Any one using Access Virus TI keyboard with Live?

[Cryptic UK]

Hi,

I have mine conneted to my yamha 01v through the sp/diff connections and it works perfect unitl i select it as a plugin in live and everything goes wrong (suprise suprise),
i start getting cracks and pops when i play.

just wondered if any one else was having the same problem

thanks
Cryptic

[jackmazzotti]

same thing
crackles and pops
the ti is less than half baked
it sounds awesome when it works

[icedsushi]

Use the USB audio, it's the same spec (16 bit, 44.1 or 48khz) as SPIDF anyway.

As long as I don't have my buffer set too high (256 works well) and set the plugin buffer to "same as audio", the plugin works fine without crackling during playback as long as I'm under 50% on Live 5.0.3's CPU meter.

I can't get a render to disk from the plugin without horrible crackling though, that's the problem for me. Have to use the Analog outputs to render it to an audio file. Hoping to be able to render the USB audio by the next update or two.

The analog outs DO sound great though! And you can use them with the plugin at the same time.

Technically the Analog outs are higher resolution than SPIDF & USB if you don't mind the extra analog>digital conversion. However, I'm having a hard time hearing the difference between them most of the time.

[Cryptic UK]

Good to hear im not the only one. Have any of you tried the TI in other programs such as cubase etc...

Im just wondering how much of the problem is due to live.

other than this the sound of the keyboard is amazing, best keyboard ive ever heard.

thanks
cryptic

[Tarekith]

You can't render to disk with the TI, you need to record the audio in realtime to a new audio track. That's just the way the TI works, remember the hardware is still what's generating the sound, not the plug in. The PC can;t tell the hardware to render faster than real time (yet), so just record your audio to a new track.

[icedsushi]

Thanks for that info. Access should tell you in the update install notes to avoid non-real time rendering for the time being at least. Users don't automatically assume they can't expect to render like a regular plugin.

The plugin really does make things convenient during the tweaking process prior to recording it to audio. It also gives you more visual feedback on your automation as your arrangement runs along. And like I said, as long as I stay under 50% CPU, the AU plugin is stable & working nicely. You can't push it to 70-75% CPU like a regular plugin.

I've been using unbalanced 1/4 cables for the Analog outs ever since I've had a Virus synth. But, since I updated to the TI, I hear it is one of the few synths that has balanced jacks.

Think it's worth it to invest in some high end balanced cables instead? Lower noise floor or better sound quality?

[Tarekith]

It does actually say in the installer notes that faster than realtime rendering is coming and has not been implemented.

Balanced cables may or may not make a difference, depends on a lot of things:

- cable lengths
- what the cables are routed near (ie, power cables, power supplies, etc)
- how clean your "earth" is
- is your mixer/soundcard balanced too.

Unless you can hear problems in the recorded audio, I say just stick with unbalanced for now, unless you have cash to blow. You could always go spdif too.

[icedsushi]

Thanks, no I'm not hearing any noticeable noise floor & the cables are about 15 feet. It's hard to keep them more than a foot away from any power supply. My soundcard's jacks are balanced, so the shield would be connected at both ends if I got balanced cables.

SPIDF is 16 bit with choice of 44.1 or 48khz. I think Analog is the better option because the internal converters of the Virus are 24/192.

But on second thought, you are doing a second A/D conversion to the Analogs at your soundcard...what do you think?

[Tarekith]

Depends on the soundcard and how good the convertor are IMO. I think digital is always better if you can go that route reliably, but either way should be mroe than clean enough.

[icedsushi]

There's an argument that the headroom of 24bit will give you more to room to work with for punchier mixes squeezing more data into the finished song and more detailed reverb tails & whatnot. With the digital if you record at 24 bit you're limited.

Yeah, yeah I know personal preference, do whatever you personally think sounds best, blah blah.

[Tarekith]

Well, as long as your project is set to be 24bit, even if you use 16bit spdif, Live will convert that to 24bit when you record. It just tacks on the extra 8 bits. So you can get the clean signal from 16bit, and still have the advantages of 24bti during mixing.

Personally, I ALWAYS use 24bit until the last possible minute (ie, dithering to 16bit during pre-mastering).

[HWR]

Hi!

ahh, you lucky Virus owners you!

I have just upgraded to Live 5 from Version 3. So far I have been fiddling around in Logic Pro 7.1 with my Virus TI.

Any tips on how to set up the Virus as a multichannel instrument in Live? In Logic you set up a single instance of the Virus, then route each MIDI channel to a separate patch in the keyboard. Is this also the case with Live, or do you insert multiple instances of the Virus in each MIDI channel?

Sorry to be lame

[Tarekith]

You can only EVER use one instance of the Virus Control. So it's like Logic in that you have to have multiple midi tracks feeding the same instance of the plug in. Here's a link to a good Ti forum too:

http://virusti.com/forum/

[HWR]

Cheers man.

i have just joined that forum - looks very useful. Cheers for the one instance of the Virus in Live tip too - of course, I should have realised that myself. Doh!