Something interesting happening at Access Music

[syncerely]

Originally Posted by nutrinoland

....Proper adjustable Envelope Curves...

This one really surprises me.
Context: I've been maniacally programming Ultranova/Mininova for a year and a half and I've had a TI2 keyboard for two weeks.
I know about the envelope modulating the envelope trick but it takes a mod slot.
The Ultranova has 16 parameters each for its 6 envelopes including attack and decay slopes.
Honestly I like many things about the Ultranova operating system more but that said I love the Virus. It sounds so sweet. The Ultranova and Virus do really go great together.

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by syncerely

This one really surprises me.
Context: I've been maniacally programming Ultranova/Mininova for a year and a half and I've had a TI2 keyboard for two weeks.
I know about the envelope modulating the envelope trick but it takes a mod slot.
The Ultranova has 16 parameters each for its 6 envelopes including attack and decay slopes.
Honestly I like many things about the Ultranova operating system more but that said I love the Virus. It sounds so sweet. The Ultranova and Virus do really go great together.

I too have an Ultranova, and love it. The value it provides at the price point still seems unmatched. The Virus is more powerful of course because the multi-timbrality, but the Nova synths are worthy competitors, especially when dealing with a single patch. The disappointing aspect of the Ultranova is that not many third party sound libraries for it, whereas the Virus has a massive amount to choose from.

Are you finding the USB integration from both synths to be equally reliable? Also curious what DAW you use?

[syncerely]

Originally Posted by MBTC

I too have an Ultranova, and love it. The value it provides at the price point still seems unmatched. The Virus is more powerful of course because the multi-timbrality, but the Nova synths are worthy competitors, especially when dealing with a single patch. The disappointing aspect of the Ultranova is that not many third party sound libraries for it, whereas the Virus has a massive amount to choose from.

Are you finding the USB integration from both synths to be equally reliable? Also curious what DAW you use?

I've been using Cubase Artist 7.5. Honestly the Ultranova can still be flakey sometimes following MIDI clock connected with USB. The latest operating system was an improvement and I've had it where it was not following and restarted everything and suddenly it was locked on so...

I have some experience with the Virus and Cubase but still not a lot. I have found the end of polyphony on the Virus which was pretty disappointing but I've been used to the Ultranova single timbrality so its not really that big a deal. Besides I've been rendering everything to individual tracks lately so I can really dial in the mix.

If the Virus and the Ultranova got married and had kids it would be the synth of dreams.

The Virus has so much more to remember. This oscillator syncs to that one. This oscillator hardly does anything. This LFO has a connection to X. That LFO has a connection to Y.

On the Ultranova all the oscillators, LFOs, filters, etc. are identical.

Maybe I should start another thread or something.

I know what's worse than the Virus not having envelope slope control... the number of poles on the filters are dependent on the routing and there are like 3 routing choices. oops. 4. Kinda.

6 filter routing choices on the Ultranova. Poles entirely independent. 2 24db lowpass filters in series = 1 48db filter (pretty much)

I have a big list of things the Virus can do that the Ultranova can't too so...
Its really nice to have both of them sitting here.

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by syncerely

I've been using Cubase Artist 7.5. Honestly the Ultranova can still be flakey sometimes following MIDI clock connected with USB. The latest operating system was an improvement and I've had it where it was not following and restarted everything and suddenly it was locked on so...

I have some experience with the Virus and Cubase but still not a lot. I have found the end of polyphony on the Virus which was pretty disappointing but I've been used to the Ultranova single timbrality so its not really that big a deal. Besides I've been rendering everything to individual tracks lately so I can really dial in the mix.

If the Virus and the Ultranova got married and had kids it would be the synth of dreams.

The Virus has so much more to remember. This oscillator syncs to that one. This oscillator hardly does anything. This LFO has a connection to X. That LFO has a connection to Y.

On the Ultranova all the oscillators, LFOs, filters, etc. are identical.

Maybe I should start another thread or something.

There is an Ultranova thread here I started once upon a time, or if you'd like to start a new thread discussing the UN and TI side by side I think there would be a lot of value in that actually.

http://www.infekted.org/virus/showthread.php?t=33510

I'm using Cubase 8 Pro currently btw. I haven't owned a Virus in several years, but my experience was that the Ultranova played nicer with the DAW overall than the TI2 desktop. The Virus OS has had several revisions since then, and I did not try the Virus with Cubase (I was using FLStudio at the time which I'm not sure is an officially supported DAW). I'm not sure of the current state of things, so your experience with the latest and greatest will be of tremendous interest to me.

About USB MIDI synchronization on the Nova, have you checked pg. 38 of the user guide about most sequencers sending midi clock signal in play/record mode only? Curious if you're seeing something different than that. I think MIDI sync with pretty much any hardware and the DAW can be flaky because of this.

Also, like you I found the polyphony limits of the Virus to be troubling on such an expensive synth. The Ultranova has its limits too, but at the price point of the Ultranova I feel much more forgiving about polyphony.

[syncerely]

Originally Posted by MBTC

There is an Ultranova thread here I started once upon a time, or if you'd like to start a new thread discussing the UN and TI side by side I think there would be a lot of value in that actually.

http://www.infekted.org/virus/showthread.php?t=33510

I'm using Cubase 8 Pro currently btw.

I read this thread when I was thinking about buying the Ultranova. I'll reread it.
I upped to Padshop Pro right away way back when. Its a great synth.
I'm wondering if Cubase 8 works on Vista. It probably does.
I just bought the Virus and then the more expensive than I'd like Yamaha FC7 pedal so my discretionary music spending is about tapped out for a while.
A quick note on the Ultranova and its digital "phasyness". Each oscillator has its own nonresonant lowpass filter on it so if you dial that down to about 62 your digital phasiness goes away.