upgrade Virus from Indigo to TI or jump ship?

[nowtime]

Happened into a little cash and I am wanting a nice 61-key instrument. I love my Indigo (except for octave buttons not sending midi info and patch selection is in the dark ages).

Never really played any modern synths besided the Virus except for a Little Phatty. For some reason not really drawn to the Clavias (but I'm not closed to the idea of one).

I will get a chance to play a TI Polar next week, I'll see if it is ALL THAT compared to my older version.

Really just want a phat fun synth, but it also has to be a good midi controller because I am going to want to control Kore with it. I keep my eyese pretty wide open, but maybe I've missed something in regards to nice instruments.

[nowtime]

Listening around to some Googlenet audio examples, so far it seems the Virus is the best thing on the market. Poly Evolver sounds very 80's. Andromeda - meh. Blofeld - meh. Nords - cool but it seemed a little limited compared to the Virus.

Virus rules !!!

??

[GrooveNinja]

I love my Virus! I have the Ti2, and it is simply awesome. I have never had an Indigo, though, so I can't offer any comparisons. But I really like the Total Integration thing. I makes the Virus look just like a plug-in in Live. It is very convenient!

[ze2be]

Got it and love it.
Why? I hate to say it, but its for the presets only.

Theres lots of cons:

Even though its a "total integration" its still a hardware synth, and you will have to record its audio in realtime, track by track. If you go somewhere and you want to play it, you have to bring many kilos of hardware. I wish they did a dongle or a pcmcia thing..
The Total Integration vst interface and the hardware interface does not match: In the vst interface, you have to drag and drop preset names every time you want to change presets. On the hardware you click one time back and fourth. On the hardware you get access to most of the paramters on one page. On the vst interface every section is on different pages. On the vst interface, all the lfos are displayed on the same page. On the hardware interface, they are put in different pages. This is simply terrible and unusable for performance! solution could be to use a midi controller? Nope. Because the 3rd lfo is not midi mappable!

Want to rename a preset in the vst interface? Cant do it. Gotta use the hardware interface..

Man.. I think everything except the sound and the presets is fucked up! On Virus A and B you could reach all the lfos without clicking through menus!


I rarely create presets with the virus Ti. Its to time consuming. I made lots of presets on my old Virus B though. Thats a fast synth! I dont have it anymore, so I use Surge instead for creating presets. Surge is the fastest synth I have ever worked with, and I wish someday a company like Access would take a look at whats happening in the real world! (sarcasm)

So I use the Ti for Hifi sounds (20%), and the Surge as nr1 go to for sound creation(70%). The rest is with Abe synths, and a handful of other vsts.

[hubiedubie]

I had 2 Viruses(classic and snow) and sold them both. They are decent synths (and the TI concept is amazing) but I found them a little tame in comparison to the Waldorf synths. Currently have a Blofeld and a MicrowaveXT which I get on with much better, but this is a personal preference thing.

[hubiedubie]

Get a Waldorf Q

[thefinger]

people say the B's (indigos included i guess) sound punchier. i own a b, and enjoy it immensely. i still think TI's look tits.

[Khazul]

Love the sound of the TI, but TBH - I really wish they would do a bog standard software plugin version of the whole thing (I would even tolerate the real thing having to be plugged in as a dongle) - what ze2be says is about right total intergration is not quite my idea of total integration - it isnt like using a soft-synth plugin unless you only ever want to use one TI track and even then there is the latency.

I personally find the latency of the whole midi -> PC DAW -> back to virus synth -> audio back to PC over USB 1.1->, processing by DAW -> audio to sound card, chain to be just too much for comfortable tight timing with my playing, so often end up using it as a standalone hardware synth, or cant be bothered to use it at all and use another software synth instead.

If the thing had been USB2 or even firewire and *lots* lower latency overall, and way more audio channels back the PC than it would be alot better.

I still think its the best sounding hardware synth, but since its release the sofware world has moved on hugely and there are now some really excellent software instruments now. Im just about to sell off nearly all of my hardwrae (synths, MPC, MD, processors etc etc) but Ill keep the TI

[Casual Beats]

Still find myself using the TI in basically every song I make.
Great synth!

[ze2be]

Love the sound of the TI, but TBH - I really wish they would do a bog standard software plugin version of the whole thing (I would even tolerate the real thing having to be plugged in as a dongle)

Agree!!

Dont get why the Ti hardware don't reflect its synth engine 100% or as much as possible.
And the ti vst interface does not match the hardware very well, nor the engine.
Its like 3 different teams worked on each, with little contact,
other then some basic sync ideas. (sarcasm)
But they keep people hooked with constantly adding fresh and hot high quality presets, like no one else.

Speaking interface, look at Waldorf Q in comparison. All the oscillators and lfos are present.
THIS is hands on control! Since the Ti has many of its key parameters hidden in menus,
it feels sort of like a preset synth to me. Or click your ass of while trying!

(alert, huge pictures)

[nowtime]

Been playing with a friend's Ti Polar.

Suuuwwwweeeeeeet!

Very nice instrument. Just sounds incredible. My Indigo seems to sound warmer in comparison, the Polar a slightly more digital or cold perhaps, but still! Delightfully rich and varied in it's sounds. A lifetime of music to be made with this thing.

Played an old Nord Rack 2 also. Very nice! A very different sounding synth from the Virus. Much less variation of sounds. I suppose every instrument is going to have it's own unique sound. Surprised that the Indigo sounded different, not less than, the Polar.

[ze2be]

Been playing with a friend's Ti Polar.

Suuuwwwweeeeeeet!

Very nice instrument. Just sounds incredible. My Indigo seems to sound warmer in comparison, the Polar a slightly more digital or cold perhaps, but still! Delightfully rich and varied in it's sounds. A lifetime of music to be made with this thing.

Well.. Its the presets that sound great. The sound engine aint that fantastic. But if the presets is the sound, then yes! It sounds outstanding. I dont think there will be another synth with that many high quality presets.

[Rave]

Is it just a Tarnce machine?

[nms]

that would be like saying ableton is only good for making hip hop.

it's the most powerful synth in current production as far as I know.. what you make with it is up to you.

[Rave]

Was thinking of buying one u see and was wondering what the presets were like