Access Future,hardware or software or both?
 

What is the future for Access?

I think they should go software but with a hardware controller as dongle.

What do you think?

Is Summer Namm when Access release something new? I think it is time for Access to come up with a Virus TI3.

What is their next move?

Well one perspective -- if one could consider a Powercore as a dongle of sorts :) then the argument could be made they already have what you're suggesting.

What I found to be goofy about the Powercore solution, at least the last time I looked at it, was that it seemed they had set up the pricing model so that you were limited in how many instances of the Virus VST you could run (regardless of hardware power)... basically they tried to eliminate the cost advantage of softsynths by requiring per-instenace license for the powercore version!! Unbelievable.

With so many good softsynths over the last couple of years I think they are going to have to do something really dramatic fairly soon. Either get total integration working properly in all hosts and get issues like latency resolved, otherwise lunch gets eaten by increasingly powerful CPUs on the PC and increase in synth programming skills by softsynth makers.

I think there will always be a market for a hardware Virus, I just think the potential size of the market is shrinking. They can always continue to make a pricey hardware synth, because its got sort of a legendary-mystical-mythical place in the minds of so many, and I think in many ways it was a very important instrument in modern day electronic music, so just like Moog they can probably always have a high-end hardware product for those who play on stage and such, at a high price point (just less software based producer-types would buy it).

I'm not so sure if Access focus too much on Summer NAMM, similar to many other music tech companies. Usually the Winter show is the biggie.

Depends how much spare juice is left in those ol' TI DSP chips! They consistently surprise me.

Timo by the time the new 'TI3' comes out, hopefully youll get your hands on a TI!

You're forgetting that the virus is an instrument (as in performers buy it too), it's not just an alternative to a soft synth.

Almost anything is an instrument in the right hands! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4mmc5Vadg4&feature=
related

Way to completely miss the point :D

The Powercore wasn't made by Access, it was licensed out to TC Electronics & it was them who would have decided how people would use it & pay for it.

infraction! so you mean that with software and controller you can not perform?

I mean as a performer you use computers today right? so there is no problem to use software.

There is almost no limits of features and synthesis possibilities with software, only the computer.

I think this is the way to go, software is going to dominate and I think the big 3 hardware (workstation) companies are going software soon also, because workstation synths is dying.

On the workstation side of things - I had a Korg Triton Ex for a while that I used mainly for cover band gigging, got a Korg M3 after selling it. I thought the Triton actually sounded better in most regards.

The M3s keybed was beautiful and expressive, but theres just no damn good reason to use it anymore when softsynths come as close if not closer for the pads, eps, and organ tones. String banks are okay but for the price you could buy Vienna Starter edition for a full orchestra and have far more powerful and functional sounds, then supplement with the various EP/Organ vsts that are out there that sound killer at a fraction of the price.

The combis are flat out useless, and the synth presets are just woefully naff - its hard to imagine any discerning dance producer using those synths, not to mention that by most reports (I didnt personally use it) the firewire connectivity function was a flop.

I sold the m3, bought a laptop. Never looked back.