Officially rejoining the group...

[MBTC]

After many years of being virus-free, I have recently been diagnosed with a case of Virus Snow -- this time it may be permanent so I will need support of the group

I told myself if I could ever find a great deal on a used Virus C or TI locally, where I could get my paws on it first, I would buy it. The theory is that by purchasing a used unit, if I ever get frustrated like I did with my original TI2 desktop purchase, I could sell it on the used market for roughly what I paid for it, therefore the stress factor would be reduced.

So it happened, I found a TI Snow for sale on Craigslist in the price range I was waiting for, and took a chance on it. I still have much to learn, but as far as I can tell it is in the mint condition the prior owner claimed it to be, and everything works.

For those who followed my rants of my experience with my previous TI2 about five years or so ago, I should clarify a few things:

1. My experience then was with a different OS version (don't recall which), and a different DAW (I was using FLS primarily and now use Cubase 8 ). I do not believe FLS was officially supported by Access then.
2. I was using a different PC. My current music PC has a dedicated USB 2.0 card that I put in exclusively for USB audio like the Virus, the rig I tested the Ti2 on did not.
3. When I purchased the TI2 new, I was under a lot of pressure to evaluate it quickly and made a decision on whether to keep or return it. By buying a used unit, I have removed that pressure such that I can take the time to really get to know the instrument and invest proper time to overcome technical hurdles.
4. Obtaining a used Snow for about 1/3 the price I paid for the TI2 desktop certainly puts a new perspective on matters. I can be much more forgiving of imperfections when the price is right.

So, how are my first impressions? Quite good so far. Really love the filters and FX. One of my beefs with the TI2 was the polyphony of a complex (heavy unison, FX, long release times, etc) single part patch (at the price point). One thing I noticed straight away is that the Snow subjectively feels like it gives me just as much polyphony as the TI2 with a single patch. Notice I said subjectively, because it's been years since I had my hands on a TI2 so I cannot do a fair comparison, but it made me think that perhaps the TI2 does not split a single part patch across both DSPs, but rather uses the second DSP to take over some of the FX processing, or perhaps to balance each parts in a multi-timbral setup. In other words, given a single part that will only give up 4-5 notes, I'm not sure you'll necessarily get double those notes or more on a TI2 even though technically it has twice the processing power. What you will definitely get on a TI2 is more simultaneous parts, perhaps even more effects per parts. Probably only the developers at Access know for sure, this is only as I said a subjective observation based on memory.

What about the latency over USB? Well to me it feels improved in Cubase and on OS 5.0.8, and better than what I was experiencing many years back with FLS, but there could be many reasons for that. I'm one of those who is very aware of input latency and will always feel the difference between 5ms and 10ms between key hit and note sound on a percussive patch. Some will say latency is a fact of life with streaming audio, but I definitely feel lag with the Virus that I don't feel with my other hardware synths. I am using it strictly with USB audio have not yet tried some alternative configurations. To be honest, at the price I paid for it, even if I can never improve the latency, it is still going to be a keeper for me. Even if I used it for things less timing sensitive like pads, its still a great sounding synth.

Right now I'm mostly just getting familiar with it. I rely on VC a lot, and usually the only time I touch the hardware is when I'm tweaking cutoff/res or one of the three value knobs (or to put it in and out of standby). One of the things I immediately love about it is that it has that sound profile that you can hear on "Playing the Angel" (2005 LP by Depeche Mode). They used the Virus extensively on every track, and if you like that slightly distorted-yet-clean sullen growling characteristic they created on that CD, it comes through a lot via the Snow fairly naturally. That's not to say it's limited to that sound at all -- it fact seems to have a huge range of possibilities, but if you have an affinity for that sound the Virus does it better than any other synth I've heard. In fact, I was pleased to see some of the actual patches from the 2005-2006 Depeche mode tour available for download from the Access website.

Fun times ahead!