Ho ho, January NAMM here we go! NEW VIRUS ALERT!

[Timo]

Turnkey have dropped the price of the TI keyboard and Polar by £300, which is exactly what they did with the Virus C series a couple of months before the TIs were unveiled.

Furthermore Turnkey state: "Access Virus Ti Keyboard Strictly Limited Clearance Stock More Info... "

The black helicopters are on the move, methinks!

[F5D]

Finally. I've been waiting for the TI2 for some time now. I don't want to buy the old model.

edit. I don't know. It seems that they're b stock or something.

[Hollowcell]

hehe Nice job Timo! I was hoping someone would spur this on again.

I wish I had time for photoshopping though.

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Its just Turnkey trying to flog of customer returns.

I dont think it marks the arrival of a new Virus. Maybe im wrong....but Id expect an announcement within the next year.

Im waiting for the TI MKII. Access would have learned alot (the hard way) and the MKII will probably be a super synth. Thanks to all of you who made it possible by supporting the MKI.....thank you.

DS

[Timo]

Well, the patterns are very similar.

* Before the TI was released - Er, before the C's were discontinued, should I say - the C's dropped markedly in price (roughly by the same amount as the current drop) just two(!) months prior to the Winter NAMM. Access tend to do this so they can introduce a new model at the old price point. I don't think they could otherwise afford to go above the £1,500 barrier given todays commercial competition of high-tech PCs and softsynths,
* Access also release one major feature-added OS upgrade on any flagship model (excluding de-bugging fixes) before moving on to a new model. - OS v2.0 for the current TI already debuted a whole year ago at Winter NAMM, and the synth has also seen a further release of OS v2.5.1.
* Unless Access stand to upgrade the TI's OS (new feature wise) any more, then it's a long time until Xmas 2009 to announce a successor. Access favour winter NAMMs as they create the biggest splash. I don't believe they do Summer ones? I could be wrong.
* It's been 3yrs since they discontinued the C-series.
* Turnkey are showing clearance stock across all the TI models, and advertising it as such. The b-stock is separate, at £100 cheaper than the clearance stock.

Too many coincidences, methinks!

Originally Posted by DS

Im waiting for the TI MKII. Access would have learned alot (the hard way) and the MKII will probably be a super synth. Thanks to all of you who made it possible by supporting the MKI.....thank you.

Ho ho, love the sound of that knife twisting. I have to join you on that, though.

[Groove66]

Originally Posted by Timo

Well, the patterns are very similar.

* Before the TI was released - Er, before the C's were discontinued, should I say - the C's dropped markedly in price (roughly by the same amount as the current drop) just two(!) months prior to the Winter NAMM. Access tend to do this so they can introduce a new model at the old price point. I don't think they could otherwise afford to go above the £1,500 barrier given todays commercial competition of high-tech PCs and softsynths,
* Access also release one major feature-added OS upgrade on any flagship model (excluding de-bugging fixes) before moving on to a new model. - OS v2.0 for the current TI already debuted a whole year ago at Winter NAMM, and the synth has also seen a further release of OS v2.5.1.
* Unless Access stand to upgrade the TI's OS (new feature wise) any more, then it's a long time until Xmas 2009 to announce a successor. Access favour winter NAMMs as they create the biggest splash. I don't believe they do Summer ones? I could be wrong.
* It's been 3yrs since they discontinued the C-series.
* Turnkey are showing clearance stock across all the TI models, and advertising it as such. The b-stock is separate, at £100 cheaper than the clearance stock.

Too many coincidences, methinks!



Ho ho, love the sound of that knife twisting. I have to join you on that, though.

Turnkey clearance stock is NOT 'NEW' stock, i repeat is not NEW stock.

These are customer returns 'or' EX demo units in full working order with complete packaging and warranty.

My understaing is that Turnkey had many returns of TI's during 2006/2007 that they were a little fed up of selling new ones only to see them coming back again and again. I was in the Turnkey workshop and noticed like 5 Ti's in for service.

Since the new OS 2.5.1, the TI is fully working as far as my uses are concerned with No more Pops and Clicks (99.9% gone), etc. The TI is an amazing sounding machine, and i have been able to get the lushest pads ever, nothing else (imo) beats it in the VA world .

I know for a fact that when i returned my first Ti Polar to Turnkey, it was resold that very same week as Limited Clearance stock, and this was in June 2007 - this year. Access were denying the Pops and Clicks until recently , so Turnkey had no choice but to re-sell all these returned units, unless hardware faults were found.

Also, Turnkey are no longer the UK distributor for Access, but instead it is now Soundcontrol. My new Polar is Soundcontrol stock.

Perhaps Turnkey gave up and allowed 'Soundcontrol' to continue selling the Virus Ti's as of now (seeing as they are now the UK distribution), so that Turnkey can concentrate on other sales with out the hassle of buggy TI's (Moogs, Davesmith...). Mind you OS 2.5.1 pretty much nailed the bugs for standalone use, and most of the VC ones too. People should atleast know that the TI is click free.

Access may announce a new Virus line end of this year or in Jan / Feb 2008, BUT they really need to consider the existing TI users and perhaps offer some kind of upgrade plan plus a top up charge to upgrade. Or they should continue supporting the Virus TI a little while more and prove that they are commited to customer satifaction and add new features and make it 100% flawless with a super solid OS.

But i know that a new Virus does not mean a better Virus. I would wait atleast 12-24 months before parting with my TI Polar for a new Virus (if any were to be released). The current TI only came out the dark with the new OS 2.5.1 (almost 3 years since release of the Ti).

New Virus = No thanks, i will take a working Ti for now. Maybe 2 years time i can look into it.

[EoN]

Does anyone actually have this news from the source? Or is this just pure speculation?

Personally I won't be holding my breath on a new model from Access in a hurry. I recently bought a TI - and don't regret it. I remember when the C was out, I waited for ever for the TI to actually be released, and even when it was, it took over a year before anyone had positive reviews about them. (After OS upgrades etc) - in hindsight, knowing how long it took, I would have just bought the C when I was keen.

IF a new model comes out I'd consider upgrading, but that'd be after the new model is released (next 12 months or so), then I'd wait another 12 months for the unit to be stable.

[Hollowcell]

My guess is that they'll release a stable machine this time though. They won't want the same level of bad press they got before.

Well, looks like a stable, well built TImkII is gunna hit the stores!

[Timo]

Thanks for the heads up re: Turnkey, Groove. I didn't realise that Turnkey lost primary UK Access distributor status.

FWIW, turnkey are also clearing Korg Triton Extreme and TR stock, I'm thinking this is due to Korg wanting to push and expand on their newer M3 series, too.

Originally Posted by EoN

Does anyone actually have this news from the source? Or is this just pure speculation?

Speculation, but an educated guess. All the signs indicate that way, at least to me. Certainly nothing official, though.

Price-wise, though, it's a nice time to buy a TI mk1... while it lasts. Of course Access still release bug-fixes long after any major feature-rich OS has been released (OS v2.5.1 in this case), so support will likely not be dropped for their current TI line. I even remember "PureTuning" being added to the Virus B-series long after the C-series was in full flow.