Remix Polar review

[mw7]

Great review of the TI Polar in Remix mag:

http://remixmag.com/mag/remix_access_virus_polar/

It's a nice article that really highlights the differences/enhancements in the TI vs earlier Viruses, for anyone who is interested.

"The Virus TI leaves the Virus C in a cloud of dust...."

"The Virus TI's sound is just plain awesome ? easily the best in the virtual analog world."

"Nearly every shortcoming or missing feature ever mentioned of the previous Virus series has been addressed with the TI..."

[Sleepwalker]

Originally Posted by mw7

Great review of the TI Polar in Remix mag:

http://remixmag.com/mag/remix_access_virus_polar/

It's a nice article that really highlights the differences/enhancements in the TI vs earlier Viruses, for anyone who is interested.

"The Virus TI leaves the Virus C in a cloud of dust...."

"The Virus TI's sound is just plain awesome ? easily the best in the virtual analog world."

"Nearly every shortcoming or missing feature ever mentioned of the previous Virus series has been addressed with the TI..."

"The TI has 21 sound banks, each containing 128 Single programs and comes fully preloaded with 512 MB of RAM and 2,176 ROM presets"

[grs]

Did the review mention the addressed and present but missing features as a shortcomming?

[jonbon]

This raises a question i have wondered about, is the ti capable of usb 2.0 operation..? If so, DAMN thats alot of potential!

[mw7]

Originally Posted by grs

Did the review mention the addressed and present but missing features as a shortcomming?

It merely says -

"t's true that VirusControl has a few updates in its future before it's fully functional..."

and

"OS and VirusControl aren't complete."

It doesn't mention that the TI is prone to locking up and crashing while running multiple parts in Sequencer Mode.

[mw7]

Originally Posted by jonbon

This raises a question i have wondered about, is the ti capable of usb 2.0 operation..? If so, DAMN thats alot of potential!

This review says "While the Virus TI's port is a USB 2.0 connection to ensure compatibility with the latest USB devices, it does not support high-speed USB 2.0 throughput."

[juno_nuno]

Originally Posted by mw7

This review says "While the Virus TI's port is a USB 2.0 connection to ensure compatibility with the latest USB devices, it does not support high-speed USB 2.0 throughput."

Thats another issue that must be explained better...maybe next year access tell us what are the plans for the USB capabilities of the TI

[Tarekith]

From the AMPFEA Access List:

"The USB 2.0 spec allow for three classes of devices:

Low Speed @ 1.5Mbit/sec
Full Speed @ 12Mbit/sec
High Speed @ 480Mbit/sec

The Virus TI is a full-speed USB device; i.e., 12Mbit/sec, as Marc pointed out. There is no way to increase this speed on the TI. If you want to check through the archives, there are MANY threads explaining this, and debating the merits and wisdom of the approach. Synopsis: Hi-Speed USB support costs money to add in, and even more money to develop and field support. At the time of the TI's initial design -- probably close to 2 years ago -- the cost and development differences were significant, and a decision was made in favor of lower price over higher speed. This is not a defense of the decision; rather, it's a simple statement of the facts.

A number of list members have claimed that this is "deceptive." I'm not sure why; the Virus TI makes no claims to be a Hi-Speed USB device. For the record: There is no longer such a thing as a "USB 1.1 device," per the directive of the USB consortium (USB.org) -- at least, in new products released since 2002. The official terms are "USB-compliant" (12Mbit or less) and "Hi-Speed USB-compliant" (480Mbit). A USB 2.0 device DOES NOT have to run at 480Mbit/sec.; it can run at any of the three compatible data rates. For example, I'm sure that your USB 2.0 mouse does not -- it probably still runs at 1.5Mbit/sec, to save cost and complexity.

Regards,

-BW"