I guess I should have listened to the more critical comments about the Virus snow here too. I bought a second hand snow and it is really buggy or rather faulty. After a few minutes it freezes, again and again. And now this guy won’t pay me back my money. I have told him I’ll report him so I hope he agrees to pay me back.
The virus TI2’s are getting old now so I don’t think it’s a good idea to buy them.
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Few suggestions from IT crowd 
- Try to factory reset (don’t know procedure but maybe/surely in the manual)
- Try the Virus without sending cc, increased step by step the sending of cc till you reach the falling point
- Test the cc sending with basic patch (maybe the patches you test already brings the Snow to the edge of his abilities.
I played my last gigs with it and everything works perfectly cause I learn to use it it moderate prog and cc.
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I think you may have been unlucky and the Snow you purchased is probably faulty.
I have used my very old Snow sequenced by OT and various other hardware sequencers (Korg, Yamaha, Roland) without problems.
When I sequence my Snow via hardware I always use multi mode.
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Hi , I’m looking into getting one of these, couple of quick questions for anyone who has one, how easy is it to use standalone (I don’t use a computer) and also I am aware it has 4 parts, is it possible to set up a part using the synth engine and a separate part to process audio from the inputs and have both mixed at output, thanks
If you are working with presets a lot and just want to access a few parameters like Filter Frequency you can work with the Snow. My advise is to get a Virus TI Desktop, the first version is not a lot more expensive than the Snow but gives you full control over everything without the software.
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Yes you can, and if you want you can use one of the 4 parts as an input even, and apply filter, fx etc to the input if you wish…(delays and reverbs are good)…
Same as Phelios just beat me to it…
It’s definitely possible to get arround without vst but the VST lays it out in an eloquent way. Once you know the architecture you can find your way arround without the screen…but I would say you will be fumbling in the dark for a while…
Look it’s not much harder than a Blofeld and that has no real VST, you just have to learn. But I would say the snow is the virus you have when you cant afford the full version, and is designed to use the software for the interactive experience…you can definately do without it but it will be menu divey…
I have had fun not connected to the pc but I do know my way arround the architecture…not helping much I know…but I would get one if I could they are fueled with cool sounds aplenty…but if you can get the full desktop do that instead.
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Cheers for the reply’s guys, never really thought about a virus before but listened to some demos and some of the sounds I’m hearing are amazing
Not the funnest synth to program standalone even when familiar with where everything is. The only missing parameters in standalone are arp custom settings. Otherwise you can dive super deep without a computer and it sounds wonderful.
This flow chart may come in handy if you end up getting one.
http://www.vo1t.com/Euro/Illustrated/AccessVirusSnowFlowchart.pdf
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Oddly enough I actually prefer the Snow to it’s larger siblings. I just think that the best way to program a Virus is from within the software editor, mainly because it has so many parameters and the desktop version does not have a dedicated control for every parameter.
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Perfectly right !
I use Snow for a long time now, in studio and for live. The form factor made this synth very usefull out of studio. Perfect companion for OT in a travel bag.
Thanks for chart, never saw it.
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Does anyone know the actual power consumption of a TI snow (not it’s power rating)?
I would be interested to see if it could be USB powered from a 5V step up adapter.
Hi everyone, I have an issue with my Snow, and since the Access forum is having trouble to log in, I reach out to the Elektron forum Snow users.
Every day I turn on my Snow only the left channel is sent on the outputs. Either using headphones out ot the LEFT and RIGHT outs. If I unplug the power in and plug it again the problem goes away. It also happens if I change from Multi to Sequencer modes. I am sure there is no CC10 incoming to the Snow. I have searched elsewhere on the net and no one seems to report this issue. Any comments are very appreciated, thanks!
Headphones do the same or no? It’s not clear by the way you wrote it.
You can check the pan parameter when it happens.
Flip the audio cables when it happens and see what happens.
I know it’s too long ago, but were you able to get it fixed ??? I’m in a similar position, got a second hand Snow which constantly freezes. I love the sounds on this and would love to get it fixed.
My snow works flawlessly. Do you have the latest OS installed?
yes, I’m on the latest version - 5.1.7, tried factory reset also. It freezes both when used as a VST in a DAW, and also on standalone, even when I use a simple patch in Single mode. There is no pattern to this, but generally crashes within 10-15 mins of usage.
2 ways it freezes - one where there is no sound at all with the BPM light off, and the other is this constant buzzing noise with the BPM light constantly on (without any pulsing like it does in normal mode)
maybe check the power supply.
mine was faulty. before I ordered a new one, I used the power supply from the Digitone (!!! but please - if you do - check if the specs are really matching!!! after a few years, i am not 100% sure it was the DT supply!!!) and it was working very well.
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Hey Jox, thanks for the input, never thought power supply could have been an issue. Will check, I think I didn’t get the original adapter with this one. The one I got is 12V center positive with about 1.7A output. I’ve got a digitone too and it has 12V, 2A output, which I think matches with the Virus Adapters. Ideally it should work. I’ve read elsewhere that a min of 1A is sufficient for the Snow, but not 100% sure.
So did your Snow work fine with the Digitone power supply or it had issues ??? I can try with that one if it worked for it.
Yes for me it did work… but I did it on my own risk - so do you 
but before you try, are you sure you’ve got no midi loop?
try it standalone without a cable plugged into midi out on the snow