Couple of questions. . . .

[Soundtrack2life]

I have a lot of soft synths and feel that I want to expand my pallet. Not to mention if after a period of time if that changes the hardware unit will have a better resale then software. Also I use Pro Tools 9 HD3 & Logic 9 on a first gen intel Mac Pro how well does the Total Integration feature work? FWIW I don't mind committing to audio tracks as I record. So I don't need to keep the Virus tracks virtual for the entire session. I was considering the Snow model but I really think I will regret not having all the knobs and buttons. If any one could answer my questions above I would really appreciate it to help me decide if the Virus TI2 Desktop will be a good fit for me.
Thanks!

[Soundtrack2life]

And one more question. . . if I did change my mind and go with the Snow how much trouble would it be to map my Axiom 61 (gen 1) or Axiom Pro 49 to control it in lieu of having all the knobs and buttons on the Desktop model.
Thanks again. . .

[FSTZ]

you can map and save your settings with the virus control panel pretty easily.

the snow has only 4 instances as opposed to the 16 instances you get with a TI desktop, or keyed model.

I would go all the way and get the TI desktop

[TweakHead]

And one more question. . . if I did change my mind and go with the Snow how much trouble would it be to map my Axiom 61 (gen 1) or Axiom Pro 49 to control it in lieu of having all the knobs and buttons on the Desktop model.
Thanks again. . .

you could map the midi keyboard to the virus directly and do some sort of mapping, provided you know the CC numbers and assign them to the knobs and stuff on the midi controller, or just use assign the controllers to the virus control plug-in, just like with any other plug-in out there. but even with the snow, you still have three soft knobs - check out access's video on that, two knobs for filters, mod and pitch wheel are instantly usable, so that should almost cover it for any controlling needs - what you could be missing is the build the sound from scratch twisting knobs, rather then going through menus on the plug-in action, so yeah...

[Soundtrack2life]

what you could be missing is the build the sound from scratch twisting knobs, rather then going through menus on the plug-in action, so yeah...

Hmmm looks like this will be the big up for the Desktop version!

[Soundtrack2life]

Well I pulled the trigger on the TI2 Desktop :cool: I should have it tomorrow. I have been checking out some of the demos of the soundsets available for the Virus and I am very impressed (enough to purchase it). So I hope all goes well integrating it into my studio with Pro Tools & Logic. . . . .
Joe

[Berni]

Well I pulled the trigger on the TI2 Desktop :cool: I should have it tomorrow. I have been checking out some of the demos of the soundsets available for the Virus and I am very impressed (enough to purchase it). So I hope all goes well integrating it into my studio with Pro Tools & Logic. . . . .
Joe
Yeah its a killer sounding synth & thats what sold it for me. You did the right thing & went with the desktop trust me. Let us know how you get along with the plug in as the RTAS, VST & AU versions all seem to have different levels of stability.

[FSTZ]

Well I pulled the trigger on the TI2 Desktop :cool: I should have it tomorrow. I have been checking out some of the demos of the soundsets available for the Virus and I am very impressed (enough to purchase it). So I hope all goes well integrating it into my studio with Pro Tools & Logic. . . . .
Joe

congrats on your new synth!

[Soundtrack2life]

Thanks! BTW the TI2 Desktop arrived about an hour ago. I un-boxed it and sat it in the studio. I have some things to do the next couple of hours and then I have a session later today. So I may not even get to turn it on for about another 12 hours. . . . damn its killing me :( I hope that I am one of the lucky ones when I integrate it into Pro Tool & Logic. I will let you know how I make out. ;)
Joe

[Soundtrack2life]

OK so I made a moment this afternoon (I couldn't resist LOL) to install TIOS 5.0.1.05 Public Beta and then I opened up Pro Tools 9 inserted the plug in to a track and flipped through a few dozen patches. Damn this thing sounds SICK! I am blown away 8-) I did not get into anything too deep . . . but it played back without any issues. So once I get into it I hope it continues to be a smooth ride! As soon as I put it through its paces (torture test) I will report back how it integrates into my system.
Joe

[Berni]

OK so I made a moment this afternoon (I couldn't resist LOL) to install TIOS 5.0.1.05 Public Beta and then I opened up Pro Tools 9 inserted the plug in to a track and flipped through a few dozen patches. Damn this thing sounds SICK! I am blown away 8-) I did not get into anything too deep . . . but it played back without any issues. So once I get into it I hope it continues to be a smooth ride! As soon as I put it through its paces (torture test) I will report back how it integrates into my system.
Joe

Pretty impressive you got up & running in such a short time, mere mortals do not fare as well, you must be a pro & done a lot of homework. Any chance of the specs on your rig? Would also be cool to hear some of your tracks.

[Soundtrack2life]

Berni, Thanks for the compliments LOL. I did not read any manuals or anything I just dug into the software. FWIW I have been using computers for music for about 20+ years so by now I am pretty comfortable with jumping into most software. Sounds like I am fortunate that everything is working well though (I hope I do not jinx myself). Last night I created a session in PT and had 10 MIDI tracks playing through the plugin. Just stock patches along with some knob tweaking (It was a torture test and nothing you would want to hear LOL). The cool part was with all of those tracks Pro Tools cruised through it with the meter at approx. 30% with the buffers set at 64. If I had this many soft synths tracks loaded in Pro Tools it would have brought my system to its knees! So I give Access an A+ for how I can breath new life into my aging Mac Pro. It started getting late but right before I shut everything off I started mapping my Axiom 61 (1st gen) MIDI controller to the Desktop controls. I know this kind of defeats the purpose of getting the Desktop over the Snow but I have placed the Desktop in a machine room adjacent to my control room. If I have to I can relocate it next to the mix position. . . . but as a rule I don't want it there while I am doing sessions. I do a lot of rock and roll stuff so there will not be a need to use it for those sessions and one less thing for "curious" hands to play with. As for my setup:

Mac Pro 1,1 (2006 1st generation Intel Mac), 2.66 Quad Core, 8 Gigs Ram
Snow Leopard 10.6.8
Pro Tools 9.0.3 HD3 Accel
Logic 9.0.5

Like I said above I primarily do a lot of rock oriented music. But I am very intrigued with electronic music. With that said I am on the "ground floor" of creating in this style of music. Thus I do not have any tracks to share with you at this point in time. I have been doing recording for many years and one thing for sure I can appreciate the quality & sounds of the Virus synth! Looking forward to being inspired for years to come. Next up testing it out with Logic :cool:
Joe

[Berni]

Berni, Thanks for the compliments LOL. I did not read any manuals or anything I just dug into the software. FWIW I have been using computers for music for about 20+ years so by now I am pretty comfortable with jumping into most software. Sounds like I am fortunate that everything is working well though (I hope I do not jinx myself). Last night I created a session in PT and had 10 MIDI tracks playing through the plugin. Just stock patches along with some knob tweaking (It was a torture test and nothing you would want to hear LOL). The cool part was with all of those tracks Pro Tools cruised through it with the meter at approx. 30% with the buffers set at 64. If I had this many soft synths tracks loaded in Pro Tools it would have brought my system to its knees! So I give Access an A+ for how I can breath new life into my aging Mac Pro. It started getting late but right before I shut everything off I started mapping my Axiom 61 (1st gen) MIDI controller to the Desktop controls. I know this kind of defeats the purpose of getting the Desktop over the Snow but I have placed the Desktop in a machine room adjacent to my control room. If I have to I can relocate it next to the mix position. . . . but as a rule I don't want it there while I am doing sessions. I do a lot of rock and roll stuff so there will not be a need to use it for those sessions and one less thing for "curious" hands to play with. As for my setup:

Mac Pro 1,1 (2006 1st generation Intel Mac), 2.66 Quad Core, 8 Gigs Ram
Snow Leopard 10.6.8
Pro Tools 9.0.3 HD3 Accel
Logic 9.0.5

Like I said above I primarily do a lot of rock oriented music. But I am very intrigued with electronic music. With that said I am on the "ground floor" of creating in this style of music. Thus I do not have any tracks to share with you at this point in time. I have been doing recording for many years and one thing for sure I can appreciate the quality & sounds of the Virus synth! Looking forward to being inspired for years to come. Next up testing it out with Logic :cool:
Joe
I figured you must have had a lot of experience with this sort of thing & from what I'm hearing the new 5.0.1 version of VC seems to be pretty bug free. Having a HD rig also helps, I had the hardest time trying to get it to work with LE. In fact it's only recently I have got it to work properly & it took buying a new computer & switching up to PT10 to achieve this.
Anyway don't forget there are 1000's of free patches available from access's site so get that baby maxed out, there are some really cool sound sets up there. Looking forward to hearing some of your tunes in the near future.

[Soundtrack2life]

Looks like I jumped in to the Desktop at a good time with the stable beta software that was recently released. I did download all of the free soundsets on the Access site & I will finish tonight unzipping them and copying them into the patches folder. Thanks for the heads up. Plus there are a couple of commerical soundsets that I have my eye on that I will most likely purchase. Without diving into creating my own and rolling with pretty much the stock patches. . . I think I will be set for quite a while :cool: Looking forward to creating some music ;)
Thanks again!
Joe

[Soundtrack2life]

FWIW last night I set it up in Logic 9. Glad I started with Pro Tools first :D It took me a little while to wrap my head around using the Virus in that Logic! I even watched the video from Access. However the video did NOT show in detail step by step how to set up the midi channels so that they all point to the one plug in instance. I guess they assumed the end user already knew how to do that. Now that I have it figured out it is working perfect though. I have a female pop song that I was working on that I added the Virus to. Wow did it take it to the next level. I can see this is going to be a great ride :cool:
Joe

[Soundtrack2life]

Yesterday I started putting the Virus plugin through its paces in Pro Tools. While it worked great there were some weird things going on. If I left the plug open and then went back after a while to tweak a volume the faders would be "stuck" closing and reopening the plugin quickly remedied the issues. And a few instances where I would loose sync. And a stop and start solved that. Oh yeah one other thing. . . . when I would adjust a instrument volume fader in the plugin say # 3 well then # 7 would move at the same time. Once again a close and reopen fixe the problem. Nothing I mentioned is a deal breaker for me and for the most part and time the plugin works as advertised. But for sure it is not without some issues. Seems like there are less of these issues in Logic on my machine. Back to making music. . . . . :D
Joe

[Berni]

Yesterday I started putting the Virus plugin through its paces in Pro Tools. While it worked great there were some weird things going on. If I left the plug open and then went back after a while to tweak a volume the faders would be "stuck" closing and reopening the plugin quickly remedied the issues. And a few instances where I would loose sync. And a stop and start solved that. Oh yeah one other thing. . . . when I would adjust a instrument volume fader in the plugin say # 3 well then # 7 would move at the same time. Once again a close and reopen fixe the problem. Nothing I mentioned is a deal breaker for me and for the most part and time the plugin works as advertised. But for sure it is not without some issues. Seems like there are less of these issues in Logic on my machine. Back to making music. . . . . :D
Joe
You should have tried using the RTAS version a a while back, trust me you would have pulled out most of your hair. I pretty much gave up & went back to old midi /audio out's it was that frustrating & as I said earlier it is only recently since buying a new intel mac & upgrading to PT10 have I got it to work anywhere near reliably enough to use it in production. Support for the RTAS version was announced 5 years ago but it is still the VST's poor cousin & still has issues but it is probably as good as it is going to get. I also run the VST version in Live on my set up & the difference in stability is quite obvious.

[Soundtrack2life]

One other MAJOR issue with Pro Tools (have not tried this with Logic yet) . . . . if I want to commit the tracks to audio instead of playing them live as a virtual instrument there is some serious latency happening? I have my buffers set to 64 (as low as they will go with an PT HD system) and the delay compensation off. The still the delay is like almost an 1/8 note off! I can't understand why this is happening? Once again not a deal breaker for me. If I have to I will either route the signal through analog or keep them virtual. I will double check my settings tonight though to make sure it was nothing stupid on my end. . . . And I am going to see if I fair better in Logic.
Joe

[feedingear]

Two options - switch the channels to D and use your audio outs (all configurable and routable). Otherwise bounce them down, then realign the audio to where it should be.

[Soundtrack2life]

feedingear thanks! I will have to check out the "D" switch thing you mentioned & still patching in the analog outputs. I have been just moving things for now & it is really not that big of a deal. I am having way to much fun with the Desktop to get upset with the handful of issues. :cool:

[Soundtrack2life]

OK for me the "D" direct monitor switch to the analog outputs produced even worse results. . . . plus I actually love the TI to USB audio feature. So this is what I came up with and it works perfect for Pro Tools HD. First off let me say this that once I "find" the part that I like I very rarely ever go back and tweak. There for I commit what I do to an audio track immediately after. So instead of sliding tracks around what I do is record my part to a midi track (I am more of a programer then a keyboard player and most of the time need to fix what I do in midi). When recording the MIDI file the delay compensation is "off". Then I will playback from the MIDI track and put the audio track that I was monitoring through into record mode and go to the drop down menu and enable the delay compensation and hit record. Everything is perfectly in sync! Then when I go to record the next part just repeat the process above. The only PITA is that I have to remember to keep flipping the delay compensation on and off between takes and playback. This may have been discussed somewhere before but I did not see it. So I thought I would share my "work around" that allows for perfect sync with Pro Tools HD.