Stories on what interested you to buy the VIRUS TI!

[jdmmade]

Hey guys, I wanted to buy my 4th synthesizer and I made sure to myself and promised myself that I am motivated to raise money to buy the Virus TI 2. So for a motivational kick... Please share a story with me about how you got your first Virus TI or Virus TI 2, and how it felt to finally grasp all that German engineered power. :p

[horsegrip]

Welcome here too !!
I have 6 synths, and from my all of them, I have 2 Access Viruses now.
The KC and the TI.
Absolutely love them and use them for 90% of my work.
And would again consider a TI2, if someone would give me the money.
Brilliant Pads, EFX and basses. Which is exactly what I like.
P.S. - VC is good, but I'm old school and run everything MIDI still. I find it more stable. Then again, the GUI is awesome for tweaks

[Timo]

My Indigo was my 4th synth, and compared to the others it just blows them out of the water. I suddenly realised what I had been missing, in that I had been trying so hard to make the other synths sound half decent when in fact you can't polish a turd.

If there happened to be a natural disaster and I lost all my gear, without a second thought the Virus would be the first one I'd buy.

[inforlk]

My first synth was the virus snow. And I am really very happy.

[Pighood]

I was intrigued by the warm, deep sound of the Virus series years ago whilst playing an Indigo. Had to listen past the techno presets (I despise techno) for the underlying character, which went MILES beyond what my VA's at the time could do. Finally bought a TI keyboard in 2006 because I could (those were the days :( ), before version 2 was released. V2 added all the crunchy wavetable stuff...essentially a whole new synth for free. Then 2.7, and 3.0...love it more every day.

[Sonis]

The 1 pole filter sweep ben does on this video: http://www.sonicstate.com/news/shownews.cfm?newsid=1960

And of course the wavetables he goes through.

After those I was hooked.

[plaid_emu]

I've got the very bestest of Virus TI stories. It's more like a fairy tale that came true!

I always wanted a Virus. I had a handful of hardware synths but none of them cost more than $1,000. At the time, I never thought any digital synth was really worth $2,000+ dollars anyway and I was happy enough with my E-MU XL-7.

One day I noticed Nova Musik was giving away a free Virus TI. All you had to do was enter your email address and they would draw one randomly from the thousands of entries they received. I thought "what the hell, I'll enter". I also made a point of making my girlfriend enter the contest to increase the chances of winning.

So I kind of forgot about it and a couple months pass. We're out having dinner at TGIF's when my girlfriend gets a call on her cell phone from Tony Gral, the owner of Nova Musik. He was calling to tell her she was the winner of the giveaway contest and that he would be shipping out the Virus ASAP! :shock: :o :D I told her she could put it on ebay and sell it if she wanted to. She insisted I keep it and use it! Crazy, huh?

Once it showed up and I plugged it in, scrolled through a couple of presets.... I knew exactly why they cost so much goddamn money! Amazing sound. Probably the most expressive and inspiring instrument I've ever played.

[fgimian]

Great read fellas, here's my Virus TI love story :)

I was a software-only guy, started with trackers (Fast Tracker / Impulse Tracker / Buzz) then moved to Reason, then moved to Cubase with Reason ReWired. I was pretty happy with the sounds I was getting out of Reason and VSTis like Zebra2. I had been hearing everywhere that the Virus was an awesome synth for electronic music which sparked my interest.

I started to fall in love with the Virus sound when I heard the demos of Vengeance presets on their site. I spent hours trying to reproduce even one of the sounds but fell short, I simply couldn't get any software synth to sound as aggressive as the Virus yet still stay musical. Furthermore, in certain tunes, where I heard a sound that really stood out, I could never reproduce it. I actually checked out these artists' sites and even got in contact with a few to see what their secret was ... the answer was almost always, "oh, that's the Virus".

For over a year, I attempted to decide what to buy. I couldn't afford the Virus TI so I was considering the Virus Powercore. Due to all the forum posts on how terrible it was, I never went ahead with the purchase though.

So 2009 came and I said, enough is enough, this is going to be the year I get my TI!! Several days into January, I checked eBay as I usually did, and found a Buy It Now TI desktop in my state for a very good price! It took me 15 minutes to convince myself before I pressed the button.

I must admit that I thought the TI would indeed replace all my softsynths but instead, it has ended up being an excellent compliment to them. I still love Thor and Zebra2 as much as I ever did, in fact some sounds that I need are better produced by these synths. But, the TI brings such a different flavor to the table, it's almost a different breed of synth. I find myself using it for all bassline duties and hard sweeps / fx. It is indeed an amazing synth and I don't think I could be without it again!

Excuse me while I cuddle with it ... :)

[synthfiend]

I used to mess with electronic sounds some ten years ago, then about 3 years ago came across some money and bought a Mac Book Pro, Logic Studio and a Remote SL controller. I had some fun with that kit, but got sick of having to boot up the Mac then load Logic to get any sound.

I thought I would like a hardware synth for the imediacy and power it could offer. I remembered seeing a Polar in my local keyboard shop around 2005 and thought to myself that looked and sound devine, but realised it was out of my reach.

When the Snow came out I demoed one and thought the sound was mind blowing. My 40th was coming up and I thought I would love a Polar. I sold my MBP, Logic and the remote SL and bought the Polar.

It would have to be one of my best purchases, it is soo deep and I know I will spend the next 5 to 10 years exploring its potential.

There is something to be said for a piece of hardware, it has character and presence, something software lacks.:D

Great thread by the way.....

[cl516]

Ok here's mine:
It was 2003 - I'd just bought my first real synth (MS2000) and I wanted more. Living in NYC at the time, it was easy to check out the Virus in person either at 48th St. or in my case, at "two lines music" cuz I lived downtown within walking distance. But the lowest price I could find was from Novamusik, so I bit the bullet and ordered it. Then the day came and it arrived, I remember being so excited. A brand new Virus C desktop. I setup a keyboard, plugged in the power, grabbed some headphones. I wanted to focus and dedicate a whole afternoon staring at that delicious red screen.

I turned on the power. Cooooool, so excited. Played a few notes. Sounds great! So I decided to go deeper... I grabbed the filter knob and proceeded to engage in my first filter sweep and then...
































...the power went out. 2003 North America blackout.

[plaid_emu]

...the power went out. 2003 North America blackout.

Great story! I can only imagine the harsh profanity that must've flowed from your apartment windows. :D

[Hell Yeh]

I got into production just before it was common to have software-only studios. It was recommended to me by a friend of mine that all you need to make trance was a JP and a Virus so I bought both (started off with a Virus B). This was a time where, I was contemplating all the keyboard synths that I was going to end up buying and now have way too many VSTi's than I know what to do with.

[jdmmade]

WOW The stories are great! Keep em coming this is good stuff, pumps me up lol!

[feedingear]

I live in Perth, WA, and the prices for the Virus TI retail were sitting on 5.17 AU retail, best knockdown was 4.5 or so for a Polar or Keyboard version.

I dreamed about it for 3 months, worked a job where I would stand in the cold from 4am-2pm every day in a hospital parking lot during the middle of winter working 7 days a week, dreaming about the Virus.

I bought a new Polar from an ebay seller from America for 2.7AU, after a long nervous week and a half and import taxes and shipping, all up it cost me 3.1AU.

I then got a converter plug for it, processed to nervously turn it on and - BOOM - all the lights flashed white. Scared the absolute shit out of me, I thought I had somehow blown it.

Never had a problem with it bar a dodgy USB cable, and never thought I could get such deep sounds out of a synth. I was new to synthesis having mostly used workstations like XV5080, Triton Extreme, and currently an M3. My M3 is collecting dust now.

And since I've hooked it up to my new addition, Sherman Filterbank 2, the sound is so incredibly fat its almost scary.

[Arch]

...the power went out. 2003 North America blackout.

Wow, I didn't know the Virus was that powerful! :D

I came from Rebirth (1997-98, pre vst era - spending all that time trying to make the 303s not sound like 303s LOL). Then Buzz Tracker (the modular aspect was cool, I made some amazing sounds by accident, but they weren't always so musical). Then Reason and an Alpha Juno, although I never actually used it in a tune (all I did with it was hoovers, but I didn't write techno then). Then ill health stopped my from making tunes. My health is still not 100%, but at the back of my mind there was always the thought that I would write tunes again. At the start of '09, I made a fateful stop at a music store in town, wondering how much midi keyboards were these days. Perhaps this was the time? Then I started finding out how cool the gear is these days (especially the VSTs which were pretty shithouse back when I was using Reason 1.0). And of course the computer integration of certain synthesizers. I live in a 1br flat and can't deal with multiple keyboards, big mixer etc. I bought a few bits of gear, an M3 with the radius upgrade, motif rack es (sold), a few other cheap bits (sold), and finally there was a Virus TI desktop available in my town, from a dj gear store! I was reluctant to buy interstate as most people don't know how to package gear if they don't have the original packaging - they think that 5 layers of bubble wrap will protect it (one of the bits of gear I tried was damaged this way - but they accepted a return). And no one bid on it! I had to sell some other stuff before I could buy it, but I ended up getting it for $1800aud.
I'm still learning how to make some more interesting sounds on it of course as I haven't had it that long.

[xerxes]

i saw a picture of the virus ti - and thought to myself: "i need to have that, or i will lose the will to live." this is actually true.
so i got one, and i have been in love ever since. the only synth where the sounds are as good as it looks and vice verca.

[tranqui]

haha, my story is similar to xerxes' :lol:

the only thought I had in my mind after trying the TI desktop for the first time was, quoting terry pratchett, "a statement, a threat and an ultimatum: MINE."

[jdmmade]

HAHA nice! Seriously! I need to have the Virus TI 2 or it will be the end of the world (feeling). :razz:

[Nobl1v1on]

The path to finally owning the synth of my dreams is one paved with many mishaps and many losses, and lots of melodrama as well. I got into gear after living in Orlando for a year, being exposed to the last dance of the Rave scene in 96-97 just before the plug got pulled and it stopped being fun. So I had become, by the end of the summer of 96, a complete and total E head. I was there on a scholarship to UCF, a full ride, for Computer Engineering. I my first semester, straight A's, was offered a apprenticeship with one the defense companies that works with UCF. I took the opportunity, and the first weekend of my second semester I took my first "real" pills. Old school groovers, no press, just big ole wafers that tasted like crap. I figured one probably would not suffice, as I had been taking alot of acid in my offtime. So I sadled up with a ten-pack in my pocket and went to Firestone. As luck would have it, there was a special guest DJ playing that night, a new talent from overseas named Paul Van Dyke. Like I was saying earlier, this was the end of the era of the scene still being "underground", at least in Florida, and of course the club stayed open till like 9 or 10 am the following morning. Long story made short, I found I was better suited for social climbing and designer drug intake than I was for computer engineering. My second semester I only passed two classes, and was put on academic probation for my scholarship. Having met a host of people that had some clout in the scene, I found myself going out four or five nights a week, and eatting rolls five or six nights a week. This continued until I completely flunked out of school and was forced to move back in with my parents, about 100lbs lighter. Decided I should take a lil brake from school, I got a job serving at the Ritz Carlton and started bringing rolls in from Orlando to the sleepy little coastal town I had to move back to. Within a year I had the local police eyeballing me and all that, but I was so blissed out all the time I had no clue. Finally I was betrayed by one of my supposed friends who OD'ed on some dope, and of course blamed me for his lack of responsibility in being able to be a responsible drug user (GREAT LOGIC I KNOW). So basically some NARC informant set me up and got me arrested for sale/distribution/manufacture plus some possession because by this time I was also inhaling Oxy's. I ended up copping a plea deal as I was a first time offender, and had previously been an upstanding citizen, and an Episcopal youth group leader. Two years of house arrest was my plea deal. So I went from being a drug addict to being a total drunk. Lost my very good job at the Ritz, and ended up bouncing from restaurant to restaurant, gaining a rather bad reputation for being completely fucked out of my skull during shifts.

Somehow though I managed to get through my house arrest without violating, and was again set free on the public. I had developed a few good attributes while under house arrest, I had started buying synths, a Roland XP-80, the first Electribe Drum Machine, an Alpha Juno, an MKS-50, an Ensoniq ESQ-1, and a set of tables and a good mixer. Being that through all of this I was still a computer geek, I had a nice machine too. So I started learning the craft of sequencing, MIDI, the world of synths and of sound. I had also finally quit drinking and was only smoking herbs. I was coming along really well, putting together a respectable studio, getting gigs playing parties and doing weddings as well as doing various collaborations making music. For five years I worked towards bettering my craft and getting more and more gigs, gaining some sort of reputation as a good DJ and a good producer. Five years of sobriety from booze had turned me into a bit of a pothead and of course I started dabbling in amphetimines and cocaine. After a few years of that, inevitably I started drinking again and things went south rather quickly. I totalled two cars, lost any clout I had attained as a DJ, and started selling gear here and there to finance my growing coke habit. Before I knew it, all I had left was my computer which of course decided to crap out on me. So again back at the bottom no car, no job, no gear, no computer, and hope was dwindling fast. The final hit was when I wrecked my mom's dream car, which of course I was forbidden from driving. I was given an ultimatum, get into rehab or get out, which essentially would mean I would be an indigent person. I bit the perverbial bullet and started a very intense at home "in patient" program. After I had made it through a solid year with no relapses, my godmother started to come back into my life. She had heard about my repeated falls from grace and had also heard that I finally was doing the right things for me and my family. She took me out to lunch one day and asked me about what my intentions were, my intentions about life, and about my future endeavours. I told her that through all of my dark times, the only positive thing that I had was music. We spoke extensively about how music had kept some level of hope in me through the past year, the past year that been the hardest year of my life. I had completely distanced myself from all my prior associations, and was going to school again online, and was actually making good grades. It was really great to have someone other than my immediate family who showed a genuine interest in me and my hopes and dreams. About a month later she called me on the phone and said she was coming to pick me up. She shows up and announces we are making a trip into the city for lunch. I was stoked to get out of the house and to have a good lunch, what happened next was very unexpected. I was flipping through a Future Music magazine while we were waiting for our lunches and she was curious as to what I was reading. I told her I was lusting after a synth box from Sweden called a Monomachine, she nodded and smiled and then lunch came. About a week later I get an email from Elektron informing me that a SFX-60 MKII monomachine had been shipped and was on its way courtesy of my godmother. I was floored, I called her so excited and elated, as well curious as to why she decided to buy this rather pricey piece of kit. She replied that she saw a spark in my eyes that she had not seen in me since I was a small child and that it just inspired her to get it for me. A month later she called to check up on me, we spoke alot about everything that was going on, my mom had been hospitalized a week earlier, and about how I was coping. I told her of course I was full of worry, but also that I had began to find solace in the fact that I could still put on headphones and work away learning how to be creative again, sober. About a month later she called me again to talk and about family affairs and how my sobriety was coming along, and asked me about what my dream synth would be. I chuckled and told her I been lusting rather obssessivly about the latest Access Virus synth, the TI 2. We talked a bit longer and then said our goodbyes. About a month later she called me and told my to check my email, I logged in and asked her what I should be looking for, she replied that I should be seeing a correspondence from her in just a second.
"You got mail" chimed, and I repopened my inbox to see a email that she had forwarded me from Musican's Friend. My hands were shaking like mad, and I opened it, there it was an invoice for an Access Virus TI v.2 61 key. I started crying tears of joy over the phone and again asked her why, she simply replied, I really believe you again, and I also believe in you. I know you will do great things, and I want you to know that people still care a great deal about you. I was speechless. That was a first, I had absolutely nothing to say. She told me she found one where the price was right, it was a "scratch and dent" item but was guaranteed to be in full working order. We chatted a bit more and said our goodbyes. Then on Thursday, July 2nd it arrived. My dream synth, a piece of gear I thought, if I ever got, would be years from now after completing my recovery program and maybe getting a job and saving for it. Here it is though, and let me just tell you the high from having this synth, OWNING this synth is better than any other high. Its real, and it won't be used up in a night, and it definitely will never be sold so I can score some coke or a bag of pot. This synth fills a void in me that all those drugs never could. It provides me with genuine joy, something I thought I might not ever feel again.:D:D:D

So what life lesson did I learn, good things happen to people who are trying to do good. ;-)

That and the fact that yes Access Virus does make some of the best synths in the universe:-P

Cheers Nobl1v1on

[Ceri JC]

Wow, really touching story Nobl1v1on. Really nice Godmother and by the sounds of it you realise how great she is! :)

[feedingear]

Glad I took the time to read that - drugs can be a slippery slope and without honesty within yourself, you can go down some seriously dark pathways.

And I agree with you - I have only done smallish gigs, but one of the best experiences I have ever had was gigging at a funk club on NYE in perth several years ago, only to about 300-400 people, but we were competing with a 18 piece funk band, playing our dodgy rock/prog funk - (www.myspace.com/fleshofthelotusband ) I mostly wrote within the band.

The feeling after playing that set to such a positive response was a high that no drug has topped, and what keeps me pushing on musically.

[jdmmade]

I wanted to say my thanks to those who wrote those touching stories! Here is a LINK (http://www.infekted.org/virus/showthread.php?t=31299) to it!