I really want to like a TI desktop

[LivePsy]

Hi all,

I have been thinking about buying a TI desktop for months. Everything sounds great about it and I can really see myself using the multimode to its fullest, real 16 parts and no need to share effects if you don't want to.

But my experience in trying one out hasn't been great so far. Each step wasn't that bad in itself but its been a chain of events which are putting me off. I do not mean any direct criticism of any individual, if you're reading this...

* I contacted the Australian distributor asking for a list of dealers I could contact, and got a reply after one week. Just out of self interest, this kind of enquiry ought to be very quickly handled by any distributor, especially when those details are not freely offered on their website.

* Two of the dealers listed I knew quite well and I have never seen Access equipment in the stores. When I contacted one of them, they said they can get them in if customers ask for them. I can't say they were enthusiastic to sell me one, and I have done several great deals with that store. Access equipment is not easy to find in stock at most pro keybaord stores.

* I finally found a distributor and he kindly offered to let me try one straight out of a box, untouched by human hands. But we couldn't plug a midi cable in! Unbelievable, the midi socket would not let you plug in the midi plugs we tried. How can such a simple physical fault be overlooked?

Anyways I played with the TI via the USB cable...

* I find the editing with the EDIT menus obtuse. All the interesting things are behind the EDIT buttons and I didn't warm to that interface at all.

* I found the sound of the osc and filters great but not a whole level above the other VA's I have. I am having trouble justifying a TI as I already have most of the sound palette on my current gear.

Thanks for listening, I'm quite disappointed with the TI now. And believe me I wanted to like the TI very much. I'll rethink it in the next month or so.

Cheers,
B

[docone]

Cant you find a dealer that will let you have it for a week-end to test it home?.

I don?t know the ruels in your country but in denmark the ruels is that if you buy somthing online you have 14 days where you can retur the goods and get full money back.

Doc
Denmark

[Timo]

* I finally found a distributor and he kindly offered to let me try one straight out of a box, untouched by human hands. But we couldn't plug a midi cable in! Unbelievable, the midi socket would not let you plug in the midi plugs we tried. How can such a simple physical fault be overlooked?

I know that my old Indigo has its midi sockets rotated 180? as opposed to the normal away around, which took a bit of fumbling with before I realised.

[Hollowcell]

I still wish I hadn't paid the money I did for my VirusC, so my advice is to hold back and grab something used.

[LivePsy]

Thanks for your replies.

The midi socket problem is real, it looks perfectly fine but the outer rim of several plugs we tried didn't fit the socket's ring. We've all experienced connections that were very stiff, but this didn't feel right at all. Surely midi is tested in QC, and even so the unit physically looks fine from the outside. I suspect there could be many in this production run with the same problem. Where are these units made?

@docone: Australian trade practises permit sellers to refuse return unless you make a special arrangement with a good natured seller - there's no law protecting all purchases. I will certainly pays the money up front if I can have the TI in my environment for a week. That will be time to really test out the VSTi as well as getting to know the programming and sound.

Regards,
B

[mw7]

Most of the musical instrument stores I've been to here in the US do not stock Access synths, nor do they carry other more expensive synths like the Moogs or Dave Smiths. Everything is mostly Yamaha, Korg, and Roland. Maybe Alesis. There is one Guitar Center store here in Chicago, however, that regularly has TIs, Voyagers, Novations, Evolvers, etc.

The MIDI sockets on my TI Polar are very tight, but it is certainly possible to use them. The socket for the power cord is also very tight - on the earlier models, it was quite loose. Seems as though maybe Access tightened up all the sockets.

I actually find the TI OS quite easy to use, but I don't do an awful lot of editing. But if you don't, remember that the Virus Control software that the TI comes with can be easily used as a patch editor. And you don't have to use the TI's USB audio output to do this - you can still route the TI through the analog outputs, if desired.

If you have other VA synths, the TI may not be of great value. I traded away my other VAs after using the Polar for a few months -- for multitimbral sequencing, the dedicated effects and arpeggiator for each part are just too delicious to pass up.

[djencode]

as my roomate has a c and a ti, and i myself have a ti, comparing the interface you will quickly find out that the ti interface is much more intuitive. most of the basic settings are controllable by buttons or knobs, and having owned a good number of synths in my time, i think they put just about as much as they could on the desktop (my beef is more with the way th shift button works, pain in the but when you want to say, play a note, and change ring mod at the same time, which you need to hold down shift and turn a knob to do. if only we had 3 hands) but all in all it's the centerpiece of my studio. best sounding va i own hands down. i am a mac user and i use the AU virus control in every track, at least 4 or 5 parts if not more. however, when i was on pc, i didn't use the VC at all. it's spotty in ableton, unusable in cubase, and some people reported it not opening at all in sonar. which doesn't suprise me since windows is an inferior platform anyhow, especially for artists.

[LivePsy]

Thanks, this is all good feedback. The multitimbrality and true independent effects is hard to pass up. I'm wanting to use it in a hardware midi rig but as PC Live user I might get good results on the PC too.

Cheers,
B

[Khazul]

If you can get a play with one plugged into a computer - that will help - Virus Control is a really nice editor for it, but it has to be run inside a DAW. If you can use it through virus control for a while and get used to what other control are there, then you will find tweaking directly via the hardware interface become a whole lote easier.

I allmost exclusively program my TI-K via the hardware now - I tend to mostly use it without a DAW in single or multi-mode - and even with a DAW active, its quite rare Ill bother with virus control as that forces it into SEQ mode.

You might also want to have a look at a Korg Radias-R and Nord Lead 3 Rack if the Virus sound aint doing it for you. Ive not used an NL3, but that does seem to have a much more accessable user interface. I think the radias is easier to edit as well.

I guess where a TI can score well is there are just so many good sounds in it and available on the net you can allmost get away with never learning to deeply program it and instead just tweak presets - far less so with most others.

One plus for the Radias - it has a nice bunch of sound templates in it that are intended as starting points for creating you own sounds - that in combination with the bigger display does really speed up patch creation.

Another suggestion that applies for just about any digital synth - use a knob box or knobs on a controller keyboard to give direct access to parameters buried in menus.

Job number one it seems though is to figure out if the Virus sound is what you are after?

[Ronkaz]

however, when i was on pc, i didn't use the VC at all. it's spotty in ableton, unusable in cubase, and some people reported it not opening at all in sonar. which doesn't suprise me since windows is an inferior platform anyhow, especially for artists.

I guess your PC is spotty. This is running really perfect in windows, cubase sx 4 here.

R

[LivePsy]

Well folks:

For better or worse, for richer or poorer I have ordered a TI desktop.

A synth is only as good as the work you put in to make it sound great. And I know the power is there to tweak sounds to just how I want them and with multi parts to spare. I am prepared for disappointment, I also have Roland gear ;)

Thanks for your great replies!

Cheers,
B

[LivePsy]

2 questions while I am waiting for the TI:

How do you tell the version of the firmware?
Can you do a factory reset to restore parameters and banks A-D?

I am reading the PDF manual but neither of these are mentioned.

Thanks,
B

[Ronkaz]

The firmware is displayed at boot time. It is also displayed in VC.

Restoring banks A-D is foreseen afais but all patches from A to D are also present in the ROM banks. It looks like a kind of best-of.

R

[Hollowcell]

Congrats LivePsy! Hope it all works out for you.

[LivePsy]

Thanks Hollowcell, its a big decision and I sure hope I can get the midi plug *in* this time :shock:

Knowing me, I would always wonder if I should have gotten the TI. Please flame me if I post a "this thing sux" in 2 weeks!

Cheers,
B