i kind of meant in programming terms. you can load up presets on any synth but i tend to think of most presets as templates or sources of ideas. i rarely find a preset fits into anything i write. especially some of the virus ones, the bulk of which are very very strange. interesting but strange. and i wouldnt rely on the presets for trance sounds - the best ones are the ones you build yourself.
programming a virus is the first brick wall alot of people seem to run into. i did too. you get it and you start turning some rotaries and you find that its difficult to coax really good sounds out of it straight away.
i think the mod matrix and the modulation options on the virus are key to what makes it such a beautiful instrument. but it takes time to learn and familiarise yourself with them. when i first got it, i wasnt thinking in those terms. and from the posts on some forums regarding the virus, it wasnt what they were thinking either.
these days i prefer to build my own sounds from scratch. lately ive just been mixing wavetables to get really interesting sounds. heres a few i made from scratch recently:
(note: no keyboard and therefore no pitch wheel and mod wheel unfortunately. no effects or post processing used except for SIR reverb [its free and awesome] and fruity delay 2. the 3rd sound is a preset on the synth called '7thheaven' the others are made by moi)
http://www.soundclick.com/util/downl...key=D488CA11-1
i have to update some of these because they are old and stick on some of my newer better ones. will update shortly.