New to Synth

[OSS_Synth]

Hello, I had been playing guitar for three years when my friend asked me if I would play synth in his band. I've been playing the synth/keyboard three months but have picked it up a million times quicker then guitar, played one gig in front of about 200 people and went down well. I'm also having alot of fun playing round with the oscillators on my synth. At the minute I play a Korg x 5 and a Micro Korg.

I recently recorded with an Access Virus B for our band and was blown away by the amount and quality of sounds so I thought I would have to get me one of those. Anyway on doing some internet research I see that the TI Snow is most suited for live performance although I can pick up a virus b second hand for half the price.

What are the pro's and cons of each? I'm also prepared for a steep learning curve.

[Timo]

Hi there,

Compared to the TI Snow, the Virus B is missing these aspects:-

Oscillators:
• Hypersaw (upto 9 detuned saw/squares using one-note of poly)
• Wavetables (I think at release the TI had 72 wavetable PCMs to choose from but more may have been added since then.)
• Wavetable PWM
• Graintables
• Formants

Polyphony
• Up to 50 voices (as opposed to 24 of the Virus B). However the voice count in the Snow is very variable depending on the complexity of the patch.

Filters:
• Moog 1/2/3/4/5/6 poles
• 3 band (inc. parametric Mid) EQ per part

Modulation
• 6 slots (each 1 source + 3 destinations = 6 sources + 18 destinations in total) as opposed to the Virus B's 3 slots (with 3 sources and 6 destinations in total).

Arpeggiator
• User programmable

Total Integration
• Virus Control
• 3 stereo USB outputs (at 16-bit 44.1KHz only)
• USB MIDI
• Searchable categories/sounds
• "Section locking" (ability to mix/match different parts of a patch with other patches).

Misc
• 17+ ROM banks (compared to 8 of the Virus B)

Other connections
• 2 x Balanced 24-bit 192KHz audio outputs on 1/4" TRS jacks (as opposed to the Virus B's 6 x Unbalanced 18-bit audio outputs on 1/4" TS jacks)
• Snow has two external Midi connections: In and Out; whereas Indigo has all three: Midi In, Out and Thru. TI Snow can be controlled via USB MIDI, though.

It's entirely a personal decision as to whether the differences would be worth the extra outlay, but hopefully the above may help either way. To sum up, the biggest audible differences would be in the new oscillators, and the Moog filters. The rest is effectively an increased feature set and for better workflow.

A comparison of the older Virus models can be found here: http://access-music.de/comparisonchart.php4

Differences between ALL Virus models in their entirety, starting from the Virus A:

• Virus A has 12 voice polyphony, 2 main oscillators + 1 sub, 2 LFOs, one FM mode, Chorus, RingModulation, Distortion effects, but no Phaser effect, 3 sources and 6 destinations for modulation matrix, 16-part multitimbral (including aux-bus & audio output channels), and 20-Bit D/A.
• Virus B/Indigo/kB =, same as Virus A but with 24 voice polyphony, up to 3 main oscillators + 1 sub, 3 LFOs, 5 FM modes, additional Phaser effect, surround sound capability, PureTuning (microtuning), and 24-Bit D/A.
• Virus Classic - Identical to Virus B.
• Virus C/Indigo II/kC = same as Virus B but with 32 voice polyphony, MiniMoog Analog filter (selectable from 1-to-6 poles), 6 sources and 9 destinations for modulation matrix, 3-band EQ with parametric mid per part.
• Virus TI/Polar/TI-KB, same as Virus C but with up to 80 voices polyphony, Total Integration, additional HyperSaw, Wavetable, Graintable, and Formant oscillators, independent reverb and delay, programmable arp', 6 sources each with 3 destinations for the modulation matrix (18 destinations total), refined Oscillator Sync', tap tempo, knob-quantise, PureSemitones, USB (16Bit/44.1KHz) and S/PDIF I/O, 6 balanced (+4dB) 1/4" TRS outputs, 24-bit analogue inputs and outputs, 512 RAM & 2048 ROM patch storage, Atomizer [pending OS v2.7], 4x stereo outs via USB [pending OS v2.7].
• Virus TI Snow = A cut-down Virus TI. Identical sound engine but only up to 50 voice poly, 4-part multitimbral, 512/512 RAM/ROM storage, and only 2 analog audio inputs and outputs.

Welcome to the forum.

[OSS_Synth]

Thank you for the information, looks like I will be splashing out on a TI Snow, credit crunch, what credit crunch?

[OSS_Synth]

Just like to say I have had my TI Snow now for two weeks. It's amazing I love it, even the gig bag with it is quality.

Had a few pointers off someone I know who has had a Virus a long time but nothing too much, just having fun creating stuff through trial and error, best way to learn.