Access Music Virus b

4.02 software. The presets are wicked, but bear in mind they are heavily biased towards industrial (read: biting, harsh, buzzy and VERY tiring on the ears after even 30 min. of auditioning. I don't know why in hell Access did this as the Virus is capable of sooooooo much more than the presets demonstrate.

Polyphony is only 16 voices but since I don't rely heavily on synths, and only bought the Access for pads, weird effects, basses and other stuff, this isn't an issue in my case. There are tons of effects.. and you can run them simultaneously. 82 effects I think. MIDI is implemented VERY well.

In terms of EASE OF USE, I will be quick to point out that many of the critical functions are buried in menus that are only accessible by button clicking and paging through parameters. For this reason, I bought EMagic SoundDiver and I must say it was a terrific investment. The Virus module for SoundDiver is STELLAR.

As I stated, the presets lean towards Industrial type of music. Also, the arpeggiator stuff is very played out and uninspiring in many cases. You MUST dig into this synth to get what you want out of it, but rest assured it is flexible enough to do ANYTHING you ask of it.

The effects are excellent to my ears. No complaints.

Seems like quality craftsmanship to me. No complaints.

Dunno. They seem to be understaffed.

Yeah, I'd buy it again.. although I'm telling you, the vSti's such as Pro52 are every bit as good - IMHO. .. for a lot less. I got a Virus because.,... I just needed to have one :)

The newer Virus b's are now shipping with OS4.01 and come with a new OS4 manual. The manual is fantastic. It is wellorganized and extremely easy to read. I love this manual. As with most VA's there are plenty of dedicated knobs to play with. There are also 2 assignable knobs - which is great. The Virus b contains 512 presets which give you a good idea of what this synth is capable of. Many are useable as is. Setting up patches in multitimbral mode is very easy, athough editing single patches themselves is of average difficulty due to the menu structure you have to go through.

The Virus b has 24-note polyphony, unprecedented for a VA. It's got all the usual effects such as delay, reverb, phaser, distortion, chorus...Everything except delay and reverb can be independent for each multitimbral part, whereas as delay and reverb are global in performance mode (damn - can't have it all). All the effects plus all other applicable parameters are syncable to MIDI clock, and you can set the divisor for each parameter (such as 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 etc..)

I also have a Novation Nova which I've been using for about 15 months. I also love that one. The Nova and the Virus have a different sound. It's hard to describe but the Nova is more "smooth" and "refined" (whatever that means), whereas the Virus can be more gritty (which is great too). The Nova's distortion algorithm isn't good at all - so you can't really do many of the types of things you can do with the Virus. The virus, on the other hand, can do some nice pads, maybe rivaling the Nova. If you don't have many other synths and sound sources you may be better off with the Virus b because it's got more voices and more multitimbral parts. The one thing the Nova's got going for it though is it's bloody easy to use - a wonderfully thought out synth - the Virus takes more time.

The Virus can be good for many styles of music including all forms of Dance music, Film/TV scores, and Industrial music to name a few. I wouldn't say the Virus is meant to immitate a Jupiter 8, an Oberheim, CS-60., minimoog or anything else. It really has its own sound - which is great. The quality of the onboard effects is overall excellent. I was especially impressed with the reverb, which is usually not a strong point in a VA with built-in effects such as this (also it's coming from a manufacturer that hasn't had a piece of hardware with built in effects prior to this one).

Never had any problems - built like a rock.

Never needed.

Not sure if I'd buy it again. There's always great new gear coming out (and at increasingly lower prices). Also, I've already got a Nova so maybe there's some overlap there with 2 VA's and all. It's still a wonderful synth though. Only thing is I wish it had independant reverb and delay for all multitimbral parts (like the Nova) - but I understand the DSP's only have so much power and the guys at Access decided to use some of that available power in other outstanding features of the Virus.

I'm using OSv.3 right now. The Virusb now ships with 512 single patches and offers a fairly well-rounded variety of analog sounds. My only critique with the presets is that too many of them make use the arpreggiator which I'm not really into. I also like the fact that the presets include a decent number of vocoder presets.

As is typical for VA's the front panel includes a decent number of knobs for controlling/programming most of the parameters. Unfortunately, many parameters (effects, sub-osc, osc3, lfo3) do not have dedicated knobs and can only be accessed (no pun) through old-fashioned menu scrolling. Even worse some of these hidden parameters are not always intuitively placed in the menu hierarchy. Yuck! That downside notwithstanding, it's not hard to program and the knob layout, while somewhat lacking, is at least clear and well laid-out.

The manual is decent but still not as thorough as it should be. It ships with a manual for the old virus and an addendum for the new OS which can make for a lot of cross-referencing. The manual does include a very nice walk through for those just starting to learn subtractive synthesis.

This is where the Virus really shines. With OS3 the Virus now has 24 voices/16 part multi-timbral. Better yet, it offers up to 4 oscillators (3 basic osc + a subosc) per voice although using all four reduces the polyphony to 16 voices. The oscillators offer the standard analog waves (sin, saw, tri, pulse) plus an additional 62 digital waves. It also offers osc sync, freqency modulation, and a nice saturation section.

It offers a wonderful filter section with 2 independent filters that can be used in series or parallel. For modulation purposes you get 3 LFO's and 2 EG's which can be more-or-less assigned to just about everything. It also has an external signal input for vocoding or for applying the filters and effects to the external signal.

The effects are somewhat limited by today's standards but sound decent and can be programmed for each individual patch in a multi. Thus, when you program a multi program with 16 patches, each patch can have its own effects settings. The arpreggiator is also somewhat limited.

No real expansion capabilities, but Access is releasing OS4 soon which will further enhance an already impressive feature set.

Subjective of course, but I think it sounds as good as any other VA on the market. The general consensus seems to be that the Virus excels at biting and aggressive sounds, and it certainly can cut through a mix. It can, however, produce very rich, warm tones especially when you load up all four oscillators. Basically you can emulate all of the classic analog synths pretty closely with the Virus. Moog bass, Oberheim pads, Roland bloops, it's all in there trust me. For sure it's still just a VA and you can hear some faint stepping in the filters and it will never totally duplicate the interaction between true VCO's. Nonetheless, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference in a mix, and it's certainly close enough for the vast majority of users.

What I really enjoy is the inclusion of the extra waves in the oscillators. Using the extra digital waves and some frequency modulation, you can actually get some decent DX type sounds. Combined with its great analog sound, you can get a wider range of sounds out of the Virus than other VA's such as the supernova and nord lead.

I haven't had any big problems with it yet. I knocked a couple of points off because the OS does seems to have a couple of weird bugs mostly involving LFO2 and some of the presets.

I haven't really used the customer support yet, but Access really appears to work hard to keep them satisfied. Their website offers lots of free goodies, such as patches and OS upgrades which help keep their product on the leading edge of virtual analogs.

Well worth the price, it's nothing less than a helluva workhorse for analog-type sounds. Right now the VA market is crowded with synths--JP8000, Supernova/nova, NordLeads, Waldorf Q, CS6X, Z1--but the Virus in my opinion offers the best combination of features and sound of the bunch. I've been playing/programming synths for 15 years and for me the Virus really eliminates the need to keep several old analog synths around. While no VA can truly recreate the sound of a vintage synth, the Virus comes pretty close. I, for one, couldn't justify paying $2000 for a minimoog or Jupiter8 when a new Virus goes for a little over half of that. Combined with a sampler and maybe another digital synth and you've got an amazing midi set-up.

very easy to use. the knobs are solid and smooth. the menu is a bit of a drag, but i just got it so i am just dealing with the familiarity factor. everything else is EZ.

plenty of polyphony for me. 12 voices. effects are good for on board. haven't used the arpeggiator, and don't plan on it. the definable knobs are a nice feature. there is so much else i am sure i have yet to discover.

the presets are actually useable! this is a first. also, you can actually listen to the onboard demo. not a bad tune actually. great box for trance, techno, acid house, drum and bass. you can make any sound you could imagine with this peice of kit. also, the analog boost and distortion make for some seriously frightening sounds.

it's a brick. i don't think i will have any trouble. i use it in my studio and don't plan on taking it anywhere, but if i had to, i know it would do fine.

access is a very small company, but they care about their customers (unlike roland). you can email the software developers directly. can't beat that.

if it was stolen, i would hunt down and kill the muthaf*%&%@. after i had killed the looser, i would sell his kidneys on the black market and buy a new one. :)

I'm using OS v3b. Lots of knobs are great.. infinite rotatrys would be a plus, but that's just a minor gripe. Editing is very intuitive, if you know about filters and envelopes you don't even need to read the manual. If you don't, the manual even has a novice guide. I don't like the manual very much.. a few times i've had questions that the manual couldnt answer, but on average this machine is very strightforward, intuitive, and thoughtfully layed out. You can't really go wrong. As time passes you realise just how much this box can do.

It is by FAR the top performing synth for this price. You can't beat this. 24poly/16 multitimbral. If you usethe 4th oscilator you drop to 16 voice polyphony. *82* insert effects AT THE SAME TIME. I mean this thing is a beast. I've never had it drop notes. It's got all the features you need and more you don't. LFO clock sync, filter chain to 36db filterslope. The only things i wish it had are stereo cross delay (so you dont have to use that depth parameter for stereo), a larger display, ability to save to banks C and D, and a better arpeggiator. The arp is really weak, just has up, down, up&down, random, and chord. OS4 (out soon?) says it will have arp patterns as well as reverb and a ton of new stuff. Still... it does it all. MIDI implimentation is great.

It sounds fantastic. The outputs are so clean, the sound is so big and lush. This thing is _killer_. You can assign velocity to anything, vel+cuttof, filter delay, whatever you want, so you can get it very expressive.

I havent had any problems with it yet. I would gig w/o backup.

They are SO good. FREE OS UPGRADES.. and it's not just bugfixes.. i mean whole new features. You cant beat it.

I shopped around with all the VA synths.. i made many comparisons (nord, waldorf q, alesis andromeda, novation, oberheim ob12, korg ms2000)
this is by far the best
i just cant live without it

If you are thinking of getting this.. get it
If you are thinking of getting a VA synth, get it
If you haven't thought about getting this, get it

YOU CANT GO WRONG WITH THIS ONE

IT IS WORTH EVERY CENT!

I am using OS 3.0b. I don't use presets so I never browse them. No opinion about that. About editing, you can bitch all you want about how this synth menu could be deep. Putting aside, if you still can make tons of way cool sounds by using all these front panel knobs only. Anyway, the menu is not that hard to navigate. Menu folders make it not deep to browse either. Very nice. The manual is okay. It's the kind that talks and teaches you rather just gives definitions.

Compared to other VAs, the Virus rates high in the price/performance category. 24 notes (3 oscs per note) or 16 notes (4 oscs per note). 16 part multi. No drum maps though. The Ext Input can be used so many ways. You can use the Virus as an effect unit (Delay, Distortion, Phaser, etc.) The Distortion, Chorus and Phaser sound absolutely amazing. No expansion possibility. Full MIDI support. All parameters can be accessed by CC# or Polypressure. No NRPNs mess. No on board sequencer, but 16 channel apeggiators whose setting can be saved with patch data. Cool.

Its 24 bit D/A outputs is divine. You can't capture all the beautiful characters of the Virus if you use conventional CD or DAT as your media. But then again, you can't do that with real analog either so why am I saying this? Like the Minimoog, you can use this synth with any kind of music. Your imagination is the limit.

Very dependable. It's like having tons of old analog that won't break easily in one compact box.

No other synth is as closely supported as the Virus. The developer talks to YOU on the mailing list. They react quickly to bug fixes and suggestion. Each OS update is free and normally increases more a lot of features to the synth. People bitch about OS 3 isn't compatible with Virus a. Well, if they only knew how different a synth the Virus a was in OS 1 and OS 2.5, they would probably stop whinning. With synths from other companies, you don't get this much.

If it was lost or broken, I will definitely bought another one. It's worth every pennies I paid. I use various DSP synths both soft and hard, but the Virus b is the most loved. There are, of course, things that the Virus should have, but for me, it already has everything.

Upgrading the O.S. to 3.0 was a snap, but don't do it in Cakewalk.
The screen is somwhat minimalist and getting through the menu involves you actually use some you r short-term memory but overall very logical layout.
The presets are somewhat lackluster, but they do give you a general feel of what the instrument can do.
The manual is very good at training analog-neophytes the basic concepts though I wish it was more comprehensive (like the Korg manuals).
The learning curve is was a lot shallower than I anticipated.

Let me put it this way,I plugged it in,and was using the mult-mode instanlty, perfectlty.
I love the fact that the instrument O.S. and patches can be upgraded by simply playing a MIDI file.

I was in the store( Guitar Center-L.A) and compared it to a Roland 8080 ( or something), The Waldorf Q's. A Novation Supernova, etc. and I ended up buying the floor model.
The waldorf souded gritty and the Novation was very clean sounding but the gritty/raw sounds of the Virus kept calling me back. It was by far the best choice. The arpeggiator is a little basic, but syncs to MIDI pretty accurately.
Sometimes it sounds a little FM-ish, but I can live with it.

I don't know how reliable this unit is, But the construction is excellent. It feels as solid as my OLD M1

Haven't had the need to call them, and I'm not thrilled about sending this unit to Germany, but then again, who else would you trust with this fine instrument?

True, there may be better or more famous units out right now but this one will be a classic one day like a Poly 6 or a 808.
Back then those instruments were underrated, now we can't live without them. This is a 'Super' general purpose syth,I mean do you REALLY need to buy a MiniMoog.
The only way 95% of the people would dicern a difference is if you sing " I'm playing a MicroMoog" in your lyrics.

I am using Virus OS 3. 24 voice polyphony. The presets are amazing, but with all the knobs, one is compelled to tweak em during record or do an overdub of knob movement. The manual is excellent as well...very clear and even includes a mini tutorial which is GREAT!

The Virus B desktop does not have a keyboard, but you will save money this way. It is easy to get a controller and just have the Virus B on one side or other, with knobs in easy reach. The FX are very cool, and there is a 24 band vocoder as well with the OS 3 upgrade..by the way, the OS upgrade is a simple download away, and it adds lots of new features! (Any current Virus will come with the latest OS, thankfully). There is no onboard sequencer, but who cares, I use a computer and software for that. ;) Besides, I already have a Korg O1W sequencer I don't use. I don't know of any expansion features, but you can update the OS and get new features with a simple download and firmware update.

I LOVE the sounds...by the way, there are 512 presets, and guess what, I did not even know about most of the sounds when I bought it! That's how good it is...in the store I had the Virus B to myself, but only sampled half the available banks...well I bought it anyway. Also, don't judge this by the MP3's on the web, go HEAR the thing in a store, you will be amazed at its wicked cutting power. It reacts very well to playing, because the presets seem to morf a bit with different velocities, and that adds LOTS of interest over simple sampled sounds. I would recommend this for any trance, disco, new wave, darkwave, gothic, pop, anything really. It does blend into the mix beautifully...it is a gorgeous instrument and was worth every penny.

I have not brought it anywhere, bit so far it is rock solid...haven't even noticed stuck notes being a problem, (though there is a panic function).

Judging be the website and the manual and the reviews, the support is top notch. I have not had to use support tho, and don't imagine having to. Also, there is a very useful Virus mailing list where all sorts of Viral people get together and discuss the wooden edged-red beast. The website is very good as well.

*Stolen? I would replace it, POST HASTE!! I would be heartbroken too. The Virus has inspired me to no end!! It is easily worth what I paid...I was actually going to throw in extra for the salesperson! ;)

* I've been at MIDI for 10 years. I also own a Korg 01W, Roland MKS-50, and some awesome soundfonts by Ian Wilson and Emu. That's more than enough for now. ;) I also have a bunch of other stuff to support these noisemakers.

*I love the Virus B for its sound, its polyphony, upgradability via MIDI dump, the knobs, design, rock solid everything and good support.

What do I hate? Nothing! I DO know that there is more to love that I haven't even explored yet, like the 24 band vocoder added in OS 3!

* Oh MAN I compared this like crazy...ok I checked out the Nord Lead II, I heavily researched the Novation SuperNova, I also looked into the Yamaha AN1X, Korg Z1, Roland JP 8000\8080 and the Waldorf Q and Microwave. The Q is too expensive, The Roland lacks polyphony and is too big for my desk (and the rack is a hog too), the AN1X is cool but hard to find and not in the same league as the Virus B, etc. When I heard the Virus, it was all over!!

* I wish it had...erm....well I was going to buy the keyboard version, but I am perfectly happy with the desktop, since I already have a controller, and besides, the desktop is smaller and cheaper.

* Does it help me make music? Does a Ferrari help me get to Vegas? HAHA! Yes, it DOES help me, and inspires me to no end. The sounds seem to morf each time they trigger which I find intriguing. Love that Moog Bass!

Check out some songs using the Virus B at www.mp3.com/NukleoN

I love this synth! If you are considering a VA synth, buy the VIRUS!!

I'm using version 3.0 now, however I purchased the unit with software version 2.5. First off simply by downloading the update which is then played to the unit through your sequencer, my polyphony and many other features increased. This was amazing to me to be able to buy an amazing synth already and have it become more powerful sumply by updating the system software. The presets are great to use and a great starting point for in-depth sound design and creation. Obviously editing is a breeze with the enormous amount of knobs that are at your fingertips. A nice feature is the edit button near each section that allow you to enter the deeper editing functions of that particular section without having to scroll through the main editing screens. The manual is laid out easily and is very readable. And a copy of the manual along with the system software is easily accesible from the internet. Take it out of the box, plug it in, and your good to go. However if you want to take full advantage of the Virus, it's good to read the manual. You can overlook features that you didn't even know existed or aren't very clear just by scrolling though menus. All the editing functions and parameters are very intuitive regardless.

Polyphony is 24 with 4 oscillators per voice, one of which is a sub oscillator. The virus also intergrates with your exisiting contoller wonderfully with the routing matrix making all the modulation sources definable to a given destination. In othwer words, incredible felixibility and realtime expressiveness. Expansion is software dependant, which makes updates exciting. As the system sofware is updated I believe it will maximize the dsp within the virus, making it even more powerful then previous software versions. Nice to have an already classic synth upgradable for free simply through software advances.

Since the virus is specific to niche in the music industry, it's unique sound isn't intended to be "realistic". Anyone interested in the analog sound or unique leads and other effects must have this synth. Any type of electronic or sound effects/designers would love the fexiblity of the virus and it's unique sound. Working in a studio I know some pop and mainstream music producers are using the virus in there music as well. The quality of the sounds are amazing and having played with simlar synths in the class, i love the warmth and fullness of the sounds. Whether you want a gritty distorted synth or a clean sweepy pad, it all sounds great. The effects are great also, particularly the delay which has a hipass or lowpass filter onto itself. Phaser is excellent sounding as well. New envelope follower and ring modulator add to the goodies.

Design is rock solid and I've never had a problem with it, not too sure I will ever have a problem with it (knock on wood:). From what I know servicing and tech support is very good. I would suggest doing a midi dump of sound presets, not so much for reliability, but for the reason that it is so easy to just edit the hell out of all the sounds.

Never had to but hear that it is very good. Access' website is very helpfull and has all sorts of resources should you need them.

After initially owning a Virus a and having it slip out of my hands, I was detrmined to get another and did even better with the Virus b. The value for the money is excellent and the Virus line in my humble opinion are instant classics. I'm interested to see what other products they start thinking up over there.