Maybe it's that Nord Lead and some other hardware synths seem geared toward the live performer, and that while the Virus is probably never in doubt as a live synth, as a studio synth it boasts "total integration" even in the product name itself, and therefore I guess expectations are that integration is what it says it is. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the Nord Lead even tries to have the same level of integration, and is roughly 30% cheaper. I really don't remember hearing much bad press about the Virus C and prior models. It wasn't until "TI" came along as a feature, and I guess many felt that they were slow in delivering on what was promised or at least in some cases flippant toward the customer about it. Maybe "it's there" in terms of stability these days? I am certainly keeping one eye on the Virus and can see myself potentially caving in and buying one. Every now and then I look around for a good deal on a used C or KC so that I can re-enter the Viral waters with a little less of a money commitment.
I can't be sure this explains the bad press with the Virus, but I will say that during my career in software development, I've learned whenever you add a new feature, you have to make sure it works and works well. If it works some of the time or doesn't work as advertised, it would have been better to not add it at all and keep the feature set lean.
Now that I'm on Cubase for Windows, with a USB 3 card that I'm sure is not limiting the throughput, I'm very tempted to get another Virus and see how the integration works after some years of maturity.
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