I’ve been using the LP Tribute along with the Ring Mod and MuRF for a couple of years now and only have good things to say. That being said though, as I use them for scoring and sound effect work (experimental to narrative film) I’m starting to need something else to compliment (not clash) with the Moog gear, while broadening the sonic pallet. I’ll venture to say maybe something polyphonic. The main thing I love about the LP is the ease of sculpting sounds, you can get super subtle textures and glitches out of it, and perform/warp them all from the LP…as all of us probably know!
I’ve been eyeing the Virus TI Snow, Waldorf Blofeld, Elektron Monomachine/MachineDrum and a couple of others but thought I’d ask you lot if there’s anything I should be looking for…
thanks!
I have a Virus TI Snow, it mates perfectly w/ the phatty. Crazy effects, great filter modelling, lots of oscillators and modulation settings to choose from, and obviously it’s polyphony so you can get more complex pads/strings/sfx out of it. The phatty does mostly bass/lead duties for me, and sfx stuff here and there.
100% confirmed here: TI and LP meet extremely well.
I play a Virus TI keyboard, and besides all the well known goodies mentioned above the last OS update has made it even more gorgeous!
Now you get fantastic new overall vintage sound colouring, the best warm up to electronic heavy, broad palette of overdrive types I know from any VA, first class tape delays and other effects on board (several instances for multis-sounds), ring modulation, frequency shifter etc.
The LP and the Access TI sound especially well together, when you e.g. mix a warm deep LP bass or a cutting LP lead with all kinds of polyphonic TI sounds from soft pads to fat (Oberheim oder Jupiter type) poly synth sounds.
alright…I’m officially salivating…the snow has jumped to the top of the pile.
As far as the snow vs. the desktop virus ti…it seems like the Desktop TI would be better for tweaking…but that assumption is just based on how many knobs it has.
Honestly I think the knobbage is overrated, Virus Control is really quite awesome for programming, and snow has 3 programmable “soft-knobs” plus dedicated knobs for volume/cutoff/rez. You can pretty much tweak to your heart’s content.
The snow’s footprint and power is downright adorable and frightening at the same time, not to mention the cost difference is staggering.
That said, if you’re loaded, you could get the new ti desktop and get 25% better cpu processing, more outputs, and knobs. ::shrug::
Hah! I was about to post this exact thread! I’m looking for some poly fun to compliment my LP (and MachineDrum) for all the reasons mentioned here.
I’ve been GASing over the Desktop TI for a while now; it just seems so solid. But I have the faint impression it’s been a little type-cast to the Hi-NRG, Tiesto electronica sound - I’m assuming that the Access machines are capable of all manner of mood/timbre/sound, tho. Can you current Access owners attest to that?
The Blofield looks super sexy, too, but I don’t know if I could handle so few knobs and, more importantly, so little connectivity. All those outs (and ins) on the Virus Desktop make me gaga!
Also, I’ll mention that I love my MachineDrum. It’s a pretty deep piece of equipment, as far as I can tell, but it’s so responsive to my creative urges. It’s really a pleasure to use.
OMG The TIs can do SO much more than hypersaw detuned trance lead stuff… we’re talking complex graintable and formant synthesis, normal wavetables, you name it. It’s fantastic. And Virus Control makes it seriously hassle free to make patches efficiently and let you spend time creating instead of shouting at menus hidden in other menus etc.
The Blofeld is buggy and harsh sounding. No editor either, you’re stuck trying to make all those complex patches w/ the UI in the hardware. I bought one a while ago and sold it 2 weeks later after being sick of constant crashing.
I’m jealous of your MachineDrum, I want the UW one sooo bad. Alas it’s price tag taunts me like a hungry, pennyless 19th century street urchin at a pastry shop window.
The TI is not at all limited to the well known popular club sounds.
I use it mainly for electric jazz, nujazz, funk and r&b, and regard it as extremely ‘musical’ and versatile after the last OS update. It has become a true chameleon allowing you to get almost anything from hardstyle electro sounds to smooth analog-like pads.
The finest thing in connection with the LP is that you can program lots of warm yet transparent polyphonic sounds with it, which allow the LP to stay very present (both as lead as with bass sounds) and cut through. And the contrast is not as big as with other VAs, which either tend to sound too harsh besides the LP or sound fat in a rather digital way and then disturb the LP performance.
Just my personal impression though, after some comparisons …
Check out the synths from Dave Smith Instruments as well. I have an Evolver keyboard that is a great companion to the LP, and I reckon that the Prophet’08 and MoPho should be great as well.
And also, remember to check out those Waldorf synths! Second hand Q’s, microQ’s and MicroWave’s seem to go for insanely cheap prices now that the Blofeld is out.
I skipped the Dave Smith Instruments due to the bad quality of potmeter components used…even with the new ones.
Regarding the Virus TI’s…i owned a Snow before my recently bought Desktop version and i would say if money allows go for the Desktop version.
Next to the fact that you will have more Polyphony and more memory space…i have a so much better working flow due to the fact that i have direct influence on the sound without going through several deeper menu structures.
Before i was also in doubt if the extra knobs is just between the ears…but it really helped get the most out of my Virus then with my Snow version.
Oh noes. Too many stellar recommendations for the TI. I was afraid of that … I guess I know what’s next after I get a new jobbie job Thanks for the input, guys!
The place that I’ll likely buy it from here lets folks come in and play with gear before making the purchase if they want. I’ll probably ask to do that with the Virus. Should I spend some time reading the manual first or is the interface open enough that I shouldn’t need to?
Look at the DSI Prophet 08, it has multi LFO’s , modulation Matrix, , “four” track step sequencer (each track can be routed to a diff param) and layering (A/B). One layer can have a sequence pattern going while the other can be an evolving drone. All around fun synth to play and sounds great.
While I have not used one, the Poly Evolver might be worth looking at.
I owned the rackmount version of the Prophet 08 for a while, it is indeed also a nice pair up, although it’s also only Low Pass oriented, so you would have alot more overlap in terms of timbre.
I poured over the reference manual for the virus for maybe a solid month before I got the snow. It’s WAY worth it, you’ll be much more ready to manipulate the truly enormous amount of features at your disposal.
Wow, I opened up the flood gates. It seems necessary that I get my hands on some form of Access synth to demo it, too bad S**tar Center doesn’t stock them, although they’d probably be trashed. Thanks Guys!
This thread probably has enough opinions but I’ll throw in a few since I’ve owned or own a handful of the instruments mentioned.
The Prophet 08 would definitely maybe somewhat overlap sonicly with the LP however I find it a little more raw sounding. I agree that the knobs could have been better but I think a recent OS update helps to address their finickiness. I’ve found the P’08 to be an amazing machine though when it comes to making drones and pads. There is so much life in the modulation matrix of that machine it’s incredible.
I just sold a Virus TI keyboard because I had been using Viri for a long time and needed to get away from it for awhile. Having said that it definitely sounds amazing and is not a techno-only machine. Probably the warmest sounding synth I’ve ever heard - including the old analog polys. The TI can make the most amazing sounds and cover sonic ground from DX7 to OB8 to Moog to Waldorf to you name it. Very impressive and only getting better with 3.0 OS. TI Snow is the lowest powered one - TI Desktop/Polar/Keyboard next, TI2 most powerful. Depends on how complex you want your sounds and polyphony as to which you will choose.
For awhile - as I was selling my TI I was thinking - what could I get if I need those sounds once it’s gone? I think u-he Zebra soft-synth is a pretty good choice in my experiments with the top 3 or 4 soft-synths. If you are going to use Virus Control on a TI anyway you might take a look at Zebra instead - you might be surprised - and save $1000!
Good luck with your choice! You can’t go wrong with any of the choices mentioned in this thread I think.
I just picked up a Ti second hand today and it truly does complement the lp they are so different but mesh so well together. Definitely check out the second hand market if you choose an access synth as great deals can be had also b stock is never a horrible idea as well.
For the sounth it is quite comparable…but for all the stuff like Wavetables, Hypersaw, Total Integration, Atomizer and user editable Arpegiator… this can only be done with the TI line.
If your looking for polyphonic and you want to stay analog, I’d say Prophet 08 if you have the dough, (I had a oppurtunity to buy one for 1200$ mint condition only 2 months old, but the bid ended in about 20 minutes haha)
Also, something I have’nt seen mentioned here yet is a much cheaper option, which would be the Nord Lead.. I grabbed a Nord Rack 1, added a expansion card to increase polyphony and honestly, I would’nt change that combo for the world… The Nord Lead 1 and LP go together beautifully.
Thanks for the input, guys!