Access Virus TI anyone?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
12micsn1
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Access Virus TI anyone?

Post by 12micsn1 » Fri Sep 09, 2005 12:45 am

What is the deal on the Access Ti? Ive seen a advertisement in Future Music mag but no store has one available. Is this a reality or a good dream gone bad. its taking way to long for this new Ti to arrive.
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Tarekith
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Post by Tarekith » Fri Sep 09, 2005 12:52 am

It's coming soon, be patient.
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montrealbreaks
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Post by montrealbreaks » Fri Sep 09, 2005 3:22 am

Phhht.

It's already lower spec'd than it should be.

It only has a single stereo output for your mix from Ableton - how exactly will you cue with it? You'll have to use two different sound cards if you want to cue. Oh wait, you need ASIO4ALL to do that, and when I emailed Access, they said that they would not guarantee that it would work with 3rd party drivers...

I am particularly concerned since it's USB 1... It should have been USB 2 or firewire. They're pushing all those discrete voices as seperate outs to the computer through USB 1? That means they're probably using their own protocol to transfer audio and midi to and from the synth, since it's such a high volume of info over such a slow, choppy protocol.

Access had a wicked idea, and then shat all over it when they decided to cut corners.

I won't buy one because of it. The delays in release only show what a dodgy piece of gear they're working on...

My $0.02 anyways.

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Post by rikhyray » Fri Sep 09, 2005 10:49 am

Delayed almost by a year. I feel same way as montreal. they should better drop it, get back to the drawing board, even if it costs them 2 years and get it right. However the problem might be the funds, maybe they will go down like Quasimidi. It was always difficult for the smaller companies.

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Post by Tarekith » Fri Sep 09, 2005 12:11 pm

I am particularly concerned since it's USB 1... It should have been USB 2 or firewire. They're pushing all those discrete voices as seperate outs to the computer through USB 1?

>>>No, the audio over USB behaves the exact same way as the physical outs. IE, you get two stereo pairs of audio channels transmitting over USB. <<<

That means they're probably using their own protocol to transfer audio and midi to and from the synth, since it's such a high volume of info over such a slow, choppy protocol.

>>>Of course they're using their own protocol, it's the only synth yet that can send audio and midi directly to a VST plug in at the SAME TIME as another ASIO soundcard is in use. No other company has done this yet, there's no standard for what they are doing.<<<

Access had a wicked idea, and then shat all over it when they decided to cut corners.

>>>No corners that have been cut at all (MANY new features added over the C series in fact), people are just not understanding what the point of the USB integration really is. They're expecting something that Access has never claimed the TI would be. Instead of using 4 audio cables, 2 midi cables, a soundcard and midi interface to route the Virus audio and midi into your host sequencer you can now use a single USB cable to do the same thing. That's it, that's the TI part, and USB1.1 is more than enough for this. It will also function as a stereo in/out audio interface, and/or a MIDI in/out interface. It does exactly what Access claim it will do.

People are understandably upset that it's delayed so long, but they would be even more upset to get a product that did not work all the time. Access has chosen the lessor of two evils in this case, and decided to wait until they get as many bugs worked out as possible. <<<
[/quote]
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AdamJay
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Post by AdamJay » Fri Sep 09, 2005 12:31 pm

montrealbreaks wrote:The delays in release only show what a dodgy piece of gear they're working on...
i think you hit the nail right on the head there.

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Post by MarkH » Fri Sep 09, 2005 2:33 pm

For outboard gear, I think Virus C is still a fine piece of gear. 16 parts, 32 note polyphony is enough. However, Vanguard and/or Albino do a nice job at accomodating what one would normally use a Supernova or Virus for.
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Post by Tarekith » Fri Sep 09, 2005 2:35 pm

MarkH wrote:For outboard gear, I think Virus C is still a fine piece of gear. 16 parts, 32 note polyphony is enough. However, Vanguard and/or Albino do a nice job at accomodating what one would normally use a Supernova or Virus for.
As does Absynth and z3ta+ IMO.
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12micsn1
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Post by 12micsn1 » Sat Sep 10, 2005 3:34 pm

Access had to go back to the drawing board since the recent ad in Future music (Uk edition) the magazine stated USB2.0 as one of the specs. Im sure i need to go back an grab another look. This may explain why the Virus TI hasnt been released as promised so they could get it right.
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Post by Tarekith » Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:59 pm

It's compatible with USB2 ports, just doesn't transfer at that speed (nor does it need to, which people don't seem to understand), they didn't go back to redo anything.
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12micsn1
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Post by 12micsn1 » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:55 pm

Its strange and bizarre twist of faith lately to whatever the true reason behnd there story. As of lately, some stores have preorder set time for late September of this month. Not crossing my fingers on this one.
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Post by AdamJay » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:50 pm

12micsn1 wrote:Access had to go back to the drawing board since the recent ad in Future music (Uk edition) the magazine stated USB2.0 as one of the specs. Im sure i need to go back an grab another look. This may explain why the Virus TI hasnt been released as promised so they could get it right.
so does that mean if i write a review of Live 5 that gets published in FM or CM that says Live has a dual cpu audio-engine... Ableton will have to go back to the drawing board?
8O

:wink:
....types review furiously.....

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Post by Tarekith » Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:18 am

Music manufacturers are completely at the whim of mis-informed magazine journalists you know :)
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12micsn1
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Post by 12micsn1 » Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:14 am

AdamJay wrote:
12micsn1 wrote:Access had to go back to the drawing board since the recent ad in Future music (Uk edition) the magazine stated USB2.0 as one of the specs. Im sure i need to go back an grab another look. This may explain why the Virus TI hasnt been released as promised so they could get it right.
so does that mean if i write a review of Live 5 that gets published in FM or CM that says Live has a dual cpu audio-engine... Ableton will have to go back to the drawing board?
8O

:wink:
....types review furiously.....
Yes!!! Ableton Live 5 seems to have lived up to most request as of late. Maybe you will become the spark that starts the fire. Good luck.
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Post by montrealbreaks » Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:23 pm

Tarekith wrote:It's compatible with USB2 ports, just doesn't transfer at that speed (nor does it need to, which people don't seem to understand), they didn't go back to redo anything.
OK. You're wrong. YOU "understand" that it only needs USB 1, good for you. You don't understand why someone would need a better spec'd machine.

Look at my situation (and why I won't buy a Virus TI in it's current spec).

I want a one piece audio / midi interface. I don't want to diddle around with more than one outboard component (other than a hard drive if necessary). BUT, the Virus TI will only output ONE stereo signal from the DAW via ONLY ONE of it's multiple physical outputs. This is insuffecient.

I want the Virus TI to be able to put out not only it's own sounds, but also discrete audio channels from Ableton Live (or another DAW) through it's various physical outputs. I want to plug my headphones into the Virus TI and hear my cue tracks while the master track comes out the stereo outs.

(Same with it's single stereo pair of inputs. I want total control over all audio routing, and the Virus TI, as currently spec'd, CANNOT DO THAT.)

Now...

I emailed Access to see if it could do this, or if there's a workaround. I was told by the people at access.de themselves that this is a limitation of the bandwidth through USB, that they CANNOT put multiple, discrete stereo 24/96 signals FROM the DAW TO the Virus. That's because there's so much bandwidth allocated to synth info going FROM the Virus TO the DAW, plus the MIDI both ways.

Therefore:

USB 1, as admitted by the Customer Support people at Access, is insuffecient for a modern Audio interface

AND

You would have to use a different interface with it if you wanted multiple audio outs

BUT

Live only supports one interface at a time.

NOW DO YOU GET IT?!?!?! Without USB 2 or Firewire, you can't output multiple audio signals from LIVE, and that sucks for live improvisational performance.

Ok, admittedly the Virus is a damn fine synth, but if it's no more useful than a Virus C (which is already far more synth than most people will ever need) then there's no need to buy the TI other than to "keep up with the jonses". If I buy a new synth for that price, I'll go buy another Andromeda A6 or another Waldorf Q.

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