quote: | Originally posted by aNYthing
What's up with all the virus hatin? I like my TI. Although I do agree that soft synths are catching up with Virus. It's hard to justify keeping the virus if you're not a gigging/live musician when you have so many other synths and soft synths are pretty darn good.
though the thought did cross my mind. however, I always end up getting virus again, as I like it's sound A LOT... and I'm pretty comfortable using it these days.
BTW, I had Andromeda and Matrix 12 before - which I both sold and I'll be honest, I don't really miss them. Andromeda was perhaps the most overrated of all synths I ever owned. And yes, I did not use just presets but it just didn't do anything for me. It took TOOO FUCKING LONG to get it to sound different from everything else. It has the most bland sound and I doubt anyone could ever ID it in a mix. You can hear Virus or Moog or Jupiter or Elka and say - THIS IS such and such synth. With Andromeda it lacked it's own characters and it was perhaps the most digital sounding analog I ever played with.
Speaking of overrated synths, I also had Prophet VS, Prophet 08, DSI MEK, and DSI PEK which I also sold swearing to never purchase another sequential or DSI gear again, Pro 5 included... no offense.. just didn't do anything at all for me. |
I enjoyed your insight here.
I sold my TI this past summer after owning it for about three years and designing a sound bank (see my sig). The main reasons:
*Using the Virus|Control is way too buggy and kind of sucked the fun out of owning a hardware instrument. The synth has gotten so damn complicated that you practically *have* to use the software interface to get reasonable access to all its features, but it's buggy and annoying -- always adding little clips and digital artifacts into the track as well as voices randomly cutting out when the CPU load goes up. Then, when you play through the track again, it would either sound perfect or there would be voices cutting out/digital artifacts somewhere else! Inconsistent and very annoying.
*I didn't feel the instrument was capable of anything that my current line up can't do better (Waldorf Q, Waldorf XT, Nord Lead 3, Alesis Andromeda).
*The instruments character is a bit too easy to pick up on. In this genre, I think it to be detrimental if someone can hear that you're using the same damn thing everyone else does. Makes you seem uninspired.
Although I have been thinking about getting an original Access Virus. I kind of feel they may have gotten it perfect the first time. All the main features are accessible right from the knobs, no space wasted on FX, and even though it doesn't have the third osc, I always found that to do little or nothing, especially when it already has a dedicated sub osc. While, as I said, its sound can be noticed VERY easily, it's capable of sounding quite unique when used right. And for $350 or so, I figure I'll give it a try. I do love this audio demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrjR02Ju7UE
About the Andromeda, I suppose I can see not owning an Andromeda when you already have a JP8 and a SYnthex. I look at my Andy as the closest I'll ever come to owning a Jupiter 8. Not necessarily I feel it's impossible, but because I don't want to put that much $$ into something that is "old" technology. The Andromeda may not sound quite like a classic analog, but where it lacks there it makes up for it with voices, modulation capabilities, multi-timbrel capabilities, and other various features like having LFOs for every voice. You get all that for about $1750 used. PLUS, there were a lot of these made, so parts or a replacement will be easy to find if ever needed. I've heard lots of people complain about the Andromeda's sound, but I like it. It can definitely sound A LOT like a classic analog but still has a very modern punch and character.
On the DSI side of things, I've owned both a Prophet 08 and a PEK. I wasn't too fond of either and eventually sold. Even after I designed a sound bank for the Prophet 08. Its sound was very gritty and sloppy rather than punchy. Although I kind of like the Tetra since it has multi-timbrel capabilities. I may get one some day if I can find an easy way to get my patches on it. I have been meaning to email DSI about this.
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Last edited by alanzo on Dec-13-2009 at 01:42
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