What Sets the Virus Apart

[ehunter]

I would like to know what you think sets the virus apart from all the other VA synths

[Doc Jones]

the sound of the synth. Every synth has its own sound, which is neither better nor worse than other VA synths. The sound of the virus fits well with my style of music.

[marc]

the sound of the synth. Every synth has its own sound, which is neither better nor worse than other VA synths. The sound of the virus fits well with my style of music.

i couldn't agree more. the other day i though, infected.org is a weird forum. there is so much talk about the technical aspects of the virus but hardly anything related to how it sounds and not much about how to make it sound good. i always bought synths which inspired me, never paid so much attention on the specs.

best, marc

[Timo]

For me, it's its slightly darker character, and the velvet-like quality of the sound engine.

Also:

* Alias free synthesizing when using the knobs, it's completely zipper free.
* I love the quality of the EGs. The pitch/filter curves sound fantastic, not lifeless like many other VAs. If you actually try and emulate patches from the Virus on other VAs, they just fall flat on their faces when you try to emulate the Virus EGs. I think this is one of the most important aspects in why the Virus sounds so good.
* A very versatile filter section.
* The effects are quality. Nice sounding phaser, and the quality of the reverb/delays blows most other "built-in" synthesiser insert effects out of the water. I'm not so fond of the Distortion effect, however, but I still use it. That said, those lucky enough to own TI OS v3 have slightly greater control over the distortion, and also have new algorithms to add to the classic distortions.
* The detune parameter is slightly curved (logarithmic). You can obtain really fine (subtle) detune adjustments near to 0.
* The fact that the LFOs can be put into single-shot EGs is great. The available LFO waveshapes and overall LFO control are versatile too.
* The mod matrix is extremely well specified. You have control over almost everything.
* Unison mode is great and you have decent control over the parameters.
* Microtuning option.
* PCM waveshapes for a greater sound palette.
* A limited but nice FM implementation, that has made home to some oft-used classic Virus sounds.

.... and so many little things too many to mention that make up the whole experience.

And it's often hard to make it sound crap.

[tricky]

i always bought synths which inspired me, never paid so much attention on the specs.

best, marc[/QUOTE]

Yer same here it does'nt mater how good the specs are i'ts the sound that's important, let your ears decide

[teethofgold]

I like the fact that it's an interesting *digital synth*... and not just VA.

[marc]

And it's often hard to make it sound crap.

we are working on that :). the new distortion/rate reducer/bit reducer algorithms should help.

marc

[Splat!]

What exactly is this 'Dark Character' of the Virus, that everyone talks about? :confused: I love the sound, but in no way does it instantly sound all evil unless I'm hitting some minor diminished chord.
:p It sounds all happy on a Gmajor. :rolleyes:

But, seriously, I don't get the dark vibe that people talk about when relating to the Virus. Maybe I'm just deaf :shock:
________
vapir no2 vaporizer (http://vapirno2.net)

[ehunter]

I think the name has allot to do with it....its a very dark name and people tend to sterotype it to the type of music being played with it

[luddy]

What exactly is this 'Dark Character' of the Virus, that everyone talks about? :confused: I love the sound, but in no way does it instantly sound all evil unless I'm hitting some minor diminished chord.
:p It sounds all happy on a Gmajor. :rolleyes:

But, seriously, I don't get the dark vibe that people talk about when relating to the Virus. Maybe I'm just deaf :shock:

This is very subjective, of course. But I really like what I would describe as the "dark" quality of the Virus. A lot of VA synths I hear have a very flat, bright, in-your-face edge to them. It translates to my ears as "no refinement", a kind of low-class, cheap sound. The Virus makes it easy to design sounds that sound refined and classy. It seems to me that this comes at a certain expense in edginess, hence the darkness.

That's completely subjective of course, I can well imagine that others might hear things very differently...

infected.org is a weird forum. there is so much talk about the technical aspects of the virus but hardly anything related to how it sounds and not much about how to make it sound good.

Well, a lot of us (like me) go running to an internet forum when we're having some technical problem. I usually don't come to forums for help with music per se or even sound design. It's a lot harder to talk about the subjective qualities of sound on a user forum than it is to ask how to do a hard reset or burn a ROM bank. :)

-Luddy
------------------------
http://jomomusic.com (http://jomomusic.com/)
http://dongmusic.com/album/id/album/19

[Joey]

for me its about great sound and programmability.

the virus offers both... on a lot of synths you either have one or the other

[mitchiemasha]

its called virus and it's made by access. what more do you need?

[telson]

that it's not a "common plastic toy" ( as any other synths )
and also you cannot play with it traditional christmas songs

:D:p:D:p:D:p

[feedingear]

I love the new tape delays and just jamming epic dirges using the various fx/filters and tweaks. The variety of textures you can create from just one simple tone is pretty astounding.

Also VC (it generally performs well for me), the tones, the warmth, the quality.

[fgimian]

I've tried all popular VSTis and the synths in Reason. I must admit that I am a huge fan of Thor, Zebra2 and Massive. The GMedia synths are also awesome.

I had always wanted to understand why everyone loved the Virus so much, so I bought a TI earlier this year.

I can safely say that the TI is one of the most unique sounding synths out there, it really does not sound like any VSTi I have used (and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!). I actually find that it compliments the aforementioned synths really really well (I use it alongside Zebra2 mainly, which has a way less aggressive tone in general).

These are the main things that set it apart for me:

- The oscillator sound (classic oscillators) have a slight edge to them. Some people have called it aliasing, but it's not really aliasing per se. This little bit of dirt actually makes a pretty big difference to the overall tone.

- The filters, still the best I've ever heard. I also love the analog model.

- The FM algorithm is indeed awesome, especially when used with Hard Sync, extremely aggressive and interesting sounds may be produced using this method.

- The distortion algorithms are some of the most awesome I've heard, and when you add the new distortions in v3, I must admit that these are by far my favorite distortion algorithms in any instrument. The only thing that actually rivas this is the Scream4 distortion unit in Reason, but that is quite different in tone.

- The punch knob, a small bit of detail that really makes a world of difference to certain sounds.

I think the dark tone of the Virus is a result of the following:

- The dirty sounding oscillators, if you compare the classic oscillators to most softsynths, you will see that they don't have the sharp treble that most other synhs have. This sharp treble actually is one of the things that makes softsynths sound more sterile to my ears.

- The analog boost section, since this does boost the low frequencies, the highs end up feeling duller. I usually have Analog Boost off in my personal init sound and only turn it on when I need that extra bass.

Overall, it is a brilliant one-of-a-kind instrument, and one which I could not easily replace with anything else.

Kudos to Access!

[telson]

this


http://www.access-music.de/vimeochooser.php4

[djflan]

I think the sub-osc is what gives it such character. I would love to see a 6op fm mode though...with the ability to import dx7 patches :p

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

I would like to know what you think sets the virus apart from all the other VA synths

The Virus sounds naturally fuller, warmer, deeper, silkier, smoother, dirtier and darker than any other VA/softsynth available. The Virus has the most unique/recognisable tone out of all of them....

The Virus packs an excellant array of onboard effects....which are good enough to record with - they really add to the overall tone.

The Virus has the best sounding digital filter ever made.

The Virus has the best build quality of any synth.

Overall, the Virus beats all other VA's.....

You get what you pay for...

DS

[austin_tacious]

Am I the only one that uses it like a Multieffect?!:shock: The inputs for processing external audio are duhvine.

The Aux busses allow some pretty disgusting audio mangling.

My Virus Classic is quite the coquette next to my Nord Lead. All hot and bothered. Little LEDs of love throbbing with the beat.

The ModMatrix is pretty intense.

I think it's interesting that almost everyone has listed something different... with some overlap.

By dark do you lot mean warm/full or nahsty? I think it's got a bit of both!:evil: