JP8000 or Virus Snow

[langer]

Hello

I am new to synths and am looking to get my first one. I love the sound of the JP8000 most of my favourite songs were made on it. The question is should I get that or a Virus Snow or even save up and get a polar?

The idea of recording each track on the Snow to audio is annoying, however from what I have read you would never be able to run that many parts on a full virus anyway.

It will be my only source of sounds and I will buy Cubase Essentials with it.

Any advice appreciated.

[Timo]

Hi Langer,

Big, big difference between the JP and the Snow/TI now, both specification wise and price wise. It's been many years since the JP80x0 was first released. Shame it wasn't built upon, like the Virus, but for breadth of sounds and usability I'd pick the Virus at this point.

The TI/Snow has the Hypersaw, which although people have said it sounds different to the Supersaw (slightly less bright, due to the filters?), is very versatile (hypersaws on both oscillators, as well as a supersquare sub) and can more than hold its own.

Polyphony wise, the JP has 8-voices for the kbd and 10-voices for the rack. The Snow has "upto" 50 voices (on simple DSP patches) and the other TIs have "upto" 80, but in multitimbral usage and more complex patches this would decrease significantly.

Connective support on the TI/Snow is good. Full MIDI, and 6 x audio outputs of Virus audio over USB, and soundcard usage.

Seeing as you're probably into Trance, take a look at the Vengeance site which has MP3s of soundsets for various sound modules (JP, Virus, and other synths) and compare the types of sounds from each module. http://www.vengeance-sound.com/eng/indexes/indexSounds.html
Not that his sets are an exhaustive example of what can be achieved, but can serve as a starting point for comparing between modules and the sounds they are capable of.

[Mario2008]

Hi Langer , I would go with Timo and also will go with the Virus . I am having Both ( TI & JP8080 ) , The JP is absolutely amazing. The sound of the super saw is nothing to compare like but thats it . The Virus is an endless use machine. it sounds great and you have a lot of opportunities . Even the Virus is more than double in the price ( here in Israel ) i would go for that one Especially if it is going to be your First one . Enjoy !

[Scott Righteous]

I'm not sure why recording the Snow would be annoying?

It depends on what you expect out of your synth I guess. I have owned many synths over the years that were 16 part multitibral but have rarely ever had more than 4 sounds going at once from any one synth. The Snow is 4 part multitimbral and that to me is an awesome trade off for the price, given that I wouldn't be blasting 16 channels of synth in any song ever. I don't know anyone that would. I don't hear any music out there that does either. Perhaps someone who uses their synth for all drums sounds and melodies. The Snow is a great first synth - it has Access quality and ease of use without the super duper price. The TI element is way ahead of other hardware synths by far.

Once you get a synth track recorded into your DAW, you can then use plug-ins to filter, distort, compress or otherwise mangle that track in many different ways that your synth cannot do. Recording is liberating not annoying. Keep your midi tracks and you can always go back and re-record if you change something later in the process. Your DAW will become a bigger factor in your artistic process than your first synth that's for certain.

I'm a Logic guy, but I assume Cubase is similar if that's what you like.

I have had a studio set up where I did not record each synth part separately. I had all my midi gear playing simultaneously which was then mixed down to the final mix. But this was because computers at the time were horrible, so recording many tracks was out of the question. Once I could record many tracks without issue, my creativity exploded. I didn't need 10 synths if I could re-record one synth many times. Then add plug-ins, and it's a no brainer. I would never pay more for a 16 part synth again. Period.

If this is your first synth, I will tell your right off the bat, no synth is flexible enough to do everything. This does not change by paying more for your synth. It's not like the expensive synths are expensive because if you had one you wouldn't need anything else to make music. You always need something else, and that costs money. You might want a drum machine (or drum plug-in) You might want a sampler (don't get one, use a sampler plug-in). If you mix a synth with plug-in synths and samplers you will have more options. So, look at your synth needs based on what your DAW doesn't do. Ultimately synth music is more than just synths.

Basically what I'm saying is that if you got a Snow instead of a more expensive Access synth, you can use that money to get a great DAW with more plug-ins and other options you might want to make music with. I cannot think of much music that was made with one synth and one synth only. (actually I can think of a few, but you get what I'm saying.) Even the most minimal techno is a synth and an 808 or 909 (or emulation plug-ins)

Also, the Snow kicks the shit out of any Roland synth - seriously even an old coveted Juno or Super Jupiter.

Hope this helped and didn't just seem like the drunken rant it was for me!

[LivePsy]

Way to rant :) Particularly painful but true to seasoned synth-heads "You always need something else, and that costs money". The TI is most of the sonic territory you might want in a synth and being both hardware and integrated into a DAW, its a wise purchase which will stay with you no matter what platforms you use for making music. Wise purchase, yes. Only purchase, err, not if you are a real synth lover.

B