Access Music Virus b

I am using v 4.05 now. The presets sound ok but the majority of them needs al little work.
Editing sounds is as so easy...just turn the knobs and listen.
The manual is very clear but is al little complex but so is the virus

I have no idea what the polyphony is, the virus has some built-in effects such as chorus and delay, i actually don't know how to use them though (i have to start reading the manual properly...)
The virus has 16 midi channels and is key-sensitive (if your keyboard is..) There is no on-board sequencer but that's ok, what else would i use my computer for.

The sounds are good and you can transform them into something great, The effects can also be recorded and controlled by logic. The virus sounds amazing.

i would use it on a gig without a doubt...My computer on the other hand isn't so reliable...

there has been no reason up until now why i would need customer support. Everything is clear and works fine

if my virus was stolen i definately would buy a new one.
I have been making music for about a year, I own a behringer 4mono-2stereo mixing desk (cheap but it sounds good, perhaps i just don't know better...), i own two gemini decks( I have had those for about three years now) and about 500 records to sample from which i practically never do, they do give me inspiration though.
I own a crappy pentium 3 which is totally unreliable (I bought it at a bargain price), an access virus,jv-2080,korg electribe phrase sampler, a stupid 170$ keyboard (it is touchsensitive though, and so much software which i hate to use because it takes ages to create or edit sounds and they usually sound alot worse (accept for vocals though)I also own a guillemot maxi studio isis soundcard, which is great and logic audio, which also is great. that's about it...Oh yeah, and a sure mic!(no compressors or sampler yet, but I'm planning on buying them when i know the rest of my instruments inside out)
I have had the virus for about two months now.

* Virus OS 4.07 with Cakewalk Sonar
* Presets? They sound amazing.
* Editing patches? Pretty easy but I use the presets a lot.
* manual is good and new manuals are released with major OS improvements.

Polyphony is more than many synths in its class...built in FX are great and you can use the FX with external gear. Also, it has a 32 band vocoder! Doesn't take cards (who cares) but you can update the operating system when there is a new one, and that adds to functionality. No onboard sequencer nor does it need one.

Instruments are not realistic, they just rule. If you want general MIDI this is not the machine for you...awesome sound. Very gritty and nasty..hence the name virus heh.
* I use this for Synthpop, I think anything synthesized would be perfect...especially trance, techno, europop, dance, etc.
No keyboard, B version sits on the desktop (which I like) and the knobs are right there for tweaking.

Very reliable and I'd use it in a gig no problem.

Access is awesome..they care. They have good support and many forums and mail lists for Virus. Access is good about OS releases and updates, and have added lots of functionality since I got it!

I would replace this in a second..tho perhaps with an Indigo. It is well worth the price I paid...it sounded better than the $1700 Supernova II I almost bought. I love everything about it, the sounds, the FX, the vocoder rules! There is really nothing bad about this puppy...well, the power cable could plug in more firmly..one flaw.

It inspires me to no end..every preset is valuable I think...there are few I don't like and of course, I can make my own. The Virus looks great as well. This is the hub of my arsenal! Listen to my musik at www.mp3.com/NukleoN if you want to hear it in action. ;) Check out 'Escort' and 'Reasons', two heavy Virus tunes.

i'am using OS 4.5... very complete set, a few weeks for have machine under skin. Manual is very complete, but architecture of banks descriptive is succinct.

a little difficult without keyboard, midi setup is hell !!!
Down for the banks C and D where i can(t store my patches.

Great sounds and flexibility, perfect for hard-techno or industrial.

Great whit a sequencer like cubase 5 : VST instruments like pro52 or PPG complete the "solo-type" of the virus sounds

two month for have a virus B, and i discover the first day that the effect button was over !!! return in germany for one month, and a new virus at the end...

maybe a waldorf Q ?

i am using the access virus(os 4.1) for about a week now and i have to say that the rumors of the difficult interface are exaggerated.
i hardly had to read 20 pages of the manual to know how it works.
i find the virus very easy to use and it sounds fantastic!!!
the manual isn't very well structured but it is still fair.
there are about 400 presets or something and alot of filters.
you can practically create any sound you want (exept for instruments like organs or strings)
editing sounds is a piece of cake

the virus has 16 midi channels and all the filters you need.
unfortunately, it doesn't have effects like chorus,reverb or flange but you can use it as a vocoder.the virus doesn't have a sequencer but who doesn't own a computer?

the virus sounds amazing!!!! it contains the sounds of wich alot of great tracks are made of.the effects are amazing and i personally haven't heard a better sounding module...serious
the supernova or the jp-8000 are no match for the virus.
you can use the virus for all types of dance oriented music but if you want to include instruments in your music you are gonna have to buy another module because the virus doesn't have alot of instrument presets
the virus sounds the best

i would definitely use it on a gig

i have been making music for about a year now and own a midi keyboard, a pentium 3,a roland jv-2080 and the virus

I've been using V4.01 for about 3 months now. Although I had no idea about programming synths when I purchased it the manuals walkthrough soon had me making some excellent sounds. Some things could be easier to use and find(Input settings + sub-osc for example) but overall very easy for a novice like me!

The virus can do just about anything you want it to. Everything I wanted to control in real-time could be by MIDI.
So many different features I didn't know where to start so I turned everything on and it sounded great!

I use the Virus to create sounds for my Drum and Bass tracks.
The built-in presets (although a lot sound roughly the same) are good starting points for modifying.
Point is- Sounds incredible. I cranked the volume 1 day with 1 of my own patches and the whole place was shaking! Hehe!

Never given me a problem apart from occassional sync-lost but I doubt thats the virus' fault.

Never had to try - speaks for itself.

Updates always free. Free sounds all the time as well. Excellent.

Would have a early-life crisis if I lost my Virus. Didn't have to compare it - everyone said it was great and everyone was right.
P.S To hear some examples of the virus you can visit:
http://www.mp3.com/stations/access
Peace from the land of tower blocks! Safe to Cyndicut FM kru! 12 Years on air in South East England!

Don't know, still can't get hold of it because of the serious back order

Very bad. The company just can't keep up with their production. I was trying to order a Virus Rack for months now but it is out of stock everywhere. Doesn't matter how good a product is if the company can't keep up with the demand

I can't be bothered to wait any longer for the Virus Rack. I have already got myself a NOVA instead and it sounds so good. At least I don't have to waiting forever

I'm currently using os 4. It's the newest one from the company, and it does a very extensive upgrade. Analog modeling doesn't get any easier then this. Everything is layed right in front of you. The presets sound awesome, and you can actually use some of them without tweaking. Although you probably want to. Editing is a breeze since all parameters are in front of you. The manual I have is off their website, and it does a good job. It even walks you through how to start making your own patches. I'd have to say that this synth is the easiest VA to operate.

So far, the Virus B has left most of the other VA's in the dust with the polyphony. It comes with 24 standard,and has 16 parts. Not even the Nord 3 has that, or the Supernova. One reason to buy this synth. The Virus B has decent effects like reverb, phaser, chorus, and delay. You can assign the parameters to an assignable knob and control the effect. Although there are no expansion cards, you can download new sounds off their website. Why waste more money on more polyphony and memory? There is plenty of space to store your own creations. Midi in, out, and thru is standard. There is no sequencer built in, but there isn't a need. Lots of cool lights as well. 6 outputs, 2 inputs, and bright LCD. 32 knobs, 30 buttons. 3 ocsillators+ 1 sub ossillator(Very fat).

The Virus sounds are the best sounding I've heard from any VA synth. I am like many people out there and compared many other VA's before buying the Virus. The Virus has it's own unique sound just like any other synth. But what seperates the Virus from the rest is the way that it can be very gritty or very warm sounding at the same time. If you want distorted, gritty leads or warm, lush pads, get the Virus B. The Nord has it's own sound, but to me, it doesn't excel at pads. The Supernova excels at pads, but lacks grittyness. That's why I got the Virus B because it's a sound mix of many different synths. If you like warm pads and gritty leads, the Virus B is for you. I can't stop playing with it.

This thing is built like a tank. Very solid. I don't use it live, but if I did, it would hold up great. Every once and a while, it will freeze on me due to midi, but every synth does this.

Great company. They know their stuff and answer your questions very quickly.

If my Virus B was stolen, then we would have some problems. It seems like a lot of $ to pay for a synth, but you get tons of features and one hell of a synth. I'm just now getting into programming my own patches, so it's still new to me. I had a Virus A about a year ago, and sold it because I moved. I missed it so much, I bought his big brother. I thought about buying the Nord 2 rack, but it only has 4 parts and 12 voice polyphony. Screw that! Why should you pay around $700 for only 4 parts? But the Nord would be nice for some extra sounds. I also bought a Supernova, but thing isn't very biting. If you do any electronic/trance/techno/industrial, get the Virus B, or Virus A if you are low on cash. The Virus A has only 12 voices, and no effects. The possibilities are endless. Access is truely a great company with great ideas. You won't be disapointed.

Th Virus is both easy and difficult at the same time. Lots of knobs for real time twiddles of amy parameters but also a bunch of menus located under specific buttons ; Osc, Filt, LFO, etc for accessing parameters. Find myself hittting the "Parameter" up/down instead of the "Value" up/down a lot. A lttle frustrating but not too bad. Once you access the menus the display is clear and easy to understand. The new OS4 manual is quite good and easy to read. A LOT better than the older one. Nice to see that they bothered to update it as well as the synth.

In some ways the unit is VERY full featured and in others it is not. It is kind of like the 90's MiniMoog but highly updated. Poly is 24 notes, not a ton but adaquate for most things except multi-timbral poly stuff. No expansion but Access seem to keep adding features with the new OS releases. Nice that they still support it.

EFFECTS; What is there is great...
Phase Shifter: One of the BEST I have ever heard and offers a lot of choices; 1,2,3,4,6,8 poles, +/- feedback etc. If you like phasing this is the best I have heard inside a synth. Very analog, creamy and lush, or, sharp and churning. Saved per patch even in Multi.
CHORUS: Also excellent. Can be a chorus or a flanger at lower delay settings. Lush w/ wide stereo spread. Can be controled in real time without choking and spitting.
DELAY: Also very good. Can be set to midi clock and notes(1/8, 1/4, 1/16 etc) or in milliseconds up to 635. Unfortunately in milliseconds the times are quantized to wierd numbers; 339, 504,102....they cannot be set to EXACT numbers between 0-635. This is a drag. Other features include; Hi Cut to warm up the echos as well as a full featured modulation section!! (Lfo speed and depth with multiple lfo including Sample & Hold and Sample & Glide!! VERY COOL!)Adding modulation in small amounts makes the delay move around in stereo, set the time short and you have another chorus/flanger. Also TRES cool!
Reverb: Great sounding especially for synth. They added some modulation inside the reverb that keeps it from sounds "boingy" and makes it quite lush. Long halls for ambient washes sound wonderful adn the small rooms for percussive sounds also sound great. Very well done and not to be over looked. Downside: Only one can be used in a multi.
Distortion: Lots of ditterent kinds lets it get VERY grungy; bit reducers, sample rate reduction, etc.

Multiple outputs are great as well as the input capbilites for processing external sounds. One of the BEST effects processers on the market if you use it that way; Envelope followers, Ring Mod, FM, Filters, etc.

TRUE STEREO!! The engine actually outputs a REAL stero signal. MicroQ, Novation, An1x do not. If you hook Kybd tracking to Panorama different notes across the kybd are spread out. The other CANNOT do this...I've tried.

BIGGEST DOWNER: Not enough modulation slots. You COULD control a LOT of things but there are just not enough slots to set up complex modulations. My #1 complaint.

The bottom line is how does it sound? It sounds great and has a ver full or edgy sound depending on how you set it. I have programmed the following; SupernovaII, JP-8000, Micro Q, An1x, Nordlead. I have kept the An1x and the Virus. They ALL sound great with the AN1x sounding the most realistic in terms of analog. The Virus can pretty much do everything I want and the extra 64 waves allow it to sound very digital if I want. Filters sound great, Enevelopes respond well and are punchy with nice scaling. It is simply fun to program and provides immediate satisfaction.

Very reliable, company is very responsive. Gig without a back up? Don't gig and no...don't have that kind of cash. Feels strong. Actually the best tactile feel of all the ones I have used. Knobs feel good, buttons are so-so.

Company still offering free upgrades and features. OS4 was free...astounding! This was no small upgrade, reverb is great, new patches etc. We all benefit from their policy here! If they charged I would pay.Company responsive to emails.

Bottom line, a great expressive synth that is home to lots of different kinds of music. Fun to program, fun to play, great sound, lots of functionality (forgot to mention the killer vocooder. Would by again for sure if stolen or lost

OS 4.02

Although some of the presets in OS4 use the new reverb effect a little bit too much, I find them quite usable. It is not hard to create your own patches, but since the virus has gotten a lot of new features in the new OS versions, some parameters had to be put inside menus. This is not a problem for me though, because even though I never read the manual (i didn't have the english version), I knew the synth pretty much inside out after just a few months. If you know at least a little about synthesis, you'll find it very easy to use.

I won't list all the features here (you could check the specs at www.access-music.de), but I'd like to point out that the internal effects sound great (although you can't use delay and reverb at the same time in multimode....the virus doesn't have enough sample RAM to allow that). Also, the MIDI implementation is great....every single parameter can be set via either controllers or sysex. And it's all described in the manual.

The sounds that come out of this beast are incredible...very fat basses, screaming leads, beautiful pads and very convincing emulations of old analogue synths. This is the best sounding synth I've had so far. The filters are incredible.....not only they sound superb, but also you get two of them per voice. Also, two saturation stages per voice can make things sound agressive PERIOD. Since there are also 64 waveforms available in the oscillator section (in addition to the basic waveforms) you can create a lot of different sounds. Not only the basic analogue stuff.

I've never had any problems what so ever with my virus. I would definitely rely on it.

Access is SUPERB when it comes to support. Very helpful, very good at providing OS updates and very friendly.....

I've had it for like 7 months now, and I'd definitely buy it again if I lost it.

Before I got it I compared it with the Supernova series, and I found the virus' sound much less "colored".

I've posted this elswhere so I thought I would just put my opinion here as well :)

Here's my review of the Virus B v4.02:

I have had the synth for around two months now and know it pretty well inside and out. I would definitely buy one again if mine were lost because it is a great little box. 6 individual outs let you route your sounds for easy mixing in a console. 16 part multitimbral, 24 voice poly, up to 4 OSC per voice (including sub), 3 LFO's per voice (one is only assignable to a few destinations), 2 filters per voice, 2 envelope generators, tons o' knobs, vocoder, etc - but I'm sure you've all heard the specs before so I will concentrate on the good and bad in my experience of using it (as I have also used a Q and other synths extensively).

The BAD:
The things that I have found which I don't especially like about the synth are few. These mainly stem from two general "shortcomings" of the synth design.
The first of these, and the most important (in my opinion) is the fact that when you are in multi-mode you only have a global delay/reverb. This is rather disappointing because a lot of patches use the reverb to give them a certain sound - so when you are in multi-mode they sound a bit different, and usually worse (go figure). This can be overcome because the unit DOES have 6 outputs - so just hook up an external FX processor and you're back in business. It would be nice to retain the patch characteristics in multimode though.
The second of the things which is less than perfect, other people have commented on a bit more - and that's the layout of the synth. Yes - there are a LOT of menus. After a couple months of using it, it becomes a lot easier to navigate though, as one may expect. The main time when I notice this is in random patch generation (more later). A lot of times the sound gets panned in one direction or the volume down very low, but not related to the easy-to-find volume and pan parameters, so it takes fiddling in 3 or 4 places to get the sound to come out right.
There is one more thing that I noticed while running OS 4.01 - the patch names would sometimes get random characters in place of the ones I had put in them. This, however went away with the upgrade to OS 4.02.

The GOOD:
Well, those were really the only things that I can say I dislike about the synth. The list of what I like is too long to really mention everything, so I will touch on the most important things (for me).
Firstly - the SOUND. The sound is GREAT. I love every sound I get out of this box. The presets are even very good - something most synths can't claim. The pads are lush and euphoric, the leads go from analog to bizzare to biting and everything in between. The basses are deep and mellow (or harsh if you want that). The drums are almost usable - not that I would use anything but a sampler for drums anyway. :) Even sound FX are better than you would hear from most sources. I generally program my sounds with little or no reverb and they come out great, although it does take some tweaking. The random patch generator lets you to randomizing of patches from subtle - if you like the sound already but want a slight modification - to extreme where every parameter is changed drastically. Unfortunately, usually drastic changes end up with not much sound coming out - as I mentioned in the previous section.
The arpeggiator is sweet - a bunch of modes of operation, lots of patterns (many of which are really bad), speed changes, sync to midi, etc. It's really easy to get trancey leads by just hitting a few keys. And you have 16 simultaneous arpeggios possible - one for each part in multi-mode.
External FX processing is a nice feature too - I LOVE the vocoder, although it is confusing at times - not as confusing as they make it out to be in the manual though. The vocoder is better than anything else I have used because it has such a great sounding tone generator driving it. :)

Overall this synth does what it claims to do - and does it rea