A few questions before I buy

[KR3]

Hello,

First let me apologize for the novel i'm about to write. Hopefully some of you enjoy reading! :P

Huge thanks to anyone who can answer my questions.
I did a couple of searches and found out a couple of things I needed to know. Maybe there are answers for these too, but I must have missed them..

Ok, here goes...

I'm planning on purchasing a virus very soon. I've been trying to buy one for over a year, but I always end up spending the money before I find the right virus :lol:

I've wanted the Indigo from the start. It seems like the best option for my needs, plus it looks the sexiest. I know I will need a sequencer and we have a couple of RM1x's to use. Anyone know any problems with this combination?

The virus will be for live use right now, and most likely a slave to an rm1x.
We do not want to use a computer live as we are hardware based.
How is the midi on the virus? Do you think it will hold up in a midi chain?

It will be used as the main synth sound module with sequences running to it. I may play the keyboard sometimes, but most of the patterns we will need will be too complex, plus I have to play other machines.

How does one go about doing this on the virus? Do I need to make and save my own patterns in my sequencer and send the midi out to the virus and just tweak the paramenters on the virus, or can I load sequences into the virus itself and play them back in-time?

I'm most likely going to buy a Virus Indigo because it is compact, but still has a keyboard, and I don't want to lug around a seperate midi keyboard for the rack/desktop version. Also, the price is in my range at ~$750-900.
I'm going to wait until the TI is widely availible and hopefully the prices of the Bs and Cs drop.
The TI is too new and expensive for me right now.
The Virus C is the other option IF the price is under $1000 (rare). I've heard from a couple of people that the Indigo 2 is not as good as the original in many aspects. Is there a review or something besides the comparison chart the that shows the differences between the Indigo 1 and 2? Have any of you owned both? Which one do you prefer?

I'm sure I will have a few more questions that I hope you guys can answer. I'd especially like to hear from people who use a virus live.

Thank you.

[ben crosland]

How is the midi on the virus? Do you think it will hold up in a midi chain?

It's fine.

Do I need to make and save my own patterns in my sequencer and send the midi out to the virus and just tweak the paramenters on the virus

Yes.

I've heard from a couple of people that the Indigo 2 is not as good as the original in many aspects.

You should file this under "Utter twaddle put forward by Indigo1 owners with sour grapes." ;)

The Indigo2 sounds identical in every aspect to the 1, except for the additional sound-engine features, i.e. 3-band EQ and Analog Filter model.

The Indigo2 also sports an improved keyboard with Aftertouch, and AFAIK, has an improved headphone output (I could be mistaken about this).

The layout is redesigned so that some essential parameters are brought out of the menus and onto knobs, to improve live tweakability.

If you can afford the difference between the two, this should be a no-brainer..

[Wandering Kid]

what ben said. theres 1 or 2 harmony central reviews claiming the indigo 1 is better sounding than the indigo 2. it is horseshit. most likely bitter indigo 1 owners. the indigo 1 is based on the virus b engine. sounds exactly the same as any other virus b. the indigo 2 is based on the virus c engine. sounds just like any other virus c. has the same layout as the virus c. has the additional features of the c over the b model. and the c engine is exactly the same as the b engine only with some extra bits and bobs (new moog emulation filter type. in built 3 band EQ. more modulation slots, an extra 8 voices of polyphony etc)

the virus b engine synths however for me represent the best value for money. just saw an indigo 1 on ebay for about ?410 with a few hours to go. thats very reasonable. an indigo 2 on ebay you would be lucky to get for anything less than double that price - and the difference between the 2 is not huge.

the keyboard on the indigo is widely regarded to be inferior to the virus keyboard models. just something to bear in mind. 3 octaves is also not a great span to work with live.

as for MIDI. its pretty solid but it depends on what you are syncing it to. if you use a wordclock device or sync to a reliable device it'll work no prob. for example syncing any peice of hardware to fl studio will result in weird glitches (notes not triggering correctly or at all, notes triggering for the incorrect length of time, notes triggering out of time and staggered - occurs at medium to high CPU loads only though and when using lots of multi parts through the same output)

ive seen father (nu energy) do a monster boat party set with a virus indigo, virus b and k station daisy chained together. sounded spot on to my ears so i wouldnt worry about that.

and yea you can just use something like cubase. write out your midi sequence. what notes you want played, when, where with what effects automation etc etc. have every other device in the midi chain slave to cubase's midi clock then just trigger the sequence when you want. cubase will play that crazy inhumanly fast sequence for you. the wonders of midi...sigh. now to pester imageline again to get their midi integration sorted out!