Virus good for trance Music?
 

Hello all, i am here because i am looking for a new synth. A few weeks ago I was in Betbuy because I wanted to Get a new Synth and I saw the Roland Gaia analog synth, i thought it was really nice from demoing it for 10 minutes or so, i thought it be a great machine, but it was $700 dollars so I wanted to make sure it was the Machine for me so I went onto a few synth forums and asked around wanting to know if the Gaia was good for Trance music mainly. They told me that if i was into trance I should look up Access Virus Keyboards, so i youtube'd them and found they were pretty nice. You could make your owns sounds and it was just a lovely machine. I was looking at the Virus Indigo 2, the only problem is its only a 37-key synth. I mean im not too bothered about it but im wondering if there is another Virus just like it in every way but a larger keyboard. If not im fine with just the Virus.

Also when people say patches, they don't mean software to download onto your machine, from what i get. I mean i read on a website that the Virus indigo was a great machine but to really unlock it your needed some kind of patch or something. I don't know im quite a novice. I am just looking for a great sounding keyboard and easy to use. Mainly im just looking for Sounds like String-saws and a few other supersaw sounds. I mean i have a budget of around $1,000-$1,500.

Finally i was on youtube and I found a version of the Indigo Virus 2 called the redback, or atleast i think it was the Indigo Virus 2, it was very similar it just had a black exterior rather than Silver. I researched that and it is a limited edition and it has more sound. I would just like to know what other options and sounds does it do that the original Indigo 2 doesn't do.


Anyway thankyou.

Just my thoughts, on your budget I would simply get a good keyboard controller and start out with softsynths. Softsynths like Zebra, Sylenth, Oresus and many others make nice supersaw sounds.

If you get something like a used Virus, or a new Virus Snow (also in your price range), I think you'll find that this synth alone is not going to be enough to produce a trance track, and that you'd be better off with a powerful PC and investment in a few VSTs. Also VSTs will give you so much exposure to so many different types of synthesis that you'll become adept at synth programming.

Even if you went out and bought a new Virus Ti2 (2 or 3 times what you want to spend), I think you'll find you need more than one of them to complete a decent track.. if the polyphony doesn't do you in (supersaws are expensive processor hogs) the three USB outs will.

I think for trance it is better to start with a DAW/VST based setup, then add a Virus later maybe for leads, etc. At least thats what I wanted to do with it... I ended up returning mine because I could never overcome the latency issues and how much more difficult it was to get it working right compared to a pure VST environment.

Sorry dude your dealing with a novice, 90% of that went over my head. I mean im just looking to play trance music right now, not record. So thats why i want to get a new keyboard, Access are the way to go for trance. I was thinking about getting an Indigo virus 2 second hand to start out. So then i went on Ebay and saw that people were selling patches for Trance sounds, i saw one guy was selling 128 trance sounds for 25 dollars and i thought that would be nice to start out with but he said it only works with the Virus A B or C and not the Ti, im guessing the A B and C are samplers that you plug into the synth. I don't know. If someone can explain this all to me. I basically am in a sort of trance band, me on the keyboard and my friend on bass and another friend on drums. Its a weird sounding band but I just want to play live and not record, that can come later. So I figure if i wan to get these trance sounds i will need a Sampler as well. I don't know..

Well in short, the Virus is probably the best overall trance synth on the market. If I were playing on stage, its the board I would want under me.

But, what I think you will want to do, ultimately is MAKE TRANCE music.. right? This means in order to get your fix you will have to be able to make an entire MP3, put on your iPod, share with friends or on myspace, etc. If that's not your goal right now, I'm guessing it will be within the first 3 months of your new music making hobby. I could be totally wrong and you just want to play some Armin Van Buuren on your stereo and play a single sound along with it? If that's the case the Virus is overkill for your needs. But even if you start at that level you will probably want to take it to the next level.

As far as terms you were unfamiliar with, DAW = digital audio workstation (music making software package) and VST is simply a software synth standard. You can buy (and download free) a wide variety of software synthesizers and control them with a single MIDI keyboard. The keyboard itself does not need to contain sounds, the sounds can play through your DAW software using your computer as the sound creation engine.

The reason I'm bringing all this up is that at some point you will discover you need drums to do trance, and the Virus or any other synth is not going to give you good drums, you need samples for that. You also need a way to arrange chord progressions. The Virus cannot do that, you need a sequencer for that. There are a number of other reasons why the Virus is an awesome synth to have in the trance making arsenal, but it cannot be your only tool. I think the same would be true if you bought the Roland Gaia, which is probably decent for the price but no where close to being in the league of the Virus.

So, here is my recommendation to you. Take a couple of hundred dollars of your budget and buy a decent MIDI keyboard controller. The one I use is Novation Remote but there are plenty of choices out there. Now, bank the rest of the money and go to http://flstudio.image-line.com/ and download the FLStudio demo. It is full featured, you just won't be able to save projects. Use that to learn how to make music -- there is a lot to learn but its not like school work, the entire journey will be fun. The FLStudio demo has enough synths built in to keep you quite busy. Then, branch out and buy some top quality synths like Zebra, Sylenth1. I highly recommend Oresus because its only $45 and I swear sometimes I get better trance sounds out of it than I did the Ti2 Desktop. At some point you may want to learn another DAW besides FLStudio, like Ableton Live, Cubase or Sonar. Or maybe you are at a point with FLStudio that you want to buy the software -- it's only a few hundred bucks, is probably one of the better DAWs out there for making trance or electro, and you get lifetime upgrades for free which is unbeatable.

Then, at some point start adding hardware synths like a Virus, which will give you a deep appreciation for the workflow simplicity a pure software environment provides, and make you wonder what you did with your spare time now that you're spending all your time trying to get your hardware gear working and in sync :)

I'm not saying that's the right approach for everyone, I just think what I know about your situation thus far it might be a better path for you to head toward making real trance than spending your budget on a single used Virus.

To answer your original question, yes the Virus is good for trance; it's just that its best added after you've got some of the other essentials covered.

I should also add that my recommendation stands even if you don't want to record. With the FLStudio demo, you cannot save projects so recording would be somewhat pointless anyway. I'm recommending the DAW / VST approach because it will make it easier to play, and give you the fundamentals so that you'll be in a position to make better hardware purchase decisions later if you decide to pursue the hobby.

Playing a single sound at a time is not really making or even emulating trance. For every trance track you hear, most of what you're hearing is a result of the production process rather than someone physically playing a keyboard. Playing a keyboard is good for putting down riffs / chord progressions etc, but many of the greats "play" most of their trance using their computer mouse and keyboard.

Hope that makes sense. I know a lot of it is information overload when youre starting out, and I'm only providing one perspective (one that requires hardly any money to get started).

Thanks for clearing that up because i was so confused between samplers and keyboards. Ive used Fl Studio before but didn't really like it due to the fact that im more of a hands on kind of person. As in the piano roll didn't work for me, i need to figure out chords with my hands as apposed to putting them on the roll bar and correcting them so I say i am in the market for a keyboard. Ive been down the road of software and i didn't like it. So that being said there are many models of Virus, The A B C and snow are Samplers from what I know and things like the Indigo, KC, Ti are actual keyboards, which is what im looking for. I am thinking about getting a Virus Indigo 2, which im told is a very good machine and sounds great from watching youtube videos. Then i think theres an updated version of the indigo because it went out of commision and i think its called Ti2. Im not sure, this could all be wrong. But once i get the synth i will mess around with it and create trance sounds. I mean if i buy the soudns off of ebay would i need to get a sampler to transfer them over or can i do it with the machine.

When you get patches is it just a sheet of information liek Oscilater tweeked to 33, LFO down to 22, Appegiator on, and stuff like that you have to program in or is it like a file that you take a flashdrive to. What is the difference between the Old Virus indigo and the new one?

Lastly a desktop is a keyboard right, its just another name fore like a workstation?

Thankyou, this helps tremendously!

A second-hand Virus 'Indigo2' or 'kC' or similar would be a great starting point.

The only differences between Virus A, B, C, Ti etc. is that each successive generation were released with more DSP and features. For example, the TI can load patches (programmed sounds) that were made using the Virus A, but the reverse is not true as the Virus TI employs new hardware and features that the Virus A simply never had as it was released back in 1997.

Series:
Virus A (1997)
Virus B (2000)
Virus C (2002)
Virus TI1/TI2 (2004-present)

The Virus A series had one model: A (desktop unit).
The Virus B series had three models: B (desktop unit), kB (61-note keyboard) and Indigo (37-note keyboard). A later model called "Virus Classic" (desktop) was also released, but this was merely a re-badged Virus B.
The Virus C series also had three models: C (desktop unit), kC (61-note keyboard) and Indigo2 (37-note keyboard).
The Virus TI series has seven models: Ti (desktop), TI KB (61-note keyboard), TI Polar (37-note keyboard), Snow (a cut-down desktop unit), Ti2 (desktop unit), TI2 KB (61-note keyboard), TI2 Polar (37-note keyboard).

The TI and TI2 variants are identical (they are 100% compatible between each other, and thus sound identical) other than the TI2 has 25% more polyphony. It's effectively a "refresh" (update) of the same TI model, being release several years after the original TI. The TI hardware has been phased out and replaced by the refreshed so-called TI2.

There were other models (rack units, TDM, etc), but the above were the main ones. The Redback, since you mentioned it earlier, was an Indigo 2 (virus C synth engine) but just a different colour. It came a long time before the TI series.

Here is a comparison of the earlier Virus models (before ever the Virus TI/TI2 were released): http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/access_virus_chart.pdf

However the largest step upwards in terms of increased DSP and functionality between models occurred between the Virus C and the TI. The TI can do everything the Virus C can, but a whole lot more. A huge amount more in fact. So read up everything you can about it before you make your decision.

General:
http://www.access-music.de

Virus B series:
Virus B
Virus Indigo 1

Virus C series:
Virus C
Virus Indigo 2
Virus Indigo 2 OS v6.5

Virus TI series:
Virus TI
Virus TI Snow

The Virus cannot do sampling nor use samples. Period. They are just synthesizers. As such, the Virus will never sound like a sampled acoustic grand piano, for example, nor can they record samples for later playback. For playing and/or recording samples you'd need a computer or a keyboard workstation like the Korg M3 or Yamaha Motif or Roland Fantom.

Patches are files (one file can contain anything up to 256 patches), but the Virus doesn't use a flashdrive. With a Virus C or earlier you'd need to use a program such as SoundDiver to transfer/receive patches to and from the computer via MIDI. With the TI you drop the patch files into a folder and they are uploaded/downloaded via USB, I think, but don't quote me on that (I have a Virus Indigo, a much earlier model, and haven't ever had a chance to play with a TI yet).

No. A "desktop unit" is a synth that sits on your desktop and doesn't have a keyboard. You'd need a MIDI keyboard to hook it up and play it.
The Indigo1, Indigo2, TI Polar and TI2 Polar are the 37-note Virus B/C/TI keyboards respectively, and the kB, kC, TI1 KB and TI2 KB are the 61-note versions.

A "workstation" is a keyboard that does everything - sequencing, sampling, sample-playback (like acoustic piano, drums, etc.), effects, and stuff.

The Virus is not really all-round enough to be considered a "workstation".

Hope this helps.

Thankyou, that was a very thought out and time taking post you just did, cleared up quite a bit. My idea is i want to get some kind of Access Keyboard, preferably with larger keyboard than the Indigo 2 but not really with weighted keys.

But i was on ebay yesterday and saw this auction for 128 trance sounds and thought that would be a nice starter pack for me to get into the sounds i need rather than apposed to me spending a few days straight trying to make souds.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Access-Virus-TI-...Keyboards_MIDI

I just want to know if those sounds will go onto an Access Virus indigo 2 or will i have to get a newer keyboard and if those sounds don't go through a keyboard would i have to get one of those Virus A, B, C or Ti. On there it sais something like the Ti doens't load the sounds and something about wavetables. So basically ive got a budget of 1,500 and im fine with buying a keyboard now and then the Other part of the synth later. Keyboard is my main priority.

You're welcome. :)



The only Access Virus keyboards that are larger than the Virus Indigo (above left) and Virus TI Polar (above right), are those that have 61 keys:-


Virus C KB (Virus C series)


Virus TI KB (Virus TI series)


Virus TI2 KB (Virus TI2 series)

The Virus TI can do a lot more than the Virus C. The TI has 'hypersaw' (simulates many detuned saw-waves), wavetables, and a lot of other stuff that the Virus C can't do. Therefore any patches which were made using the TI that used hypersaw, wavetables, etc. the Virus C wouldn't be able to correctly use or emulate these.

However, as for what Virus C sounds like, and I know you like your Trance stuff:-

http://www.vengeance-sound.com/eng/i...dexSounds.html

Trance Source X
Incubation V2
Incubation V3

The above soundsets will all work with a Virus C, as that's what they were programmed on at the time. If you click on each of the soundsets and scroll down you will be able to hear MP3s of how they will sound. Manuel Schleis is behind Vengeance Sound. He's been supporting the Virus for many years.

He's also a music producer. Here's one of his recent productions (well, 2008):

Well I think im interested in the Indigo but isnt there a few models of them, like indigo 1 and 2 and they are older models that came out in like 2002. The first picture you posted looks like an updated version of the indigo, what year was it made in and do you think because its newer that its worth more money as aposed to if i would buy an older indigo 2? I mean the newer one looks better but its that just it, looks? or did they add more stuff into it.

Lastly about the ebay auction, if i buy the newer or older indigo can i just put the patches on there from Ebay or do i need one of those non keyboard synths like the A, B, C or Snow? I mean im looking at a budget of 1,500 like i said.