Need Experienced Info
 

Ahoy! New to here and to synth land in general.

I need recommendations on what equipment to buy. First, the background and what I need it for: I'm an experienced musician (guitar and bass, piano), with little experience in virtual stuff, synths, etc, but a keen and specific interest.
I'm looking to:
- do Ableton Live performance stuff heavy on loops I have already made with Logic,
- to continue to make more loops with a high-quality synth for a discerning audiophile (that's where the Virus will come in),
-as well as to experiment eventually with throwing live guitar improv and perhaps even midi-guitar for some super spicy on-the-fly solos and riffing.

At the moment I have
-Logic 8,
-a brand new MacbookPro17",
-and a pair of M-Audio EXS monitors.
-my old Motu Ultralite MK3 has moved out with my old roomate. I don't even have an interface to plug my mons into.

The questions: what Virus, interface, midi-controllers, etc, fit my needs? Do I even need an interface if using the Virus (I have been told, loosely, "no")? Should I get a Virus Desktop and a seperate midi-controller (m-audio axiom looks tasty...)? Or a Virus with the keyboard AND a midi controller keyboard? Last and least, how could I best fit a midi guitar (eventually) into all this?

Any help is appreciated, but clear and candid expert advice most of all :P

Thanks.

Hi there.

I will have a go for you! Last year I upgraded my Mac and due to space constraints etc have put most of my gear out of the way. I used to use a MOTU 828mk2 which I still have, but I find most of the time the Virus TI's output is good enough for my needs. Whether this is for you is another thing! What I do know is that the Virus TI is 16 Bit 44/48 Khz when running as an interface. As you may expect from that, you have a little less headroom than a 24 Bit Motu. I just put a TRacks Limiter on the output bus to be sure!

I'm very happy with my TI Polar as a controller, it has 32 templates to set up midi controllers and I don't ever find myself wanting more control, but, that may be different for you.

I would say a Polar or a TI kb would be the best bang for buck for you. RE:the midi guitar thing - I don't have any experience running that, but I often get one of my beloved synths down from the attic and run midi from the TI to them. I had a few issues on an earlier virus OS with stuck notes, but now it all seems fine. If you want to run more I would get another Midi interface (I have my AMT8 for such times which is rock solid on timing for me.)

if you're seriously concerned about sound quality, get a 24 bit audio interface.

regardless of that, I personally wouldn't count on the TI technology to be stable or reliable. others may disagree... but I find every aspect of the TI software/USB/plug-in etc to be unstable. sometimes when I plug in my virus it completely freezes my mac... which never happens otherwise.

that being said... I have a snow and the sounds are fantastic... so I am happy with my purchase.

Based on the fact you said you are new to synth , I say you would benefit from not over complicating matters - your call naturally.

Yes 24bit, better sound quality, but you'd be surprised that the Virus is pretty good.

My Mac hasn't freezed for over a year - which was with an old OS, like anything these things can happen and the TI has had it's ups and downs. Is there anywhere you can get one and return if there's a problem?

Performance on the non-beta drivers has been rock solid for some time for me.
I use Virus TI on Mac AND XP pro. Ableton, Cubase and ProTools.

Ive had 4 midi Keyboards, The Novation Remote Sl61 is by far my favorate. The onboard screen makes my life a lot easier and the 32 assighnable buttons are great for launching midi clips in live. I have an APC 40 preordered but they pushed back the release date from march 5 to may 11th. http://www.akaipro.com/apc40videos Check it out if you havnt already.

Thankee
 

Thanks for the help so far guys. The sound quality from the Motu was definitely awesome, but from what Totty was saying, It might be better for the bank to shell out cash for the Virus now to start simple, and back to the Motu if i add more controllers. Another question crops up:

If it's being used as a controller for Live, I'm assuming that the Virus can be used to control its own software synth for live keyboarding? (would that require a brief switch out of controller mode & is this easy enough to do?)

On a side note, if I do get the Motu or am running the Virus as the interface, the Novation Remote Sl61 looks pretty damn sick as a controller. That's the kind of thing I would definitely like to invest in for Live stuff.

Thanks again all.

If you want the Virus sound I think that would be a good way to go. You can always build the setup later.

For live stuff, you probably would want more control, On the TI, you can switch from remote mode or control the Virus - Not at the same time. Doesn't stop you automating certain parts and then switching. But - to start off with, it is what it says:Totally Integrated;-)

I've used my Virus TI Snow in a similar manner to how you describe. I've recorded my electric violin on it and the sound quality is great. It won't compete with real high end soundcards and the lack of in/outs might pose a problem depending on how complex you need your routing to be, but for a home studio, the TIs (well Polar and Snow, they're the only two I've tried) are a good soundcard IMO.

Based on your current equipment, experience, and intentions, I recommend:

Virus Snow & Novation RemoteSL 61 combo, no additional soundcard at this point.

The only limitation of the Snow, IMHO, is the USB1 (not USB2) speed limit that will give you some latency, however, the direct out function of the Snow compensates for that, and your speedy MBP can subsidize with sheer processing power.

The RemoteSL series are my favorite, with the custom LCD display feature. I do prefer the key action on the M-Audio Axiom line, so I'm currently using an Axiom 61 in conjunction with an SL37. The "drum" pads are much better on the Axiom, as well.... bigger, softer. If you prefer a true weighted piano key action, and space and money is no big deal, then perhaps a weighted 88 key controller is the way to go, along with an SL Zero for the synth controls.

I'm assembling a MIDI programming guide for the RemoteSL series and the Virus, so if you do go that route, drop me a line for more info. There are other MIDI keyboards, but these really are the most widely available and solid ones to consider.