OK - I'm back, and I can officially confirm that..

[ben crosland]

..TI F*CKING ROCKS!!!!

Pay no attention to the whinging no-marks on certain forums - the HyperSaw is officially the phattest sounding oscillator you have ever heard. End of story.

I demo'ed it to masses of people, including plenty of A/B/C owners, and there wasn't a single one of them who wasn't left reeling from this baby.

In fact, for most of the time, I barely had to demo more than just the new oscillators themselves, without even touching the filters or efx, before people were convinced that this board is the absolute mutt's nuts.

As for the Wavetables, I only scratched the surface in the video, and can confirm that they are not limited to 4 waves each ;) You can also rest assured that all manner of textures will be included in the release version, from nice to nasty and plenty in between.

Oh, and just so it's clear - WE 0WN3D NAMM 2005 8)

[ten]

Cheers Ben, loved the demo (jammy sod) Just seeing that has made all the difference and I think thats simply what most of us waiting wanted.

That hypersaw sounded bloody mental when you added the unison, cant wait to play with that.

Do you really think they will make the 45 days though?

ten

[ben crosland]

Cheers Ben, loved the demo (jammy sod) Just seeing that has made all the difference and I think thats simply what most of us waiting wanted.

That hypersaw sounded bloody mental when you added the unison, cant wait to play with that.

Do you really think they will make the 45 days though?

ten

Glad you enjoyed it - I can't bring myself to watch it yet ;) As for the 45 days , all I know is that Access are keener than anyone to make this happen, and are working as hard as they can.

One thing I can promise is that t's gonna be worth the wait...

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Ben that demo rocked....really rocked. I fucking loved the sound of osc 1 FM sync......soooooo Mono-poly. I was genuinely suprised at how fat one hypersaw oscilator sounded. I was also very impressed by the wavetable......sounded just how i hoped it would be!

Hypersaw & Moog filter combo sounded really great. I can imagine making some mega fat 80's sounds with it.

Im pre-ordering now.....it does rock 8)

DS

[ben crosland]

Ben that demo rocked....really rocked. I fucking loved the sound of osc 1 FM sync......soooooo Mono-poly

DS

Cheers! I should clarify though, that there is no FM capability in the HyperSaw oscillator - hence we use the FM knob to control the intensity of the osc's internal sync whilst in this mode.

However, I don't know whether I remembered to mention how you will be able to choose between two FM modes for the Wavetable oscillators (when used in Osc2)? FreqMod and PhaseMod, which give drastically different results to each other - I was making some frakking crazy sounds with this over the last few days...

[Merlot]

However, I don't know whether I remembered to mention how you will be able to choose between two FM modes for the Wavetable oscillators (when used in Osc2)? FreqMod and PhaseMod, which give drastically different results to each other - I was making some frakking crazy sounds with this over the last few days...

That is going to Fookin rock. Cant wait to get my hands on this thing. In the mean time, it is back to the old trusty ES2. Ben, did you save any as mp3's by chance? Can you post them, assuming access will let you?

[Merlot]

Ben,
BTW the demo was a million times better than the one at Messe '04!! :lol: :lol:

[markorbit]

Yeah good demo Ben. It sounds great. Everytime I thought you had it covered out popped another feature. You nearly even smirked when you announced the release date. Haven't been reading the board have you? :lol:

[tranzash]

..TI F*CKING ROCKS!!!!




Awesome job Ben. :D

[Gopal]

Nice Work Ben,

Will be a while before I get to play with one seeing as you guys don't have a decent distributer in NZ. (They were trying to sell me a Virus B desktop for $3500NZD (1,918 Euros) :roll: only 4 months ago).

But can't wait to play with one regardless. :lol:

[Timo]

Excellent demo Ben! Thanks a million for that. ......We were getting worried, but that Hypersaw, omfg.......... :D

[Bjorktribe]

As for the Wavetables, I only scratched the surface in the video, and can confirm that they are not limited to 4 waves each ;) You can also rest assured that all manner of textures will be included in the release version, from nice to nasty and plenty in between.

Those wavetables should do some wicked rhythmic effects! Thanks Ben, that video was just excellent! :D !

[Hollowcell]

Hey Ben, nice job mate. :wink:

[blay]

meh.
let me just say - FINALLY.
but too little, too late really.

another 45 days eh? sure. :roll:

people made reference to Ben 'only scratching the surface'.
did anyone stop to think maybe thats all he could demonstrate without the thing bugging?
i did not see him hit one chord during the whole demo - just one note playing.

[DJ REMIDI]

Wait, did I hear this correctly? Did Ben say we'll be able send audio through THREE stereo busses via USB inside a host? I thought the official statement from Access was TWO stereo outs through USB. Am I misinterpreting something?
Listen to the segment where he's talking about the VST shell, sounds like he says, "...to start with 3 stereo busses within your host..." :?: 8O

[blay]

im not quoting anyone here, but i believe marc stated that it would be possible to implement up to four stereo busses in future OS :D

[Hollowcell]

i did not see him hit one chord during the whole demo - just one note playing.

You should probably watch it again me thinks.

Have you changed your mind though Blay? Not getting one now?

[blay]

ok - i lied :wink: :roll:

it was taking so friggin long to DL - i made my comment before the end.
my apologies.

havent changed my mind HC - just not appreciating comments like Pay no attention to the whinging no-marks on certain forums from certain access employees.....
how can you criticise people for complaining about (at least) a three month delay? sorry - but i think they are 'passing the buck' here.
even their website still posts a release date of dec 2004 :roll:

the TI obviuously sounds great - but in 43 days time i wonder if we will get an update for shipping postponed till May 2005?

[FloatingPoint]

havent changed my mind HC - just not appreciating comments like Pay no attention to the whinging no-marks on certain forums from certain access employees.....
how can you criticise people for complaining about (at least) a three month delay?

Amen.
The demo sounds fantastic but lobbing insults at potential customers is a pretty stupid business move.

[ten]

If you read the sentance carefully benny boy was speaking about peoples thoughts on the hypersaw 'Pay no attention to the whinging no-marks on certain forums - the HyperSaw is officially the phattest sounding oscillator you have ever heard. End of story.' Not the release dates.

If you have read some of my recent posts you will know I have been at the front of the rants about the release of the TI. But I think we all knew secretly it was going to be delayed a fair bit, right??? :) Either way, the demo was very cool and will tide me over till release which my magic ball is estimating an april date.

Come on boys, its nearly done...lets be positive for the last few weeks. You know this thing is going to sound the fucking dogs underbits, and all this will be forgotton the minute this thing is shipping and in homes like it never happened.......until the TI-2 ;)

ten

[ben crosland]

havent changed my mind HC - just not appreciating comments like Pay no attention to the whinging no-marks on certain forums from certain access employees.....
how can you criticise people for complaining about (at least) a three month delay?

Amen.
The demo sounds fantastic but lobbing insults at potential customers is a pretty stupid business move.

I didn't aim this comment at anyone on this forum - I was specifically referring to some posts I'd read elsewhere which were saying that the demo sounded thin, and no different to the C etc.

It certainly shouldn't be considered as coming from Access themselves, as I am not an employee - I guess I might have shown a little more restraint, but hey ;)

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Well ive owned a Virus KC for over a year and I KNOW in my mind that 1 hypersaw oscilator on the TI is fatter than:

Using all oscilators+subs+UnisonMode 8 on existing virus'

Personally I think the hyper saw rocks when u minimise the detune spread....fucking great sound from a VA.

DS

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Oh and btw.......i appreciate the fact that Ben posts here. He doesnt have to.....but its def nice he does....he always provides good insight....jammy bastard hehehehe

DS

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Ben i have a question. Does the 24bit/192khz make any discernable difference to the aliasing?

DS

[ben crosland]

Well ive owned a Virus KC for over a year and I KNOW in my mind that 1 hypersaw oscilator on the TI is fatter than:

Using all oscilators+subs+UnisonMode 8 on existing virus'

Personally I think the hyper saw rocks when u minimise the detune spread....fucking great sound from a VA.

DS

You've hit the nail on the head, DS - the sound of the HS osc is way better than can be achieved by stacking up the C's oscillators. It's very analogue-sounding, IMO.

[ben crosland]

Ben i have a question. Does the 24bit/192khz make any discernable difference to the aliasing?

DS

The original virus oscillators still sound the same as they ever did, and so they should really, otherwise they wouldn't be backwards compatible. However, the HyperSaw doesn't seem to alias at all, and the pure sine wave in Wavetable 0 is completely alias-free.

[MarcTale]

im not quoting anyone here, but i believe marc stated that it would be possible to implement up to four stereo busses in future OS :D

Yeah, that was me.
I posted an Interview with Marc Schlaile from Access that was in German Keys from January in another Thread.

@Ben : Great Video! Do you have more (Vids or MP3?s?)

[ten]

From one of Marc's posts to the access mail list...

'the bandwidth allows 8 mono (4 stereo) @16bit/48k or 6 mono @24bit.
other configs are possible but not planned for the initial 1.0 release. the Virus Control does receive the audio streams from the Virus in a proprietary protocol. this allows us to use the VC in parallel to a ASIO/Core Audio driver which is a big plus (if we wouldn't do this you couldn't stream parts from the virus into the remote and use an existing audio interface).'

So I guess depending on what sample/bit rate the host sequencer is running depends on how many outputs you can have? Or will it be configurable from the virus hardware/software?

Another question is does the audio outputs that are going through the usb line go through the D/A convertors to convert the outputs to whatever the host sequencer is running at? Again if not I guess you will be able to configure this through the hard/software? Or will it just auto-detect and change accordingly?

All confusing stuff :)

ten

[jasedee]

Another question is does the audio outputs that are going through the usb line go through the D/A convertors to convert the outputs to whatever the host sequencer is running at?
Theres no D/A stage using USB, however, there will be sample rate conversion (192k->whatever) and/or dithering if your sequencer is running at 16bit

[MADSTATION]

Really nice demo.
Hypersaw sounds so good that I'll probably end up selling my jp8080(I liked the supersaw).

I really hope the wavetable section will be expanded and people get creative with it, because this opens incredible new sounds to the already, more than impressive Virus series.

All in all, I'm really satisfied, just wish I kept my KC for a few months before selling it! lol I'm mostly stuck with vsts now, which are fine but are eating my cpu!

[Smag]

Will the wavetable Osc make the Virus capable of "bright" sounds like the Microwave XT then? Is this brightness a characteristic of wavetable synthesis in general or the Microwave?

Also, will you be able to mix the Wavetable Osc with the Hypersaw?

[dries]

very bad news...

...for the competition.

when does access go public?

sounds like a good investment to me.

[ten]

Its been public since November. www.virus-ti.com

ten

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Will the wavetable Osc make the Virus capable of "bright" sounds like the Microwave XT then? Is this brightness a characteristic of wavetable synthesis in general or the Microwave?

Also, will you be able to mix the Wavetable Osc with the Hypersaw?

Yes you can mix hypersaws and wavetables together. As far as the brightness goes...i think you will be able to get close.....but in my opinion the Virus has always sounded inherently dark (i.e. less bright than other synths/VA's). But dont hold me to that....as its just an opinion.

DS

[Househead]

..TI F*CKING ROCKS!!!!

Nice demo Ben...Sound phat as phuck mate :)

Trying to watch it on the stream was a fooking nightmare, even on broad from Sonicstate...A lot of people tring to watch the same time as me must be a GOOD thing, eh :wink:

HH

[Gopal]

The one thing I'll say about that TI is that we are all gonna have to start producing in much higher resolutions and bitrates if we are gonna have enough headroom in the mix for more than a couple of those sounds.

Is there such a thing as TOO PHAT?

I never thought so before... Now I'm not so sure. 8O

[ben crosland]

Will the wavetable Osc make the Virus capable of "bright" sounds like the Microwave XT then? Is this brightness a characteristic of wavetable synthesis in general or the Microwave?

Also, will you be able to mix the Wavetable Osc with the Hypersaw?

Yes. In fact it's really nice being able to fade into a fat, warm Hypersaw from a cold, digital wavetable using Osc Balance.

[marc]

meh.
let me just say - FINALLY.
but too little, too late really.

another 45 days eh? sure. :roll:

people made reference to Ben 'only scratching the surface'.
did anyone stop to think maybe thats all he could demonstrate without the thing bugging?
i did not see him hit one chord during the whole demo - just one note playing.

i think the point of ben's demo is to make sounds from scratch. as you can see in the build up of the demo, the hypersaw has many faces. "only" playing premanufactured sounds would certaily work but wouldn't make people understand how versatile it is. and on top of it, if i would as fast as ben in making sounds from scratch, i probably wouldn't demo with presets myself ;)

best, marc

[Gopal]

Yeah, you can't take anything away from Ben's skills in sound designing. I would never touch a preset if I had his skills.

The video has really changed my mind in some ways, this unit really is a big step up from a virus C, there's just no two ways about it. Its a completely new beast.

I think everyone should probably show a little more patience given that this is such a groundbreaking product and the last thing anyone wants is to see it rushed into the marketplace without sufficient time to test all its functions and reliability.

Lucky for us Access provide us with free OS updates and I think they probably are gonna leave a bit of room for improvement via OS updates in the TI.

Which means, its just gonna keep getting better :)

[Hollowcell]

Watching the Vid for a 6th time I realize the worth of that hyper-saw. It's just that one second of tone that emiates from the thing when Ben first dials in the detune-spread. As far as the rest of the hyper-saw sound it's very "trance", but that 1 second shows a door into a heavy dark sound (more than just trance oriented) - whack on distortion, EQ and filter and I wouldn't have any trouble getting it into a mix I rekon.

Get rid of the VC vocoda and put hyper-saw on the C!!! Please :D .

PS..I'm glad people when people demo sounds, they run them dry. Preseted demos are fine and all, but they don't give an acturate representation of what the machine will sound like in my studio. Again, nice demo Ben.

[blay]

I didn't aim this comment at anyone on this forum - I was specifically referring to some posts I'd read elsewhere which were saying that the demo sounded thin, and no different to the C etc.

It certainly shouldn't be considered as coming from Access themselves, as I am not an employee - I guess I might have shown a little more restraint, but hey ;)

thanks for clarifying this ben.
perhaps you could be a little more specific next time :wink:
...because i am sure here are many here who consider you a representative of access (hey - you demoed the thing) and perhaps your attitude should reflect this?

the TI sounds great nevertheless - i hope it makes it here by the end of march... :)

cheers

blay

[Gopal]

I just want to know how you get a job like that Ben!

[blay]

...maybe its just the sunglasses :wink:

[Merlot]

...maybe its just the sunglasses :wink:

Or the accent :wink:

[Hollowcell]

...maybe its just the sunglasses :wink:

Or the accent :wink:

Or the baldness helps reflect the light dirrectly onto the synth in question. :D Hehehe.

Hey, put yourself into the public arena and you ask for it I say. :wink:

All in good fun though Ben - did I mention it was a nice demo?

[harrystainer]

What's wrong with his accent? :roll:

[Timo]

What's wrong with his accent? :roll:

I dunno! That's how we all speak over here! :) (Apart from Landoners, scousers, brummies, geordies, etc., hehe)

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Anyone from South of England in here?

DS

[MADSTATION]

Once again, demo is fantastic! Glad there was no effects and it was showcasing the new features(as opposed as playing a few presets, which is, in my opinion, not what a demo is for..especially a video demo)

However, when Ben mentionned about VST effects...I don't really get it.
I mean, it was possible in the past(I used to have realtime vst effects on 3 stereo outputs on my kc)...Is there something that I don't get?

[Timo]

Anyone from South of England in here?

DS

Derbyshire, East Midlands here. ;)

[Merlot]

What's wrong with his accent? :roll:

I was J/K. :roll: These damn internet forums. It is hard to convey how you meant something. :x

[harrystainer]

Merlot, I knew you were joking as the :wink: suggested. I meant my comment to convey a slight hint of sarcasm, so I see what you mean about not knowing how things are meant to be understood on the internet. Anyway who gives a shit about what his accent sounds like when its the Ti we're listening to. :D

[marc]

Will the wavetable Osc make the Virus capable of "bright" sounds like the Microwave XT then? Is this brightness a characteristic of wavetable synthesis in general or the Microwave?

Also, will you be able to mix the Wavetable Osc with the Hypersaw?

this "bright" sound can easily be achieved using the build in EQs. the waldorf synths sound like they have a build in treble boost.

- marc

[tranzash]

Cheers :D

[MADSTATION]

However, when Ben mentionned about VST effects...I don't really get it.
I mean, it was possible in the past(I used to have realtime vst effects on 3 stereo outputs on my kc)...Is there something that I don't get?

Anyone?

[ten]

What do you want to know mad station?

You will get 3 outputs (in the first release it seems) or tracks in your sequencer from the virus software. Here you can treat these like any other tracks, add insert effects, sends etc.

ten

[grs]

However, when Ben mentionned about VST effects...I don't really get it.
I mean, it was possible in the past(I used to have realtime vst effects on 3 stereo outputs on my kc)...Is there something that I don't get?

Anyone?

Just read the specs on access website - HINT, look for the section on USB and the TI stands for Total Intergration! :P

[tranzash]

Hey BC, Can we pan 4 saws to the left and pan 4 to the right with the hypersaw ? What else can we do with the hypersaw? I know that we could dial in 9 saws+subs and control the detune spread , Internal sync. Can we use a lfo to pitch up a few saws and pitch down few saws? Just curious :)

[Wandering Kid]

Anyone from South of England in here?

yea, southampton here. propa suvvenerz we are.

[Targon]

cool new additions, the physical interface requires some major attention imo. The device will sorely need an X/Y pad, MORE spare knobs and an AUX envelope!!!!

This V!RUS is pretty expensive, it is fairly cheaply built, yet Access won't expand the physical front end to be more useful.... i don't get the 'bare essentials only' policy.

[Timo]

cool new additions, the physical interface requires some major attention imo. The device will sorely need an X/Y pad, MORE spare knobs and an AUX envelope!!!!

This V!RUS is pretty expensive, it is fairly cheaply built, yet Access won't expand the physical front end to be more useful.... i don't get the 'bare essentials only' policy.

I agree, utterly. Even a ribbon controller would've been fantastic.

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Im in no way putting words into Access's mouth, but im guessing the control layout is dictated by cost. Remember, with digital synths....the circuit board is located right below all the knobs and buttons. If you look at a Propet 5 or Jupiter 8....you will see the controls spread out cross the entire surface. Well, this is largly dictated by the fact theres alot of circuitry in there....

For Access to implement more knobs and a wider (less condensed) control surface....this would invariably incur cost. Now, I suspect that by doing this couldd possibly add another ?50-100 if not more onto the final asking price. This is getting into Waldorf territory...and we all know what happened to them. I think there is only so much peopel will pay for a VA......ultimately it might even make sense to build analog poly's again.....purely so that a manufacturer can differentiate themselves from an already saturated VA market.

DS

[ben crosland]

Hey BC, Can we pan 4 saws to the left and pan 4 to the right with the hypersaw ? What else can we do with the hypersaw? I know that we could dial in 9 saws+subs and control the detune spread , Internal sync. Can we use a lfo to pitch up a few saws and pitch down few saws? Just curious :)

Not within a single oscillator, no. However, both of the main oscillators can be assigned to Hypersaw, so they can be panned individually (if you use filter split mode) so the pitch, detune and density (no. of saws) can be programmed and modulated independently. You can also switch off the sync on Osc1 Hypersaw, which allows even more flexibility.

[tranzash]

Thanks Ben for clearing that up :)

[Timo]

Im in no way putting words into Access's mouth, but im guessing the control layout is dictated by cost. Remember, with digital synths....the circuit board is located right below all the knobs and buttons. If you look at a Propet 5 or Jupiter 8....you will see the controls spread out cross the entire surface. Well, this is largly dictated by the fact theres alot of circuitry in there....

For Access to implement more knobs and a wider (less condensed) control surface....this would invariably incur cost. Now, I suspect that by doing this couldd possibly add another ?50-100 if not more onto the final asking price. This is getting into Waldorf territory...and we all know what happened to them. I think there is only so much peopel will pay for a VA......ultimately it might even make sense to build analog poly's again.....purely so that a manufacturer can differentiate themselves from an already saturated VA market.

DS

Not belittling Access in any way. I reckon the Polar's the sexiest looking Virus layout yet (although am a sucker for the Indigo's blue LEDs, but that's purely cosmetic).

A ribbon controller wouldn't be asking much, though? They're fairly small and unobtrustive (would fit nicely just to the bottom of the mod wheels) yet offer a wealth of realtime modulation possibilities (particularly if they're also sensitive to Z-depth [finger pressure]).

Imagine assigning filter-cutoff to the ribbon X-direction, for example, then by tapping along it you can get stuttered/gate-filter type effects absolutely unachievable with a knob (I do it all the time on my Korg). Maybe even morph through wavetables via ribbon, now that would be cool.

[Gopal]

Maybe they could put 22" rims on it with spinners too, I'm sure that wouldn't add much to the price.

How about some underglow neon?

It doesn't matter what they do, someone always wants more.

[Hollowcell]

Maybe even morph through wavetables via ribbon, now that would be cool.

I agree with you here Timo. Having wavetables, but then having to rely on a knob or LFOs to morph between them is a little strange. Even a little joystick (or track ball, like on my NordLeader :wink: ) may have been nice. Well maybe it can be set up to respond from a kaos pad or something similar.

[grs]

On that control issue, Access could make a USB control device with ribbons, X/Y, d-beem, etc.
Make it fit snuggly on any TI product, offer 3rd party presets for other vsti,
It could talk directly to th TI without needing a computer present, as long as it didn't put a dint into the streaming of audio I think it would be a great spin off side product.

[Targon]

In all reality, the Korg Z1 was priced not that much higher than the Virus. The Z1 provided a very generous X/Y pad, i imagine this would be a perfect addition to the V!rus. The X/Y Pad is a brilliant controller for many many sounds, esp pads... killa

[tranzash]

Hey Ben, Does the wavetables osc use lot of poly, considering we going to use it with unison :)

[tranzash]

Hey Ben, Does the TI supports AU 1.1?
And does this hypersaw is completely alias free?


Can we expect another video demo for the messe? :D

[ben crosland]

Hey Ben, Does the TI supports AU 1.1?
And does this hypersaw is completely alias free? :)

AFAIK, yes and yes. (I'm a PC user, but I know the Control 'softsynth' runs on the Mac as well).

Wavetable polyphony doesn't seem to be a problem, and you might not always use it in Unison mode - Chorus can be just as effective at warming up the sound, if that's what you want.

[tranzash]

Thanks Ben :D

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Ive always wondered what AFAIK means. Ok, so what does this mean?

Cheers

DS

[ben crosland]

Ive always wondered what AFAIK means. Ok, so what does this mean?

Cheers

DS

As Far As I Know

variation: AFAICT = As Far As I Can Tell