hi everyone.

Setup: Live 7, Virus TI Snow, V.2.7.3 Virus Control software, Echo Audiofire 4 interface. The Snow is connected to the PC via USB (i.e., it's not connected directly to my Audiofire).

Question: How do I setup the Snow in Live so that each of the four parts plays on its own audio channel such that I can see the volume of each sound, apply effects in Live to individual parts, etc.? Right now I can seem to only get all four sounds to play at once and apply effects universally (i.e., to the main channel on which the Virus Control plug-in is setup). I simply want to be able to have the Snow play four different sounds on four different channels in Live so that I can treat the sounds as if they were four separate instruments.

Here is a pic of my current settings from the preferences tab:

Thanks in advance!

mkelly · Post by **mkelly** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:56 pm

I've got a Snow. It came with a tutorial song for Live which you should load up and have a look. Here is my take on how it works though...

Create a single MIDI track onto which you want the Virus Control plugin. Create up to 4 MIDI tracks - one for each channel on the Snow you wish to sequence. Take the MIDI output of each track and route it to the channel your Virus Control plugin lives. You're now effectively pumping all the MIDI into the plugin, but Virus Control will interpret it by channel. This allows you to write separate sequences for each instrument.

To get separate audio channels out, open the Virus Control plugin, and take a look at each channel on the left. For me they usually all say USB1 L+R. I can also choose USB2 L+R and USB3 L+R, although I had to enable the 3 set of outputs via the Utility section of Virus Control (button on the far right - allows you to switch between Patch and Utility).

Now choose which outputs you want each channel to go to. On the Snow you can also have physical output Out1 L+R. You could run that back into your soundcard to apply effects in Live again.

Once you've set up the various outs in Virus Control, go back to Live and create two new audio tracks. For the input to the those tracks set them to have their input as the track that the Virus Control plugin is on, and you should then get the choice of Virus TI 2, or Virus TI 3. Set one track to each, and you've got three full audio tracks to stick effects onto. 4 if you bring the outputs back in to your soundcard.

It's definitely worth having a look at the tutorial song supplied for Live.

cenik11 · Post by **cenik11** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:21 pm

Thank you so much mkelly!

Your thorough response finally allowed me to figure out how to do what I've been struggling to achieve for the last 24 hrs.

This isn't the most intuitive approach on Access' behalf but it works, which is what matters.

Much appreciated m8

mkelly · Post by **mkelly** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 7:59 am

No probs. Hope you're having as much fun with your Snow as I've been having with mine.

funky shit · Post by **funky shit** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:57 am

Thats pretty rockin that is gives you 4 outputs via usb.

mkelly · Post by **mkelly** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 9:03 am

funky shit wrote:Thats pretty rockin that is gives you 4 outputs via usb.

Only 3 via USB - 4th is physical out. Which is cool for the Snow as it only supports 4 parts. Not so cool for the full TI as it supports 16-parts. It might have 3 physical stereo outs, but even then, thats only 6 stereo parts in total when you can have 16-channels.

Go on Funky, you know you want to buy one

Sibanger · Post by **Sibanger** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:07 am

To get separate audio channels out, open the Virus Control plugin, and take a look at each channel on the left. For me they usually all say USB1 L+R. I can also choose USB2 L+R and USB3 L+R, although I had to enable the 3 set of outputs via the Utility section of Virus Control (button on the far right - allows you to switch between Patch and Utility).

I have the TI keyboard, and the Audio outputs are found in the Virus Control, under the 'Common' tab under 'Output/Main Out'. (version 3)

mkelly · Post by **mkelly** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:35 am

Sibanger wrote:I have the TI keyboard, and the Audio outputs are found in the Virus Control, under the 'Common' tab under 'Output/Main Out'. (version 3)

Aha - I really should have stated that I was using 2.7.5.

How's OS3 working out? I'm still reading reports that it's highly flaky with the Snow so I'm sticking with what I have for now.

aqua_tek · Post by **aqua_tek** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:03 am

mkelly wrote:
funky shit wrote:Thats pretty rockin that is gives you 4 outputs via usb.
Only 3 via USB - 4th is physical out. Which is cool for the Snow as it only supports 4 parts. Not so cool for the full TI as it supports 16-parts. It might have 3 physical stereo outs, but even then, thats only 6 stereo parts in total when you can have 16-channels.

Go on Funky, you know you want to buy one

6 USB channels + 6 analog channels = 12 channels. This would be MONO channels of course.

I barely ever go above 6 or 7 parts though, which gives me the freedom to route them all (some mono, some stereo) as needed.

Anyways, still, in theory, you can get 12 parts out of the TI separately into Live. You can make the most use of the TI's multitimbral capabilitties by routing all parts into the mono outputs, then appying any necessary spatial/stero effects within Live.

mkelly · Post by **mkelly** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:25 am

aqua_tek wrote:6 USB channels + 6 analog channels = 12 channels. This would be MONO channels of course.

I barely ever go above 6 or 7 parts though, which gives me the freedom to route them all (some mono, some stereo) as needed.

Anyways, still, in theory, you can get 12 parts out of the TI separately into Live. You can make the most use of the TI's multitimbral capabilitties by routing all parts into the mono outputs, then appying any necessary spatial/stero effects within Live.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the full TI is useless or anything. Out of it's entire userbase, I can't see too many people constantly butting their heads against a 12-part "limitation". However, if they'd enhance the TI to support USB2 they might be able to return the full 16 (maybe even as stereo pairs).

I'd still recommend the full TI to people - Snow for peeps on a budget or who feel intimidated by all the knobs

Sibanger · Post by **Sibanger** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:46 am

mkelly wrote:
Sibanger wrote:I have the TI keyboard, and the Audio outputs are found in the Virus Control, under the 'Common' tab under 'Output/Main Out'. (version 3)
Aha - I really should have stated that I was using 2.7.5.

How's OS3 working out? I'm still reading reports that it's highly flaky with the Snow so I'm sticking with what I have for now.

OS 3 all good so far. A couple of minor hiccups, but nothing too bad.

Khazul · Post by **Khazul** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:11 pm

This is what my default template contains (for a TI keyboard):

Virus TI - set to 3 in / 1 out. Surround set also to USB 1 L+R (just because I sometimes stick different fx chains on 1 and 2 and the surround fader letsme crossfade between chains)

Track 1 - MIDI track with Virus TI VC plugin - this get default midi in and default audio out (USB 1 L+R). I have explicitly set USB 1 L+R on the Patch for part 1.

Track 2 - MIDI track with external instrument plugin - MIDI to Virus TI, ch.2, audio from Virus TI 2 (which is USB 2 L+R). I set TI part 2 to USB 2 L+R.

Track 3 - MIDI track with external instrument plugin - MIDI to Virus TI, ch.3, audio from Virus TI 3 (which is USB 3 L+R) with Utility plugin to select L channel only, the TI part in VC is set to USB 3 L

Track 4 - MIDI track with external instrument plugin - MIDI to Virus TI, ch.3, audio from Virus TI 3 (which is USB 3 L+R) with Utility plugin to select R channel only, the TI part in VC is set to USB 3 R.

With this template, I can also just send audio to the Virus TI midi channel, with the result it goes to the Virus TI USB inputs, and then comes out of whichever part outputs the input patch(es) is/are using.

This basically gives me 4 fairly indpendent synths, two stereo, and two mono, of which one can serve as an stereo fx processor and also accept full automation, whereas the others can only be controlled via midi (unless they have their automation on the VC plugin channel). TBH - thats about the best I usually get out the TI in terms of poly for the part complexities I have anyway.

I had wanted to setup another few channels using the external instrument plugin to get compensated audio from the analog outs as well, however Lives external instrument plugin doesnt support routing midi to a plugin, then getting audio from an audio interface (I cant see why they didnt dod this - there are after quite a few hardware synth plugins around - Grrrr!!!

) - Shame - could have coaxed 6 or more independent synths out of it had that worked.