What was your biggest frustration with your new virus?

[Barnelby]

[quote=Littlenegrilio;297622]Man, you can't beat the sound of the virus compared to the even the BEST plugins in the business! It's just too damn FAT! Too massive!

Now ok, what kind of virus do you have?

I just got a TI2. So far I am very happy with it but not exceedingly happy with it and so far not blown away. I have read from a few different sources that a virus can take months to master, and when enough time is put into it it can really do the blowing away that I am craving.

That's great and all, but I still feel like I can get equal/better sounds EASIER out of sylenth way faster than the virus (true it is a WAY more simplified interface and what not, but considering the price difference it's really got me wondering)...

So far I'm bit between discouraged and intimidated but intrigued and pleasantly challenged at the same time.

I have also heard people with virus Cs say that they think they sound better than the Ti2, but others who say no way....


Thoughts, questions, comments?

Thanks!


By the way sorry I just quoted three things in a row instead of making one comprehensive post. I'm not smart good.

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by Barnelby

Ableton! He helped write the program

The wiki article does indicate he uses Ableton as well now and maybe he contributed to its creation, but he got started with (and to the best of my knowledge still uses FLStudio). FLStudio has shipped with deadmau5-created content for years now. I doubt any artist uses only one DAW though.

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by Barnelby

That's great and all, but I still feel like I can get equal/better sounds EASIER out of sylenth way faster than the virus (true it is a WAY more simplified interface and what not, but considering the price difference it's really got me wondering)...

This is the workflow advantage of good VSTs I always bring up. I would love to have the time to be more gear-focused; I love hardware and even the tinkering part of it that gets in the way of making music. But from a sheer music-creation perspective there was so much about the Ti2 that was just a brick wall in my workflow. With softsynths I can generate/scrap/rework ideas (both sound design and things like chord progressions) at such a faster rate.

[Barnelby]

So you ditched your virus for VSTs? I find myself torn at the moment, like I said, because for that much money and work-flow-slowing I might as well get a real analogue synth and have a real sound (or a better computer or a million other things), but last night I was working on a project and got some GREAT sounds out of the virus that I've never heard from VSTs.

The jury is still out...

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by Barnelby

So you ditched your virus for VSTs? I find myself torn at the moment, like I said, because for that much money and work-flow-slowing I might as well get a real analogue synth and have a real sound (or a better computer or a million other things), but last night I was working on a project and got some GREAT sounds out of the virus that I've never heard from VSTs.

The jury is still out...

I wouldn't quite say I ditched the virus for VSTs because I had a virus for less than a month. Back in the day I was a hardware guy, gave up the hobby because there was never enough time/money/gear etc. When the softsynth movement came along, it was a way to get back into synths with less limitations on money and gear, and time efficiency was greatly improved. Always wanting a better sound, I lusted after a virus for years thinking it would get me there, so when I finally ponied up the cash for a Ti2 desktop, I liked the sound but was dissapointed overall with things like latency, 3 USB outs etc which to me made it not worth $2200. Not that it didn't sound great, its just that I felt by the time everything is in MP3 format I doubt I would be able to tell the difference in Virus and VST, and in some cases the VST might have sounded better.
I still wonder how much of my dissatisfacton with the Virus (latency being the main issue) was just due to the fact that I was running FLStudio on Windows 7 64bit, whereas it seemed like others with Cubase or 32 bit environments had much better luck -- maybe it was lack of maturity of 64 bit drivers? I'm not sure but I just got the impression the whole total integration thing had a long way to go before it is viable for me, and in the meantime the virus just cost too much. I'd love to have the sound with perfect timing and workflow integration.

[feedingear]

Put time into the virus and you will get wonderful sounds out of it.. just listen to the presets -some of them are mind blowing and have a warmth and character that no soft synth can emulate successfully.

[Lunarboy]

I really like my virus for its sound, it sounds great and you can make it sound almost every possible way! But he is limited too.

Here are my frustrations:

Biggest frustation:
The delay has a maximum of 4/16!!! I am use to work with ableton and half bar and more delay time.

Speaking of delay. I would like the coloration to be a real filter. And to have useful information about it. What -16 means??? Or 32?? And the modulation is the same thing. I would like it to be clocked, or at least to have its value displayed as ms. What a modulation time of 16 means?? We are in 21st century guy.

That comment apply to everything. Make an useful UI!! Make it useful and talkative, a value of 16 for chorus delay means nothing for me, use ms!! use clocked time!! use hz!!!! use percent!

Other frustration: I dont have the ability to chain my effect the way i want. I would like to pass the sound in the reverb, then the filter and then the delay and why not to finish with the Phaser. Why i would like to do it? I dont know. But i cant anyway. Again, i am use to ableton where i can chain my effect in the order i want. What a limitation in 21st century!!!

Another one: I miss the 6-voices chorus of Z3ta+, or the fat 6 voices unison of the OP-X. To make the virus sound fat cost a lot of CPU power, and the virus cpu is not really strong. So, i still use Z3ta+ or OP-X. The virus really lack power. It's not real it has 20 voices with complexes patch. I experiment voice stealing after 5 voices if i dont take care. Which is the reason why i still use the OP-X when i want a very fat pad or drone. Doing the same with my TI would just bust the cpu out.

Yes, i like my virus. I just would like him to be more powerful!! Or more flexible. If at least you could use ableton effect in a virus part!!! And if they can improve the UI.

[Roby31]

I don't understand most of your post, Lunarboy (I sort of understand the part of the UI, "sort of" meaning that i use my EARS to make the sounds, not the UI - if it sounds good then why would I need to complain about how the coloration works or how it doesn't show precise Hz values...).

For example: why did you buy it in the first place? Why do you want it to be something that it can't be? How do you expect a FIXED architecture synth to be more flexible? "Oh God I love the Model D but hey, why couldn't they give more routing options? Why do knobs go from x to y instead of being values?"
I don't know. I'm part of the group that always wants new features and even better stuff, but I understand I bought the synth for what it COULD do at the moment of my purchase, not for what it could be done with updates or feature requests, although Access are renowned for that reason.
If you wanted it modular and flexible you had the options: you could get all the software you wanted or you could buy a case and a bunch of your favorite modules and update it every time you wanted or you had the money. You bought a fixed architecture synth instead, and this is the reason I can't understand the complaints.

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by Lunarboy

Another one: I miss the 6-voices chorus of Z3ta+, or the fat 6 voices unison of the OP-X. To make the virus sound fat cost a lot of CPU power, and the virus cpu is not really strong. So, i still use Z3ta+ or OP-X. The virus really lack power. It's not real it has 20 voices with complexes patch. I experiment voice stealing after 5 voices if i dont take care. Which is the reason why i still use the OP-X when i want a very fat pad or drone. Doing the same with my TI would just bust the cpu out.

Yes, i like my virus. I just would like him to be more powerful!! Or more flexible. If at least you could use ableton effect in a virus part!!! And if they can improve the UI.

You brought up a good point I've only touched on a few times... the CPU power of the current generation of Virus is disappointing, and I think at the price point it needs about 4-5x the voices to compete with or replace my current usage of VSTs. The Virus came along at a time when CPUs were not as powerful as they are today, and seems to still be judged by that metric.

I doubt the cost of a better CPU would even be significant to Access... very small adjustment to production cost. Its sort of embarassing that I can have a gazillion Windows services running on my machine and still get the power of several Viruses side by side.

[The Outsider]

My greater frustration was to imagine the time necessary to exploit new wavetables (Grain, Formant)… I think that I need more than one life to exploit the sound pallet of this beast.
About plucks technic, my best council is to read again Howard Scarr tutorial. "page 26"