My TI opinion...

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Hi

Well Ive had the Virus TI for about a month now and have a few thoughts. My review is brief and to the point....and represent my preferences/opinon

Build Quality

Overall the TI continues in the tradition of being very well built and feeling very nice to the touch. In this respect its by far the best of any modern synth.

User Interface

Overall, I dont find the UI particularly intuitive.

The Mod Matrix is confusing (it would help if all LFO's had identical functions and routings). Once ive made my settings, glancing down at the mod section doesnt tell me much - I find im having to dive back into the menues to reaquaint myself with what ive done. I generally don't like having to do this.

The Oscilator section needs an overhall. This area is the worst culprit in my opinion. I would like to see Access expand the oscilator section with individual knobs for Osc 1, 2 & 3. I would like to see an LED under each osc to tell me whether I have classic, spectral wave, wavetable or hypersaw activated. This would provide me with some visual feedback. Additionally, get rid of that dedicated button for osc 3 on/off...its a total waste - stick it in the effects section (more on that later)

As things stand right now, there are a number of functions I cannot access simultaneously. I cannot tweak 2 different oscilators in real time - I do this all the time with the Pro-One and other dual osc synths. I cannot tweak ring mod whilst playing the keys. Must I do this through midi or have it auto assigned?

The Filter section is fine and easy to navigate.

The effects section. The onboard effects do sound good...but please can we have an on/off toggle button. I do not like recording synth parts which have lots of effects on them. Currently, one has to go into each effect sub menue and turn down the gain/effect send - its time consuming. Also, I think the delay maybe causing some of the pops and clicks (and other strange artifacts).

Comments about the overall sound of the TI - The wavetables have the potential to be interesting and should be explored further. Some of my favourite patches are those done by Ben Crossland and Matt Picone using the wavetables. A 3rd envelope generator for sure (make them 8 stage like the DX7 and we can get more detailed/intricate sounds).

Given the sonic character of the virus already, the hypersaws are useful in terms of maintaining polyphony, but they do lack the energy/fizz of the JP8000's. They are good to have none the less.

One last note about the presets. Im finding that they are becoming increasingly effects laden and this is beginning to detract from the overall sound quality. This is all personal preferance I know...but I find extreme eq'ing, feedback chorus, feedback phaser, delay and reverb and analog boost just overkill. It really deadens the sound (makes it dull sounding). If I could simply call up a patch and turn all the effects off with one click of a button...i wouldnt complain.

Lastly. Most of my preferences would require a hardware rethink/restructure and are obviously beyond the scope of an OS update. But I say this to Access, before you go adding more features, I think you need to consider ditching glow in the dark flashing logos and include some more knobs for the controls that really matter - namely the oscilator section. At any one time, we should be able to see exactly what waveform has been selected for each oscilator and be able to manipulate two independent oscilators simulataneously (ie: pulse width on osc 1 & 2 at the same time)

DS