Access Virus Ti Polar Synth. $3280. Eighty Voice Dual DSP, 16 part, 16 effect, plug in integration. Atomizer. If there is currently a “killer” synth on the market it’s the access Virus Ti line. You can get this synth in a full size 61 key keyboard, a rack mount or a smaller more compact 37 note version. You still have all the dual DSP horsepower in all versions and the price tag is also there to match in all versions, over $3,000. In fact this is one of the few synths on the market that has actually GONE UP in price in the past months (by around $500) because of the weak dollar overseas. None the less it’s one of the best. I own pretty much every soft synth on the market at this time, and all the latest hardware synths to boot (look for a Roland Fantom G review up soon, been playing around with that for a few months now).. anyway.. if you want the fattest sounding synth short of an actual Juno 60, Juipter 8 or OB 8 (I got those vintage beasts) then the only synth you want is the Virus. You can layer a staggering 1800 oscillators in real time ! The dual DSP engine allows 9 per voice, and you can then kick in the hypersaw engine and turn a knob to fatten up a sound. Then there are also the other synth modes, everyting from the traditional sine/saw/pulse, Matrx, FM, wavetable, vocoder, you name it, it’s there. It offers an amazing swiss army knife type of tool set for making and creating sounds. The key…. is the horsepower is there to do it all. There is simply not enough room in this blog to go over all synth modes in depth, but if you create your own sounds, you need a Access Virus Ti. If synthesis alone were not enough, in Multi and Seq modes you have SIXTEEN synths ! Each of them with it’s own independent reverb and delay (not sends, independent effects). Whats great about these modes is that in Seq mode for example, you can tweak any of the 16 sounds and they do NOT affect your original patches. All of your tweaks are saved in the multi / seq patch and all the original single mode sounds are preserved. So you can go into Seq mode, load up 16 different sounds (and they all sound great because all the effects come with them), then tweak any of the 16 parts, save the set, and your original patch sounds are not messed up. This is great for making songs and tweaking sounds. The the Virus Ti has a ton of memory and thousands (thousands) of sounds available online. One thing I have to mention about Seq modes is while the Virus Ti is one of the most powerfull synths on the market, the dual DSP’s can only go so far.. haha. It CAN go to 16 synths, but if those 16 parts are massive DSP hogs, you may get polyphony issues if you layer up sounds in a song. So depending on how complicated your sounds are and your song is, I’d say 8 solid parts, up to 16 parts depending on your sound set. Again this is not a downfall, but the Ti is capable of some amazing sounds that just eat DSP and sometimes you can only push it so far. But you’ll never run out of DSP in single mode of course. Remember the Virus Ti is synthesizing those parts, and even for $3000 it’s a lot of horsepower for real time access to your tweaking sounds during a song writing session. and speaking of tweaking… this is one of the main reasons for purchasing the synth… the knobs… Coming from the old school, on stage I’d play and reach for the knobs to tweak the sounds. My Juno, Juipters, OB’s, Wave PPG’s all had them… then as time went on… knobs vanished from synths… so I’m glad to see them on any new synth, specially of you make sounds, you know just how valuable having these knobs on there are. There is also a good set of inputs and outputs there. You may ask “inputs” ? The Ti also can act as your audio interface (through USB) and it shows up as a pair of in’s and multi outs in your DAW which is nice as a makeshift audio interface on the road. If all that was not enough, another awesome feature is the Atomizer feature that turns the synth into a sound processor / destroyer and real time remixier ! You have no doubt heard the Atomizer in action already if you go to watch any of the top live DJ’s. You can reverse, chop, and remix parts of a song in real time. The best way to describe it is for you to search for “Atomizer” on youtube and hear it for yourself. This is great for a quick live chop of a drum track to re-lay back into a song, or chop up the entire mix in a live performance. and the features go on… I didn’t even mention the “total intergration” aspect yet, this allows the Virus Ti to act like a plug in. So if you use VST, AU’s or whatever in your DAW, you can call up the Virus Ti as a plug in and tweak sounds through their plug in interface. You also have the option of routing the actual synth audio channels in to your DAW / computer for direct recording of the Virus Ti right into your mix. Bottom line: I know I forgot to mention some things about the Ti… but if you can afford it. Get it. It’s that simple. This is a synth for the ages. It’s destined to be a classic. Despite it being a hardware “virtual” synth, everything about it is boss. The filters are insane, the fatness, arps, synthesis options, multi timbral modes, audio interface mode, Atomizer real time remix of songs mode, the keyboard versions are also build like tanks, and the keys have a great action to them, and on and on… The ONLY downside to this little beast is the price… currently over $3,000 (way over in some cases)… If you don’t have $3k to throw on a synth, you can get close to it with say a Korg Radias in terms of some of the sounds, but the Virus does have an awesome soundset and worth the price if you ask me considering its power, features and of course sound. Access Virus Ti Polar Specs: * Dual DSP system with over 80 stereo voices under average load. (Load depends on which oscillator / filter model has been chosen). * VirusControl VST and Apple Audio Unit Plug-for Mac OS X and Windows XP. The remote seamlessly integrates the Virus TI into your sequencer, making it feel just like a plug-in. * The Virus TI’s Audio and MIDI inputs and outputs can be used by the sequencer application as an audio and MIDI interface. * The Virus TI is the first hardware synthesizer with sample-accurate timing and delay-compensated connection to your sequencer. * WaveTable Oscillators for a completely new array of sounds. WaveTable and conventional Virus oscillators and filters can be mixed. * HyperSaw oscillators with up to 9 sawtooths – each with parallel sub oscillator per voice (that’s over 1800 stereo oscillators @100 voices!). * Independent delay and reverb for all 16 multi mode slots. * 129 parallel effects. There is reverb and delay, chorus, phaser, ring modulator, distortion, 3 band EQ and the Analog Boost bass enhancer. * 2 multi-mode filters (HP, LP, BP, BS) and the Analog Filter (modelled after the MiniMoog cascade filter with 6-24 dB Slope and self-oscillation). * Dedicated remote mode turns the Virus TI into an universal remote control for VST / AU plug-ins and external synthesizers. * 6 balanced outputs with +4 dB level and switchable soft limiting algorithm. Studio grade 192 khz D/A converters with S/PDIF digital I/O. 2×24 bit inputs. Surround sound capabilities * Tap tempo button. The algorithm is based on Access’ Sync Xtreme technology. * Programmable arpeggiator pattern for every patch. * Knob quantize for creating stepped controller movements. The stepping automatically syncs to the Virus clock or an incoming MIDI clock. * 3 LFOs with 68 waveforms to choose from. * 2 super fast ADSTR envelopes. * Extended memory: 512 RAM patches and 2048 ROM patches (rewritable). * Adaptive control smoothing for jitter-free modulations on all important parameters. * New multi mode with embedded patches. * Compatible with USB 2.0 specifications, USB and High-Speed USB devices. * Quality synth-action keyboard with 37 keys, velocity response and aftertouch. * 2 pedal inputs. * Brightly illuminated Access logo on the rear panel and walnut strip underneath the keyboard.