Nothing new from access !!

[hatembr]

it s been a long time we didn't hear anything new from access!!!
nothing to release ?

[Tomer=Trance]

guss their still working hard on it
or waiting for the right time for the market to have demending for something new.
maybe this winter we can look for something,not another virus i think but who knows.

[Timo]

Hehe, 2yrs last Frankfurt Messe, the C (nothing more than a hyped up B) was unleashed.

We does wonders what's be happenin' in t'Access factory, though, doesn't we! We knows they must be workings 'ard on somethings, just what exactly that we doesn't knows!

[Hollowcell]

Hopefully they are working on a new OS for the C series!

Lets all chant together

More filters
More filters
More filters
More filters
More filters

[tranzash]

May be a modular virus
or
a Virus with sup saw and sup pulz with karma features. Just kidding.

[saba]

I don't know what Access could do.

A modular would be interesting, but a gamble. Although it'd be complicated, and the market for VA modulars isn't too large, I don't think.

I don't think we'll get an analogue synthesizer from Access, since their expertise lies in DSP stuff (look at the creators).

Perhaps a drum machine from Access to rival the Machinedrum? Having said that, the drum machine market is a fairly small niche, and wouldn't be a particularly successful venture.

Another VA synth from Access would be flooding the market, too.

What could they do? Hmm.
________
Side effects from nexium

[Tomer=Trance]

i think they will go out with a new multi effect unit
the drum machine market is very very small
i think electron is the only company who risked going into it.

a modular will be realy cool
if i could ask them what to make next i would say a virus modular
the analog synth market is not too big either.

[Timo]

I don't think Access would be flooding the market if their next VA was a genuine 'step up' from the Virus C, and not just a small leap like the C was compared to the B.

The Virus C was essentially nothing more than a Virus B, with near enough the same interface and control panel, with the sound engine itself having just a few additions. - Not really something that was a 'considerable' marked difference from the B, in terms of the concept. They might as well have called it a Virus B v1.5, or similar.

So, therefore, if Access were to introduce a successor VA synth (which I really hope they do), it would have to be significantly different to their previous offerings (involving at least a few new synthesis concepts), and be considerably more advanced in order to differentiate it from being just a Virus C mk2.

I would hope the interface would get a re-design in the process, too, and I think this would help in (aesthetically, too) getting away from what they have done already, and demonstrating a notable change from the stock VA concept of yesteryear.

In my humble opinion, a touchscreen (or an LCD of the same size) would immediately set it apart from every other VA synth on the planet. A graphical touchscreen would also allow them to do things that would almost be nearly impossible to do otherwise. Imagine having someting like a graphical waveform/Z3ta+ synthesis capability using the graphical LCD, and I think that would be exceedingly appealing and would allow for a whole new VA hardware sound-design experience. It would also open the doors for a whole wealth other significant sound-design concepts due to the data being immediately visible and accessible via the screen. And if Access ever wanted to make any more synthesis-types available, then the LCD would re-inforce that.

Rather than a modular design (a more extensive matrix would be sufficient), I think the LCD/touchscreen, and the additional supported synthesis types made instantly possible due to having a such a graphical screen, is where I would personally hope Access is heading. A screen would bypass the need to have a computer, and hence would lessen the extremely destructive aspect of the software vs hardware battle these days. It would be the best of both worlds, and more.

Thanks

[ben crosland]

I don't think it's fair to call the Virus C a "B v1.5"

When the Virus B itself was released, the interface was almost identical to that of the A, and it had virtually the same spec. It took a couple of OS updates to get the main addtional features, which included:

Extra polyphony (16 - 24)
3rd Oscillator
Additional FM modes
Reverb and Pattern Delays
Distortion EFX and additional Saturation types.
Phaser.
Extra Mod Slots

No-one ever suggested that the B should've been an "A v1.5" !!

Let's have a quick look at what the C has by now:

Extra polyphony
3 band EQ per patch
Extra Mod Slots
New Filter type (which is flexible enough to count as more than one, really)
Redesigned interface (more so than you might think at first glance)
Improved timing engine for better MIDI clock sync.
Undo button .

Trust me - I have both the Virus C and the Virus Classic, and can assure you that the difference these features make is worthy of an alphabetical increment!

As for a product with a large LCD touchscreen display - I can't see it happening in the near future. The cost of displays like that are astronomical - that's why you don't see any of the small, independent European synth manufacturers putting them on their products. If you think about it, Access, Clavia, Waldorf and Novation all have similar sized displays. Even the Roland JP8000 and Korg MS2000had a small display.

You either have lots of knobs, or a nice display. I know what I'd rather have

[Timo]

Hi Ben

It was maybe a little abrupt to call it a B v1.5, but the truth is that if Virus release another VA synth that will be updated from the C as much as the C was to the B, then I can't imagine many people would buy it because they'd be perfectly happy with their C.

I reckon Access need to branch out sideways as well as upwards, and devise a more extensive synthesis palette and a better user interface if they are to survive as a hardware-only piece of kit. The 2-line LCD is pretty abysmal - you can do sound-programming using a Trinity V3 with Moss [which has absolutely no knobs other than a jog-dial!] massively significantly quicker, rather than attempting to program sounds via the Virus' 2 line LCD and its labyrinth of scrolling menus, sub-menus, and parameters. It's frustrating, and not really at all conducive to efficient/effortless programming, regardless of how many knobs it has if you have to keep diving into the scrolling menus a lot of the while.

I think the (nothing short of) huge success of the Virus B and C would have put Access in a position to be one of the big-boys, financially, and I've no doubt they could R&D and implement a large graphical LCD if they wanted to.
Indeed for their next synth they will need to pull something like this out of the bag, otherwise people will say what they've said about all the other 'new' VAs that have cropped up recently - ie. "It's just another bog-standard VA", and that they prefer their computer monitor screens for waveform editing. A l? Z3ta+, Vanguard, etc. as they offer more possibilities.
Imagine, however, that a large LCD screen strapped on to a hardware VA synth would allow you to do graphical Z3ta style programming, and more, and Access would have more choices as to what synthesis types would be made possible as a result of having the LCD for graphical support, and for greater and deeper - not to mention hugely quicker ? interaction for the user.

>>As for a product with a large LCD touchscreen display - I can't see it happening in the near future. The cost of displays like that are astronomical - that's why you don't see any of the small, independent European synth manufacturers putting them on their products. If you think about it, Access, Clavia, Waldorf and Novation all have similar sized displays. Even the Roland JP8000 and Korg MS2000had a small display.

And that is what would put Access at a massive advantage if they were to implement one, being the first to do so. - No other VA on the planet has one, apart from the Moss VA/physical-modelling expansion board for Korg's Trinity and Triton. I'll take some pics of the Korg's screen when programming VA patches if you wish ? although as mentioned that it has no knobs (the Triton does, however) it still poos on Access' 2-line LCD from a truly immense height.

However, even the way that Korg uses the large LCD as a graphical monitor tool for programming VA is slightly archaic and can be improved - afterall, the Trinity and Moss were released back in 1995 and 1997 respectively. For example, there are no pictures of oscillators, or waveforms that you're tweaking (either ?live?, or otherwise), no illustrations of LFOs (which would be nice to assess the single-cycle waveshapes on offer), etc. These don?t detract from the programming efficiency, though, due to the Moss? much simpler VA architecture. But on balance the Trinity does graphically represent EGs, routing paths, and 'sliders' and 'knobs', and it all adds up to make programming a doddle.
But in an Access Virus vibe, using todays technology, imagine if you can see a large representation of an oscillator waveform (such as [these], for example) that you're 'designing', and then to be able to graphically see it morphing as you tweak various wave-shaping parameters via the real knobs on the Virus, or likewise.

In addition, there are such parameters for waveshaping that software programs like Z3ta+ can do, that the Virus can't. In Z3ta+'s instance, aspects what they call:-

* Warp (increasingly warps and bends the waveform beyond its amplitude threshold),
* Twist (same as warp, but increasingingly inverts the polarity instead),
* Multi-point (chops and splits the waveform into three separate portions),
* Wave (bends and molds the waveform into a sine wave),
* Symmetry (pulse width/waveform),
* Drive (boosts and clips the waveform),
* Offset,
* Shrink (shrinks the pulse of the wave, and inserts silence up until the 'single-cycle' [of frequency] is completed),
* Self-sync (same as Shrink, but adds multiples of the waveform up until the single cycle is completed),
* Bit reduction (as per what the Virus already does),
* DC-Offset, and (corrects, or forces apart, the DC offset)
* Window (straps a triangle amplitude envelope over the waveform)

Which are great to see on a waveform display:-



?on an LCD, along with menus/tabs, programming stuff, and much, much more!

Alesis Ion has an, albeit smaller LCD, come to think of it?